The European Journal of Vocational Training calls for articles on the recognition/validation and certification on non-formal and informal learning/knowledge/competences.

European journal of vocational training

Call for articles for the thematic issue on assessment, recognition/validation and certification of informal learning/knowledge/competences.

Definitions of informal and non-formal learning can be found in Cedefop´s report ‘The learning continuity: European inventory on validating non-formal and informal learning´. The EU promotes informal and non-formal learning in a number of ways, and in particular through validation. In some European countries, systems of assessment, recognition and certification of informal learning have been established to increase the stock of explicit knowledge and to enable its utilisation. However, as the report states, approaches to validating non-formal and informal learning on the secondary and tertiary levels are still predominantly experimental. The purpose of a thematic issue is to make a step beyond the abovementioned Cedefop report. We would particularly welcome proposals from researchers and others who have examined and evaluated how established systems of validation of non-formal and informal learning work in practice.

Thus, the articles may address issues such as:

• the attitudes of various social groups, organisations and stakeholders towards the assessment, recognition and certification of non-formal and informal learning (ARCNIL). What is the origin of this terminology? Where and by whom is it used
• the structure and functioning of the national systems of ARCNIL;
• the role of national qualification standards and the modularisation of education and training programmes in ARCNIL;
• application of ARCNIL in corporations and other organisations;
• the relationship between formal education and training and ARCNIL;
• the social, professional, personal and economic effects of ARCNIL;
• the educational change that is needed to tackle emerging challenges (at the theoretical and empirical levels, at the structural and organisational levels, actor representations, and so on). Various approaches and forms are welcome:
• policy analyses of value contexts, the attitudes of social partners and other stakeholders, system designs, their functioning, output and outcomes;
• quantitative analyses focused on the functioning of systems in terms of their intakes, the structure of applicants, their success in the process of ARCIL, the consequences for education, employment mobility and wages, the attitudes and views of participants, etc.;
• evaluation and case studies focused on the national, branch, organisational and other levels;
• discourses based on the literature or on empirical research that raises critical issues and argues for certain solutions, etc.

We would especially like to encourage articles that take a comparative approach to ARCNIL (comparison bteween Eu countries or EU with non -EU countries). Priority will be given to contributions focusing on VET. Articles may be submitted in any official languages of the EU and candidate countries.

To submit an article (deadline: June 2008), contact the Editor in chief