Until recently in Romania the main strategy to satisfy the learning needs of youth and adults has been to extend the length of secondary formal education and training. Today, since employers do not necessarily take into account the results of the recognition/certification of formal competences, other solutions are formulated, some of which relate to the exploitation of competences acquired in non-formal / informal contexts. A legislative frame is officially provided by the Ordinance nr. 468/4543/2004 “Assessment and certification procedure of the professional competences acquired in different ways other than formal competences”: this represents the first attempt for a national system of recognition and validation of informal learning. Nonetheless, in Romania there is still a limited interest on the approaches to validation of non-formal and informal learning. Some first example of actual implementation are appearing among these the Regional Centers of Adult Professional Development, established by the National Employment Agency in 2000 and developed with the World Bank as a result of the economic and labour market reforms. In particular, the Regional Center of Adult Professional Training Cluj-Napoca (CRFPA) started to provides among its services the assessment of the competences acquired in non formal/informal settings in relation to various occupational sectors.