Since the mid 1980s we have witnessed fundamental changes in work, labour relations and professional careers in developed countries. These socio-laboral changes are well documented from different academic perspectives, from management and enterprise organization (Arthur y Rousseau, 1996, Courpasson and Reed, 2004) to sociology (Boltanski and Chiapello, 2006). Most have shown how contemporary professional careers tend to be described as turbulent trajectories with attributes such as ‘no frontiers’ (Arthur and Rousseau, 1996), ‘nomade’" (Cadin et al, 2000) or "in circle" (Brousseau et al, 1996).

Adapting to this context brings in significant changes in professional life stories. Changes favoured by new devices that allow lifelong learning, as well as its acknowledgement and accreditation. Knowledge provided in new learning locations, no matter where or how they were acquired, are now subject to certification.

Evaluation and accreditation of competences allow the verification, through gathering evidence, about the quality of professional performance and whether it is respondent or not to the given norms. These processes also measure the ‘distance’ to reach such competencies (CIDEC, 2000). The ability to mobilize knowledge, procedures, skills and attitudes is assessed, as well as the ability to solve situations in diverse professional scenaries (Navío, 2005). This knowing how or how to do adds to the guarantee of application to professional practice but also to the vision of greater levels of involvement that are available to human resource management companies (Le Boterf, 2001; Descy and Tessaring, 2002; Lévy-Leboyer, 1997; Corominas et al., 2006; Perrenoud, 2003, OIT, 2000; Rauner, 2007). As Rodríguez-Moreno (2006) holds, competency involves the idea of mobilization, motivation, performance or corresponsibility. The new rationale puts us in front of available skills with the aim that a person may produce a predetermined task in an intentional manner.

From the perspective of this institutional discourse, accreditation of professional qualifications implies the public certification, formal and limited in time, of the proven labour capacity. The acknowledgment of competencies in relation to the references expressed in a norm does not depend of the accomplishment of a given training. (CEDEFOP, 2012). Therefore, this system provides new routes to achieve qualifications and to help combat the effects of early school leaving (Souto-Otero, 2012).

The aim of this paper is to provide a comprehensive overview on the accreditation processes of the work experience and non-formal training pathways recently initiated in Spain. In this context we will analyze the opportunities for accreditation in work integration enterprises. Such organizations offer formative and vocational answers to people at severe risk of social exclusion, unemployed and with strong difficulties to enter the ordinary labour market (FAEDEI, 2011).

An initial question in our study is to find out whehter accreditation offers a second opportunity to those who could not achieve a qualification in the formal education system, and if so under which conditions. Therefore we have covered, among others, a curricular perspective which will be detailed in this paper. We worry whether occupations performed by workers under insertion processes are covered by the National Catalogue on Vocational Qualifications (CNCP is its Spanish acronym) and whether they are, therefore, accreditable. We have hence drawn a map of occupations subject to certification and acknowledged by the National System of Vocational Qualifications and Training (SNCFP is its Spanish acronym).

Our research has initially two hypothesis: (1) the majority of occupations covered by insertion workers are subject to be accredited either as qualifications or as competency units of a level 1; and (2) there are occupations/qualifications of level 1 that are covered by work integration companies that are not included in the CNCP and could consequently not be subject to accreditation nowadays.

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