The 'European Peer Review VNFIL Extended' project aims to extend the current European Peer Review for RVC methodology to more European partners in more countries, establishing Peer Review to complement and enhance the usual quality assessurance systems in Validation of Non-Formal and Informal Learning (VNFIL).Building upon the results of a series of previous European programmes, the project seeks to increase the transparency, market relevance, consistency and transferability of VNFIL across Europe. It provides in a common framework and tools for Peer Review for different Member State VNFIL systems and VNFIL providers to improve, monitor and evaluate their quality assurance policies and practices in a manner appropriate to their national/institutional context. On European level the project supports mutual trust in transnational use of VNFIL and alignment of Quality Assurance methods across Member States.Peer review – the external evaluation of VNFIL institutions/providers by Peers – is a promising instrument for quality assurance and development. It builds on quality activities already in place at a VNFIL institution/provider, it is cost-effective and it fosters networking and exchange between providers of validation of non-formal and informal learning.Transnational peer review in particular supports exchange between Member States and VNFIL providers. In the project, this is used to strengthen mutual trust and enhance alignment between Member States, working towards a common, standard framework for Peer Review on European level. The Peer Review VNFIL Extended project works with the Peer Review methodology and instruments as they have been developed in previous programmes. Most recently, in the EuropeerGuide RVC project, the Manual, Toolbox, and Quality Areas for Peer Review have been adapted to use in 3 countries. VNFIL providers and stakeholders in other countries have expressed a strong interest in adapting and implementing the Peer Review framework and its instruments. This project takes up further fine-tuning and transfer of the methodology to new countries through a number of capacity building activities directed at professional development of more VNFIL practitioners.In the project, 15 partners from 7 European countries conduct transnational Peer Reviews on VNFIL. To ensure continuity of approach and enhance transference, project partners are both organisations that have been involved with preceding programmes and new partners from new countries. All share the ambition to extend the results of the current project. Project partners are adult education- and higher education providers, VET organisations, and specialised VNFIL centres, companies and NGOs. Also organisations that impact national policies were included, as well as European umbrella organisations for learning.10 VNFIL providers get Peer Review feedback on their chosen European Quality Areas for VNFIL from national and transnational partners. The project enhances the quality and visibility of VNFIL-provision by making a complete inventory of current policies, QA systems and good practices, for all participating countries and on a European level. A reflection report provides in a scientific analysis of the added value of Peer Review, containing good practices and scientific information that can be used by VNFIL providers and national policy makers to underpin their choice for Peer Review in QA VNFIL. National strategy papers will be compiled to advise stakeholders in participating countries and European policy-makers on further development of their (trans)national quality frameworks on VNFIL. To further disseminate Peer Review VNFIL across Europe, the project provides in a practical peer review reader for interested providers and policy makers, and publish a policy paper on the outcomes of the project, indicating the added value of Peer Review for VNFIL providers and outlining opportunities for policy-making on a European level.To ensure long term impact the project supports the European Peer Review Association (EPRA) in setting up a sustainable network on Peer Review. This network starts up already during project implementation, when national coordinators and stakeholder committees are formed and, through (trans)national meetings and conferences, get involved by discussing relevant Peer Review inventories, national strategy papers and (European) policy papers. Further, the project provides in preparatory activities to formally set up a sustainable Peer Review Network. These include Business Model Canvas session(s) to develop a business plan for the Network, a Network database, a Peer Review register and Peer Review label. New and sustainable channels for dissemination and transference of the Peer Review methodology are thus an integral part of the project's outcomes. This enables the project to immediately influence, through the Peer Review Network, an emerging community of VNFIL providers and other stakeholders across Europe.

The Europe 2020 strategy for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth acknowledges lifelong learning and skills development as key elements in response to the current economic crisis, to demographic ageing and to the broader economic and social strategy of the EU. The crisis has highlighted the major role which adult learning can play in achieving the Europe 2020 goals, by enabling adults - in particular the low-skilled and older workers - to improve their ability to adapt to changes in the labor market and society. Participation in adult learning has continued to fall, from 9,8 % of the 25-64 year-old population in 2005 to only 9,1 % in 2010, thus making the increased ‘ET2020’ target of 15 % by 2020 an even greater challenge. One of the challenges faced today is the fact that some MS do not have comprehensive strategies on Adult Education, whilst, where they exist no measures are taken for updating and monitoring them, identifying gaps and being at the same time in line with the ET2020 strategy. The development of a comprehensive strategy on Adult Education will enable local and national authorities to contribute towards the achievement of the above EU target and increase adults’ participation in education and training in a lifelong learning perspective. The strategy will be in line with other EU tools such as the EQF and NQF as well as the mechanisms for validating non-formal and in-formal learning. What are the effective policies to be taken into account for the development of an effective strategy, who are the major stakeholders to participate in the development of the strategy, how the strategy can be put into practice, what are some practical tools needed to facilitated these processes, are some of the questions that will seek answer during the project lifespan.The project objectives are fully align with the EU priorities and are the following: - Designing and implementing effective strategies for enhancing basic skills for specific adult target groups, increasing incentives for adult training- Stimulating the development and use of innovative approaches and tools to assess and increase the efficiency of public expenditure and the investment in education, training and youth, including through new funding models such as public-private partnerships, cost-sharing, etc. (Erasmus + , horizontal priority) - Evaluating the effectiveness of adult education policies at national, regional and local levels level (Erasmus +, field specific priority).- EU benchmark referring to the Adult Participation in lifelong learning (15% until 2020)- Priorities of the EU Agenda on Adult Learning 2014-15The consortium consist of 6 partners, from 5 European countries which cover a wide range of expertise related to the aims of the DIMA project, as well they have a Pan-European outreach in their activities:1.MOEC has extensive experience in working with cross-discipline and cross-sector project teams and developed educational activities2.CARDET is an international education research center with global expertise in Adult Education strategies3.Maynooth University is composed by experts and professionals, who were involved in various EU Adult Education projects4.Slovenian Institute for Adult Education is the main national institution for research, education, validation & promotional informative activities in the field of adult education5.The National Lifelong Learning Institute set up for the provision and fulfillment of tasks within the area of lifelong learning and further education in Slovakia6.The European Association for the Education of Adults is the voice of non-formal and informal adult education in Europe. EAEA is a transnational, non-profit association with 126 members in 42 countries.The selection of partners has been based on the needs and matching of abilities identified for the successful implantation of the project and the delivery of high quality outcomes, reflected in their profiles, presented in the previous section. MOEC has endeavored to bring together partners from countries at different stages of development relevant to the project target groups and development activities. The consortium has all the skills necessary to support the successful development, implementation and dissemination of the project and the following project activities.1. State of the art on literature and best practices on how strategies are developed and monitored in the adult education2. Needs assessment for collecting research data and empirical information to assess target group needs 3. Development of a practical and innovative toolkit4. Curriculum development and training material5. Online development for further dissemination and exploitation of DIMA toolkit and training material6. E-learning modules and OER7. Pilot implementations in each country with stakeholders. Case studies of implementation will be show-cased in order to convince more stakeholders to utilize project products.

"Research demonstrates that the sector of office administration is very important and popular and is continue to be one of the first professions in demand until 2020. EUPA_NEXT deals with this sector. EUPA_NEXT is the continuation of a very successful project EUPA (Leonardo DOI) that has developed a qualification framework for administration personnel in 4 EQF levels (levels 2,3,4 and 5) as well as the assessment tool and training materials for level 2. EupaNext aimed to develop a certification for administration personnel in 4 different levels. However, it is noted that the sector of Administrative Personnel has been used as a case study as the project aims to validate the knowledge, skills and competences of non regulated sectors.More specifically, EUPA_NEXT objectives were to:1.Facilitate the understanding of EQF & ECVET policies & explore different methodologies for the assignment of credits 2.Develop a comparative report on the situation of the countries on EQF and ECVET3.Review, curricula, materials and assessment developed under the previous project and develop curricula, materials and assessment for levels 3,4,5. Then certify curricula and materials with ISO and the assessment with ISO17024 (all levels). EupaNext provides a complete solution for the validation of knowledge, skills and competences of administration personnel.4.Provide flexible pathways to learning and validation (classroom trainings, ebooks, only assessment).5.Develop a ""how to"" practical guide for the validation of formal, non formal & informal learning for any non regulated profession.The qualification framework developed by the Eupa project had adapted a rather holistic approach. EupaNext has reviewed the qualification framework, taking into consideration the current trends and has analysed each of the learning outcomes into knowledge, skills and competences. Although that was an additional task not recorded in the original application, the consortium considered that to be an important task, as the QF would guide the consortium for the development of curricula/ training materials/ assessments, making more specific the required knowledge, skills and competences to be developed. Although EUPA project had developed materials, curricula and assessment tool for level 2, even those were reviewed during the current EupaNext. Therefore, EupaNext assigned credits to the qualification framework (levels 2-5) using ECVET. EupaNext has developed curricula and training materials for the trainer. Training materials included PowerPoint presentations and methodological tools to be used by the trainer. Ebooks for learners were also developed. EupaNext has certified all curricula and training materials with ISO. Additionally EUPA_NEXT has developed assessment tools for levels 2,3,4 and 5 and has certified those as well with a relatively new standard ISO17024 that certifies personal competences. Curricula, training materials and assessment (in all levels) were pilot tested. Last but not least the project has developed a best practices guide for the validation of any non regulated profession,The main target groups are:- VET institutes and VET trainers delivering training courses in office administration- Students in VET studying office administration-Vet policy makers- Office administrators that are interested in validating their knowledge, skills and competences in different EUPA_NEXT levels- Unemployed people that through EUPANEXT may enter the labor marketEUPA_NEXT activities include:1.Development of a comparative report on the situation of the countries of the consortium in EQF and ECVET2.Identification of several methodologies for ECVET application, selection and implementation of one3.Development, pilot testing, ISO certification and evaluation of training curricula, training materials and assessment tools as well as trainer's guides4.Development of ebooks and promotion of flexible pathways to learning 5.Composition of a Best practices guide - a step by step approach for the validation of formal, non formal and informal learning6.Several dissemination events targeting VET Institutes and trainers, Vet students in the area of office administration, policy makers, employers etcAt the sector level the impact envisaged is high through the development of a European certification for administration personnel in several levels by applying the principles of EQF and ECVET and using an internationally recognized standard: the ISO standard for certification of competences. At the policy level EUPA_Next is an ECVET project that has explored different ECVET methodologies and selected one to apply. Partners and participating countries benefited from the exercise of ECVET. In the long run, project partners will continue to provide the training and certification to the administrative personnel.They will maintain the materials, curricula and assessment current and fresh and they will try to convert EUPANEXT to a EU stardard."

The Project will extend the implementation of the Roadmap established and endorsed under Pillar I Build Up Skills project in Slovakia and the Czech Republic to middle and senior level professionals . These Roadmaps identified key measures for setting up a national qualification and training scheme and other measures for ensuring development of skills essential for the field of buildings to contribute to the fulfillment of the Europe 2020 energy targets. The project will particularly focus on key measure 1.3 and facilitate implementation of key measures 1.1, 1.2, 1.5 and 2.2 of the Roadmap endorsed in Slovakia, and on priority 4.3.1 and measures 1,2 and 4 of the Roadmap endorsed in the Czech Republic. This will strengthen the qualification of professionals identified as target group in the Roadmaps . The project will facilitate further investments in the skills anticipated in the EU Roadmap to a Resource Efficient Europe . Particularly the project will lead to: • Development of 5 education and training programmes for further education and training of middle and senior professionals in the field of buildings; • Setting up permanent network of trainers delivering the training programmes developed under the project; • Training of trainers for delivery of the programmes; • Proposal for financial measures to be established to facilitate and motivate middle and senior level professionals in participating to training programmes and SMEs to invest into further education; • Proposals to Slovak Government for incentives boosting demand for highly qualified professionals; • Reaching financing agreements using ESF for dissemination of training programmes. The project will establish necessary resources and prepare technical, organizational and financial conditions for training and re-training on energy efficiency and use of renewable energy sources for middle and senior level professionals in the field of buildings.