| Virtual Community Assessment and accreditation of professional skills |
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What is it?
It is a set of procedures to recognize, assess and accredit the professional competences acquired through work experience or any other type of non-formal learning. This assessment and accreditation of professional competences will be developed following principles that guarantee the assessments reliability, objectiveness and technical rigour. The National Catalogue of Professional Qualifications serves as an objective reference in this procedure.
When the professional competences of an employee are assessed and they are not sufficient to complete the qualifications included in a diploma of vocational education and training or an Occupational Aptitude Certificate, a partial cumulative accreditation is awarded. Thus, if the employee wishes to do so, he/she will be able to complete the training in order to obtain the relevant diploma or certificate.
The Minister of Labour and Immigration and the Minister of Education will develop, with the collaboration of de administrations belonging to the Autonomous Community, a Committee for Information and Guidance, which allows getting information related to the accreditation and assessment procedure, the official announcements and the training offers. Also, the necessary tools to make the self-evaluation and the path training election easier, will be included.
In Spain, over sixty per cent of working population does not hold a recognized accreditation of their professional qualification. Besides, there is a great amount of non-formal learning whose lack of recognition, especially for population groups like women, immigrants and unemployed, can cause situations of inappropriate mobility in the labour market with the resulting exclusion risk.
The European Union established in May 2004 the Common European Principles for the identification and validation of non-formal and informal learning, necessary to promote comparison and acceptance of differences among Member States as well as the transfer and acceptance of educational and training results in different environments.
Requirements and stages
- People who want to participate in the procedure must fulfill the following requirements:
- To have the Spanish nationality, to have obtained the registration certificate of the community citizenship or the European Union citizen family card, or to be the holder of a residence authorization, or of residence and work in force in Spain, in the terms established in the immigration law of Spain.
- To be 18 years old in the moment of the registration, when it is about the competence units corresponding the qualifications of level I, and to be 20 years old for the levels I and III.
- To have work experience and/or training related to the professional competences that it is wanted to accredit:
- In case of work experience. To justify, at least 3 years, with a minimum of 2.000 total worked hours, for the last 10 years passed before carrying out the official announcement. For competence units of level I, a two-year work experience with a minimum of 1.200 total worked hours, is required.
- In case of training. Justify, at least 300 hours, for the last 10 years passed before carrying out the official announcement. Competence units of level I, at least 200 hours will be required. In cases in which the learning modules associated to the competence unit that is hoped to be accredited consider a minor duration, the established hours in those learning modules should be accredited.
- In cases referred in the article 10.0 b), to have a supporting document about the compliance with some of the additional planned requirements.
- People over 25 years old who satisfy the requirements of work training experience indicated in the text above, and can't justify them through the documents described in the article 12 of this Royal Decree 1224/2009 17th of July, could apply for his or her provisional registration in the procedure. They will submit the justification through any fact admitted in law, about his or her work experience or non-formal training learnings. To study those cases, the competent administrations will designate the necessary consultants, who will issue a report about the provenance or non provenance of the participation of the applicant in the procedure. If positive report, the definite registration will be proceeded.
- Counselling.
- Assessment of the professional competence.
- Accreditation and recording of the professional competence.
National Authorities and bodies
AUSTRALIA: The National Centre for Vocational Education Research
It works as a public company. This centre sets out the strategic plans for Vocational Education in Australia and, every year, it analyses the achievements made through statistical indexes and research in this field. It is recognised by UNESCO as a Regional Centre of Excellence in Education and Professional Technical Training. It has a subsidiary website, the National Training Information Service, which provides information for assessing training packages. Moreover, thinking about the students, it gives access to the Resource Generator, which provides guidance and information about competence units, qualifications and learning resources for any industry (English).
CHILE: National System of Professional Competences
Website of the programme Chile Califica with which the Chilean government intends to contribute to the countrys productive development and to improve peoples development opportunities through the creation of a Permanent Education and Training System. It has material on the assessment and accreditation of competence standards (Spanish).
COLOMBIA: National Learning Service
Website of the National Learning Service, which includes a section of Assessment and Validation based on Labour Competitivity Rules (Spanish).
FRANCE: National Commission of Professional Certification
This body is in charge of creating and managing the National Catalogue of Professional Certificates, made up of Diplomas, Titles and Qualifications Certificates (French).
NEW ZEALAND: The New Zealand Qualifications Authority
Website of the New Zealand Qualifications Authority which includes resources for assessing competences and basic documentation on best practices when assessing competence units (English).
UNITED KINGDOM: Qualifications and Curriculum Authority
The National Qualifications and Curriculum Authority of the United Kingdom includes a section about a new project for Qualification Recognition Centres (English).
Official documents and reports
The learning continuity: European inventory on validating non-formal and informal learning. National policies and practices in validating non-formal and informal learning
Published in 2005 by CEDEFOP, this report represents the first effort to establish a European inventory of approaches to validating non-formal and informal learning. Validation policies, practices and methods are core issues in any strategy aimed at lifelong and life-wide learning (English).
Common European Principles for the identification and validation of non-formal and informal learning
The Copenhagen Declaration (30 November 2002) and the Council Resolution (19 December 2002) on the promotion of enhanced European co-operation in vocational education and training acknowledged that priority should be given to developing a set of common principles regarding validation of non-formal and informal learning with the aim of ensuring greater comparability between approaches in different countries and at different levels. In 2004, Member States were invited to apply this Common European Principles in their future policies (English).
Directive 2005/36/EC on the recognition of professional qualifications.
Directive of the European Parliament and the Council of 7 September 2005 establishing rules according to which a Member State which makes access to or pursuit of a regulated profession in its territory contingent upon possession of specific professional qualifications shall recognise professional qualifications obtained in one or more other Member States and which allow the holder of the said qualifications to pursue the same profession there, for access to and pursuit of that profession (English).
International Labour Organization Recommendation 195
Recommendation concerning Human Resources Development: Education, Training and Lifelong Learning (English).
International Inventory and Documentation of National Systems of Professional Qualifications
Canadian inventory of 2005 analysing the main characteristics of the systems of professional qualifications in seven countries: France, United States, Spain, Italy, Portugal, Switzerland and Mexico (French).
The unfinished story of VPL. Valuation and validation of prior learning in Europes learning cultures
The aim of this unfinished work within the Leonardo programme is to show the variety of the use of VPL in the main European learning cultures. These learning cultures are: Anglo-Saxon, East-European, German-dual, Mixed, Scandinavian and South-European. By learning from each other's culture and practices it is hoped to create a strong incentive for the knowledge exchange between different learning cultures and - above all - the structural implementation of VPL on national, regional, sector and organisation levels (English).
Recognition of prior learning. Policy practice for skills learned at work (ILO)
Informe de 89 páginas realizado por la Organización Internacional del Trabajo en The issue of skills recognition is a major theme of international debates on education and training strategy. It is widely accepted that learning takes place not only in formal educational or training institutions but also in the workplace and in non-formal activities. However, not all learning is formally recognized, often leaving people who acquired skills and competencies non-formally or informally disadvantaged in accessing and advancing in employment and the formal education system. The present study examines the recognition of skills learned in the workplace in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa and the United States (English).
Report VAE MISSION 2005
Report of the French Ministry of Education about the implementation of the French Act of 17 January 2002 on the validation of experience concerning 14 ministries, enterprises and employees (French).
Final Report of ERA Project
Informe de sesenta páginas relativo al proyecto de Evaluación, Reconocimiento y The ERA project (Evaluation, Recognition and Accreditation) was developed by the Spanish Ministry of Education in 2004. It was a pioneering project in Spain as it made the Ministries of Education and Work, the Autonomous Communities and the social agents work together in testing a procedure for the evaluation and recognition of professional competences acquired through work experience (Spanish).
Guides for evaluator, candidate and advisor
Guides made in the framework of the ERA project to support evaluators, advisors and candidates in the process of evaluating and recognizing the professional competences (Spanish).
