Initiated by Agentur Q , the Pedagogical University of Heidelberg, the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology and funded by the Ministry of Finance and Economics of the County Baden-Württemberg, the AiKo-Project aims at developing an instrument for the recognition and validation of informally acquired competences. The first target is to identify informal competences and their relevance for the workforce (vocational career) by biographical interviews of working people. The perception of decision makers in industrial companies is also taken into account by interviewing them about their decision strategies and criteria. The data gained from the interviews and conclusions drawn by the research group will be presented in a workshop to be validated by practitioners (HR-personnel, agents of the social partners). The main ambition is to develop a utile or manageable tool, a procedure to make the skills gained through life and work experience visible and use their value for career or further learning recognisable. It will be realized in close cooperation between the research group and the relevant decision makers. Practices for validation from Denmark, France, Switzerland have been analysed and influence the validation process and tool developed in the context of the project.