Module IV – Barriers and Enablers
Approaches to the use of innovative methods for validation of non-formal and informal learning (VNFIL) can support non-traditional learners to have their learning recognised and certified. Assessors will need to develop technical skills for effective assessment as well as the ability to make the assessee feel at ease.
An online consultation was implemented in the beginning of the InnoVal project, the results of which are set out in a report called Consultation on Barriers and Enablers. Respondents included those who are directly engaged in assessing/validating non-formal and informal learning. They were able to identify elements that hamper the use of innovative methods for VNFIL (barriers) and identify enablers to facilitate their use.
Those barriers range from technical to social difficulties that have to be overcome in order to promote VNFIL and, thus, answer to the needs of teachers/counsellors and also learners.
This Module will focus on the results reported in the Consultation on Barriers and Enablers report in order to help assessors and counsellors to recognise what they and their own organisation can do in order to facilitate their work validating and certifying non-formal and informal learning.
A business model for the implementation of innovative methods of VNFIL will also be presented as a way to address the difficulties and costs that come with the use of these methods for organisations. It will help them realise the economic value of these methods as products that can be managed to lower the costs of its use.
Visual case studies
The EDGE project is an Erasmus+ funded project comprising of adult and further education providers in Ireland, Austria, Portugal, Greece and Wales. The project aims to enhance the progression prospects of socio-economically disadvantaged adults and young people in order to promote social inclusion and equality measures. Specifically, the EDGE Project aims on developing innovative approaches (career guidance, learner engagement strategies, self-evaluation tools, e-learning resources) in the provision of employability skills development. The opportunity presented by Erasmus+ enabled the partners to share best practice, drawn from their considerable collective experience in the delivery of second-chance education. The project explores the area of career guidance and how to identify practical learner progression pathways, including the obstacles (both personal and structural) that they must realistically overcome. Open badges, as one main output of the project, are e-tools (using the Mozilla open-source platform) that can be used to accredit learner achievement in the area of core-skills acquisition, as well as a way of recognising informal and non-formal learning.
Other modules
Module I
Introduction
Module II
Affective learnings
Module III
Affective Learning