After Rotterdam (2015) and Aarhus (2017), the 3rd Biennale on the Validation of Prior Learning (VPL) took take place in Berlin, Germany, on May 7 and 8, 2019.
The 3rd VPL Biennale with the motto ”Making policy work – Validation of Prior Learning for education and the labour market“ was about sharing knowledge, ideas and visions on VPL. Together with policy makers, practitioners, researchers and other stakeholders involved in further developing and implementing the Validation of Prior Learning, the participants drafted and adopted the Berlin Declaration on Validation, setting the benchmark for validation systems worldwide. The four workshops for each of six policy tracks laid the foundation for the Declaration:
1. Organisational arrangements
2. Financing
3. Procedures and instruments
4. Support structures
5. Post-validation pathways
6. Legal foundations
The Berlin Declaration
is now available for dissemination here.
A Danish translation of the Berlin Declaration can be found here.
Nordic experts in Berlin
Biennale participants had an opportunity to learn a lot about the current state of validation in the Nordic countries. Six Nordic presentations were part of the workshop programme. More about the presentations here.
NVL podcast
presents a European and Nordic perspectives about the Biennale results and the Berlin Declaration. You can listen to the interview with Ernesto Villalba-Garcia from the European Center for the Development of Vocational Education and Training, CEDEFOP, and Anna Kahlson from the Swedish national Agency for Higher Vocational Educationhere.
VPL Prize
The VPL Biennale in Berlin awarded the Global Prize for Validation of Prior Learning in three categories: products, procedures, policies.
VIRKE, the Enterprise Federation of Norway, won the products category with ”A Balancing Act”. It is a model and a method that makes it possible to describe skills acquired in the workplace, so that they can be understood in a wider working life context as well as in the formal education system. Read more and see the video here.
Nordic profile – Tormod Skjerve from VIRKE
VIRKE is a member in several national committees in the skills policy domain in Norway and has been active in a Nordic network Kompetanse sett fra arbeidslivet (2014-2017). You can find the interview (in Norwegian) with Tormod Skjerve and hear his views the future competence needs and the validation of competences in working life here.
For more information on Biennale check out the website: http://vplbiennale.org/