Validation of prior learning (VPL), from best practices to comprehensive guidelines
Partners of the Erasmus+ funded project, Validation for Inclusion of New Citizens of Europe (VINCE), met in Munich, hosted by the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, to discuss developments and progress in envisaged activities.
SOLIDAR Foundation will take a leading role in the dissemination and exploitation of the outcomes. The flow of new migrants and refugees reaching Europe is likely to continue in the coming years, and we are convinced that education plays a crucial role in helping migrants and refugees settle in new countries and new environments. We have gone beyond the stage of “welcoming” and we now focus on policy recommendations that will facilitate integration. Our aim in this project is to create a network of professionals and civil society engaging in VPL who are interested in finding progressive and sustainable solutions for the problems that Europe is currently facing.
During the two day meeting, we were discussing the first draft of several guidelines that are being developed by the professionals who have first-hand experience of prior learning validation of migrant or refugee higher education.
The guidelines will help institutions and individuals who want to implement sustainable validation procedures. The following guidelines will be available in a user-friendly format and in multiple languages -
- Welcome to Europe
- Welcome to your country (customised according to country)
- Welcome to this institution (customised according to the institution)
- Welcome to validation
In the second part, we discussed the methodology and content of high-level training for the professionals who work in validation. The training that will take place in June 2018 in Oslo is designed as a highly participatory activity that will be led by professional facilitators and experts from the field. The last part focused on case studies of the participants. We analysed challenges that Universities face during the validation process of refugees. We recognised similar patterns and participants proposed several solutions on how the situation could be dealt with.
If you want to know more about the project you can visit our website or Facebook page. If you have experience with validation that you want to share, or if you want to find out what is the current state of play in other countries, join the discussion at this dedicated Facebook group!
