By analysing tools and methodologies in different European countries and proposing solutions from the civil society perspective, this successful project contributed to reducing the fragmentation of validation systems in Europe. It showed possible ways forward to make validation systems in Europe more inclusive and accessible, explored the best practices and policy strategies for validation for the disadvantaged, contributed to an exchange of tools, procedures and experiences among validation stakeholders in the EU and beyond.To be in line with the European Council Recommendation of 2012, Member States should have validation systems in place by 2018. The AVA consortium initiated this project to support Member States in their work towards this objective, acknowledging that they were facing significant challenges (and in some cases even resistance) while putting in place such systems and that a major role could be played by adult education providers and stakeholders. In the first project phase, the consortium drafted and promoted a survey addressing adult education providers, validation arrangement providers and analysed its results. Both the survey and the analysis had very positive feedback from validation professionals and had been instrumental in drafting important key questions and collect inspiring best practices. These were also the starting point in preparing the AVA Action Plan, which was drafting in the second phase of the project and represent probably the milestone of the AVA consortium work. The plan provides key messages, concrete examples and suggestions targeted at both policy makers and adult education organizations. It is available in three languages and freely downloadable from the project website: http://www.eaea.org/en/projects/eaea-coordinated-projects/ava.html The partners also produced five articles on validation practices and their impact as well as developed an event methodology that allowed the smooth and fruitful running of expert seminar but could be also used by other stakeholders in the organisation of similar events. Three events were organised in the framework of the project. A jour fixe was held in Vienna on 13 October 2015. It had the purpose to present the initial survey results to a wider public and discuss the main challenges arisen in the analysis. An expert seminar took place in Oslo on the 1-2 February 2016 in order to debate the main themes and outcomes of the survey and collect recommendations for drafting the action plan. A policy debate at the Economic and Social Committee attended by more than 60 participants (Brussels, 29 June 2016,) was instrumental in presenting the AVA intellectual outputs to key validation stakeholders and discuss the Action Plan.The consortium was composed of 6 organisations: the European Association for the Education of Adults (BE), the Nordic Network for Adult Learning (NO), the Association of Austrian Adult Education Centres (AT), the Innovation and Social Development institute - Kerigma (PT), the Dutch Platform for International Adult Learning (NL) and the Euro Adult Education Association (RO). Partners had wide-ranging and long-standing experience on validation as well as broad and established networks of contacts. This contributed to making this project a success both in terms of quality of results and of quantity of people reached.The AVA main target groups are adult education providers as well as national and European policy-makers dealing with validation systems. Participants in the project, as well as the wider adult education community, learned from each other, gained an insight into different validation tools, developed different approaches to support disadvantaged learners, proposed possible solutions to face the fragmentation of systems, built partnerships between providers and sectors and deepened their understanding of existing European policies for validation. The consortium also provided more practice-based evidence for better policy-making on the topic. By raising awareness of validation and making it more inclusive, the project had also a positive impact on individual learners and the society as a whole. According to the AVA consortium, validation is one of the key tools and components for lifelong learning and thus should be considered as a right. All citizens should be able to access validation arrangements and get their competences acquired outside the formal system recognized. This will allow them to move one step up in their personal lives and careers, increase people’s motivation for lifelong learning and bridge the labour market gaps between the job supply and demand.We believe that the materials and outputs will remain valid and will be used at least until 2018, the deadline for the implementation of national validation systems. The consortium is deeply committed to exploiting them on European and national levels both in their advocacy and daily work on validation.

"In many European countries adult education centres cover broad levels of the population nationwide. Since the initiation of the UN World Decade ""Education for Sustainable Development"" adult education centres aim to enable learners to act sustainable. However, topics in the field of sustainable development are often only treated sporadically and separately or in discipline-specific courses. But the concept of education for sustainable development emphasises the importance of multidisciplinarity – therefore topics should be treated by a comprehensive approach to sensitise for sustainable acting.However, there is a lack of suitable materials for adults – materials which illustrate the complexity of social, economic and ecological issues adequately and which are related to the everyday life. The objective of the project is to develop teaching and learning materials which support the distribution of interdisciplinary knowledge as well as creative competence in the field of sustainable development. The main focus is on adult learners in language courses. By integrating relevant topics and questions in language teaching learners are inspired to think about the issue and their own actions. The project aims to achieve a long-term change in behaviour of the learners. Because of the complexity of the different topics the development and testing of the materials is limited to language courses. In order to develop the broadest possible effect the materials will be free of charge and freely accessible to all teachers on the internet after the project.For the implementation of the project idea, it is planned to establish a consortium of adult education centres from six EU countries."

All European member states are requested to have in place arrangements for the validation of non-formal and informal learning, including specific elements and following some particular principles described in the European Guidelines for Validating non formal and informal learning by CEDEFOP (CEDEFOP 2015).In some countries of the partners, there exist already systems of validation prior learning; some have gained experiences with validation through projects but have not set a system in place so far. It is a fact that adult education providers play a major role in it, because they are often the implementing bodies of the validation systems.In the partnership, we exchanged experiences and compared validation systems, which have been developed and/or have been implemented. We focused on how validation systems have been developed, how they met the requirements of the CEDEFOP guidelines and what role adult education played in the system. Furthermore, we analysed strong and weak points during the implementation process.Concrete aims were:- Identification and comparison of different systems of validation and the involved stakeholders, the political embedding, financing, business models, framework requirements and validation instruments.- Identification and comparison of the role of adult education in implementation, realization and provision of validation systems including an analysis of main task of adult education staff as well as requirements for the personnel working in validation.- Identification and comparison of different models and guidelines for quality assurance in the validation process.By comparing our systems we found out that there exist no European standards of competences for practitioners (guides, trainers, assessors, managers) working in validation. In order to maintain quality and trust in validation the development of a clear view on skills and requirements for people working in validation needs to be taken up. Based on this insight we wrote jointly an Erasmus+ proposal that is addressing a recommendation of the Council of EU by contributing to the development of professional competences of staff involved in the validation process.

"In most European countries, (non-formal) adult education is inadequately funded. In contrast to the formal system, the sources of financing are fragmented. Allocation of public funding can come - depending on the respective country and region - from different ministries, regional and local authorities as well as communes. Furthermore, employers and public employment services play a central role in the financing of adult education. In many countries and depending on the providers and the individual situations and learning needs of the learners, the learners themselves contribute through fees. Different funding mechanisms target providers and learners to enable them to provide learning offers or to participate in learning.Whilst the cost of many learning offers remain an obstacle for many Europeans (especially younger or older people or persons with low educational attainments as highlighted by the Adult Education Survey), funding for adult education has been under increased pressure due to the financial crisis, leading to a cutting of funds for education even in traditionally well-supported countries such as Finland. This is in contrast with a clear need to increase participation in lifelong learning. The PIAAC results have shown that at least 20% of Europeans lack basic skills, and the benchmark for participation has decreased in the last few years rather than made progress. The Thematic Working Group on Financing Adult Learning European Commission tackled this issue in 2012/13. The FinALE project was a reaction and follow-up on this work. The consortium started from the belief that there is a need to look into this topic from the point of view of civil society and to update what has been achieved to make proposals for policy and financing practice that focus on providers and learners. FinALE aimed to answer the following questions: why do we need to invest in adult education? What are the indicators for funding? Where is investment needed? Which instruments work? Which funding mechanisms can engage (more) new learners? The objective of the project was to provide a set of analyses as well as policy recommendations targeted at policy-makers of all levels (European, national, regional, local, communal) and at providers to be used as information and advocacy tools.Through a mix of different methods, including peer learning among the partners, quantitative and qualitative research, desk research, and consultations of stakeholders, the partnership monitored and analysed adult education policies and funding instruments and made recommendations on how to improve them. The main target groups were policy-makers, adult education providers and organisations as well as other stakeholders, such as research institutes, social partners etc. Feedback from these target groups were collected at the multiplier events of the project and through mapping and consulting key stakeholders, establishing an expert group on the financing of adult education in Europe as a ""by-product"" of the project. The outcomes were published in the FinALE Advocacy Toolkit (online publication), the FinALE Executive Summary (online and printed publication), the FinALE research paper on Where to invest, the FinALE paper on financial indicators for adult education, and the FinALE website (www.financing-adult-learning.eu). All publications as well as further information on the project and the topic of financing adult learning will remain available for consultation and download on the project website. The insights into the funding of adult education gained as well as the policy recommendations developed in the project equipped adult education organisations and providers with tools for their own advocacy work, and policy-makers with a better knowledge about key challenges in the financing of adult learning. While a short-term impact on adult education organisations as well as policy-makers can already be seen as the products are referred to and used in presentations, on official platforms etc., the consortium expects the main impact of the project to be visible on a mid-term and long-term perspective. The outputs are contributing to improved efficiency of public expenditure and investment in adult education as well as more effective adult education policies by drawing on European best practices and establishing a set of financial indicators for monitoring and evaluating use of resources."

The main objective of the project “Professionalization of validation experts (PROVE)” is to contribute to the development of professional competences of staff involved in the validation of prior learning (VPL). A Cedefop study shows that the approach to professionalization of staff in validation differs in European countries and that many of these countries have no or limited provisions in place so far. In addition, there exist no European standards of competences for practitioners (guides, trainers, assessors, managers) working in validation. “Trust in validation largely depends on the work carried out by ‘front-line’ practitioners and professionals directly involved with validation candidates” (CEDEFOP 2015, p. 32f.). In order to maintain quality and trust in validation an overview of skills and requirements for people working in validation needs to be established. Therefore, the PROVE project is addressing a recommendation of the Council of EU by contributing to the development of professional competences of staff involved in the validation process (Council of EU, 2012, p.3, point 3g). This main objective of PROVE will be achieved by a) defining competence standards, b) by developing an online self-evaluation tool for the defined competences and c) by developing, compiling and testing learning resources (in short “Learning tool kit”) for the professional development of validation practitioners in Europe. By this means, validation experts will get access to high quality learning and teaching materials for their professionalization that can be used without legal copyright issues as so-called open educational resources (OER).In PROVE nine partners from Germany, Austria, Greece, The Netherlands, Portugal and France are working together. They represent a broad spectrum of validation providers, promoters of VPL and research institutes focusing on VPL, professionalization and competence development. Together they will develop two Intellectual Outputs: A Competence Model for validation professionals, which also encompasses a digital self-evaluation tool (O1) and a Learning Tool Kit for the further development and professionalization of practitioners in validation (O2).The project is designed along a long-term sustainability strategy. The partnership, due to its experience and geographic distribution, is well determined to bring a strong and sustainable impact with the project’s activities and results. At the first place the project is addressing validation professionals (guides, trainers, assessors, managers), that are experts in the validation of formal, informal and non-formal learning. The validation professionals will be addressed through a thorough competence development offer. The competence model (O1) and the self-evaluation tool (O1) developed in PROVE will give them orientation about important competences for their validation practice as well as competences that possibly should be further developed. The learning tool kit (O2) offers them a variety of learning resources in order to do so. As qualified personnel they will be able to strengthen quality in their institutions and become “innovators” on their jobs. They will be enabled to combine open educational resources (OER) available in their sector with validation instruments via the rich learning and validation environment developed in PROVE. PROVE will bring relevant stakeholders together to disseminate and valorise the approach Europe-wide. Finally, the European VINFL community will grow and more stakeholders from the field will be actively integrated. In future, educational systems, the institutions and services will be much more diverse as they are now. With the introduction of “open education”, learning resources will be developed and validation services will be offered from other stakeholders and learners will develop new learning strategies and pathways. The PROVE project seeks to achieve an impact for these future developments as well in developing innovative tools and integrating validation instruments in existing OER.