Adults left school for a while. They have integrated the workplace, where they had work experiences and developed competencies. Modes of thinking, ways of acting, knowledge have been built in and through experience. Learning outcomes built by experience could be different from the outcomes built by training, but they are not at a lower level. They are no less conceptual. They incorporate forms of reasoning which permit to deal with situations and complex problems. They are less implied that one might expect. Finally, they can integrate scientific and technical knowledge as taught at the University, simply because the knowledge circulates into the professional communities and are accessible to them. Validation of Acquired Experience (VAE), in place since 2002 in France, showed that even for higher education diplomas, it is possible to recognize and validate high-level skills and knowledge acquired by experience. The evolution of social and economic conditions makes that the offer and the demand in the field of adult education (vocational training but not only) does not cease to grow. At the same time, the return of the adults to the university is spreading. This shows that adults do not seek only to become more qualified and skilled in their profession or learn a new profession. They also seek to obtain qualifications that are required for their actual or wished position. The engagement of the adults in a training program is not always easy. It is particularly difficult to enter or to go back to the university because of the selection system which is not designed for the adults. The phenomenon has risen global. In some countries, a distinction is made between the initial training students and adults in continuing education. However, the selection criteria are common to both types of persons. The most common selection procedures are : 1/ the evidence of a previous degree, usually accompanied by good grades and 2/ the contest, which consist to assess academic knowledge. For many adults, this knowledge has never been learned in training or has been learned long ago and has become obsolete or has been forgotten. Paradoxically, while university courses aim to train professionals and to develop knowledge and skills for action, the modes of recognition and validation of the prior experience remain underused for the entry of adult students the university. Recruitment procedures are not adapted to the most salient resources which adults have to prove their ability to track training under good conditions.

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