The proposed symposium focuses on issues of recognition and accreditation of informal competences for specific occupational areas. Implementation of various strategies for accreditation and assessment of informal competences has become a significant initiative across European countries. Country-specific approaches include a range of policies and practices designed to recognise and accredit learning and achievements that occurred through a variety of previous experiences within both formal and informal learning settings. The fundamental principle underpinning our theoretical framework is that prior learning is worthy and capable of gaining recognition and credit regardless of the time, place and context in which it has been achieved.  In the EU context, the accreditation of prior learning has been introduced, specifically,  in vocational education and training (VET) and higher education and it is being forwarded as a viable strategy to develop approaches for certification of competences for particular qualifications.

The symposium draws on the findings from the project “I CARE - Informal Competences Assessment and Recognition for Employment”, co-funded by the European Commission in the Lifelong Learning Leonardo da Vinci Programme, coordinated by TECLA Association (Italy) in partnership with a group of local authorities, Universities and research institutions coming from Italy, Romania, United Kingdom and the Netherlands.   The project, starting from October 2010 and running until the end of 2012, aims at promoting innovative procedures for the recognition and certification of informal competences and for the transparency of qualifications, within common framework such as EQF (European Qualification Framework) and ECVET (The European Credit system for Vocational Education and Training), and with reference to the white jobs and specifically to the profession of caregiver.

The symposium will give an overview of the situation in the 4 European partner countries in the area of recognition and assessment of informal competences in the white jobs and caregiving profession, highlighting the methodologies, instruments, experiences, etc. developed so far, in the path towards the promotion of a qualified and competent workforce and an inclusive labour market.  The aim of the presentations is to discuss the challenges of the development of approaches for recognition of prior learning in the partners’ countries  from a comparative, critical and didactical perspective.  The symposium will underline a potential for learning across the countries and for sharing experiences, particularly, addressing the question of how to develop appropriate strategies for accrediting and assessing a range of informal competences for specific occupational areas. The research is based on following methodological approaches: 

• comparative research carried out by research institutions in Italy, Netherlands, Romania and the UK. The research institutions have analysed national contexts and approaches to accreditation and recognition of informal competences. The national research has been compared and examples of good practice have been identified;
• action research through collaborating with external organisations that have experience in developing and using a range of mechanisms for accreditation and recognition of informal competences in all partners’ countries.  

 For furhter information about I CARE project  please visit www.projecticare.eu