The importance to Europe of a skilled and knowledgeable citizenry extends beyond formal education to learning acquired in non-formal or informal ways. Citizens must be able to demonstrate what they have learned in order to use this learning in their career and for further education and training. To do so, they must have access to a system which identifies, documents, assesses and certifies (=validates) all forms of learning. This is what the EU has called upon Member States to put in place by 2018. More...

Im Zentrum der Studie steht die Frage, welche Nutzungspraktiken sich in Bezug auf virtuelle Gemeinschaften im Web 2.0 herausgebildet haben und aktuell weiterentwickeln. Wie organisiert der Einzelne seine Nutzung virtueller Praxisgemeinschaften im Alltag und wo kann diese Nutzung in Bezug auf Lernen verortet werden. More...

The current issue of RELA (European Journal for Research on the Education and Learning of Adults) contains various perspectives on how adults teach and learn. The topics of this issue range from inclusion of youth with a low educational level in the offering of adult education and training, to the self-perception of adult educators, to learning through self-help books. Reinhard Zürcher, who works as an associate at the Pedagogical University of Vienna, contributed an Austrian perspective, writing on his research on the teaching-learning continuum. More...

En principe, peu importe la façon dont l’apprentissage est acquis, du moment que l’apprenant parvient à réaliser les objectifs d’apprentissage qu’il s’est fixé. Grâce à la validation, les qualifications et l’apprentissage acquis en dehors du système formel acquièrent davantage de valeur. En effet, les compétences acquises sont alors reconnues et peuvent être utilisées pour faire évoluer sa carrière et sa vie. De plus l’accumulation des apprentissages conduit à des qualifications formalisées qui à leur tour facilitent l’accès à l’acquisition formelle d’une formation et à des parcours d’apprentissage améliorés. Voir l'article...

The professional and vocational qualifications assessment law (BQFG) permits informally or non-formally acquired competences to be taken into account when checking equivalence of foreign and German qualifications. As long as the prerequisites for a vocational qualification obtained abroad are met, assessment of equivalence is based on documentary examination regardless of the route via which competences were gained. Under certain conditions, vocational competences may be assessed on an individual basis. More...

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