Information, guidance and coordination

To make the VPL process transparent and consistent for the individual VPL user, a wide range of information must be communicated:

• Information on who, what, why, where and when concerning VPL;
• Information to individuals in the target group, and information to and from stakeholders and collaboration partners.

Relevant and understandable information is crucial for individual VPL users, in order for them to be able to decide whether to take part in validation or not.

Necessary information might be:

• Why is validation useful for me?
• How does the validation procedure work?
• What do I need to prepare?
• Which criteria do I have to meet?
• How do I collect documentation?
• How do I apply for or take part in validation?
• How can I use the results of validation?

The practitioner is able to:

• Provide information about objectives, purpose and practice of validation to help individuals make informed decisions about participation.
• Draw out and demonstrate potential benefits of validation for companies and educators
• Extract knowledge about the target group
• Explain the rights of individuals
• Further develop information procedures and methods in cooperation with other stakeholders

Tips & Tricks

• Properly addressed internal information to professionals who cooperate on validation contributes to strengthening of cohesion and an improved outcome for the individual’s validation process.
• Properly addressed external information to stakeholders and collaboration partners contributes to ensuring legitimacy, trust and credibility of the individual’s validation outcome.
• A structured validation process makes the entire validation process and each single validation stage in the process transparent and understandable for the individual.
• Accessibility and transparency of the validation process helps groups of disadvantaged people to benefit from validation.

Successful implementation of validation requires an adequate provision of information and guidance throughout the entire process.
The practitioner guides the user in making choices in in accordance with his or her own aims and expectations. In order to support an individual-centered VPL process, guidance is tailored according to the individual’s actual needs.

Users need support when accounting for learning acquired in multiple learning situations and contexts. Guidance is crucial for making the individual’s competence elements and aspects visible.

The VPL practitioner is able to:

• Communicate the benefits of validation of non-formal and informal learning and explain how the system works
• Provide advice on the rights of the individual and data protection issues regarding VPL
• Provide advice and information about (sectoral) competence requirements / qualifications and the potential for career development
• Guide the individual to the right qualification and qualification level
• Identify possible learning difficulties and help the candidate to seek special support to go through VPL procedures, and guide individuals who do not meet the criteria for validation to other career or learning opportunities
• Practise a wide range of guidance and counselling methods and tools, such as various types of portfolios (work-samples, career path etc.)
• Provide individual and group counseling and support
• Provide guidance and counseling after validation

Tips & Tricks

• Do provide enough information at the beginning of the process
• Be sure to allow enough time for portfolio work
• Be sure to provide enough support and motivation during the process

To benefit from the VPL in terms of the individual’s ability to move one step up in career or further education, coordination of phases in the VPL process is crucial.

Cross-sectoral and cross-institutional cooperation, together with transparency of all VPL elements for the individual, contribute significantly to making the VPL arrangement consistent and permeable and to preventing fragmentation. This is achieved by:

• Coordinated provision of information in the different areas and sectors
• Coordinated follow up on further services after the VPL process

The practitioner is able to:

• Act according to the laws and regulations on validation
• Manage the processes and procedures for VPL
• Follow up on VPL procedures and budgets
• Reconcile different viewpoints and mediate between stakeholders
• Build trust between other stakeholders involved in validation
• Derive information on possibilities for further learning opportunities (gap-learning)
• Make decisions and follow through.

Tips & Tricks

• Be sure to have all relevant information clarified before you start recruiting
• Be sure to clarify the roles of VPL staff before the project begins
• Be sure to involve all relevant stakeholders
• The use of educational and employment stakeholders’ knowledge on potentials and rules of the national validation system helps to overcome mutual resistance to accepting the results of individuals’ validation processes.
• Dialogues between validation stakeholders in order to develop a common language and understanding of validation helps the recognize of the various types of benefits that validation can bring to individuals.
• Implementation of quality control methods and follow up on validation processes builds mutual trust between different institutions and sectors, and leads to further development of validation arrangements.
• Increasing the transfer of existing tools and methods which have proven valuable in some contexts to different contexts contributes to the acceptance of the individual’s validation results.