Most countries still need to develop systems that allow people to recognize, document, assess, and certify all types of learning and use it to further their careers and further their education and training. The 2019 OECD booklet ‘Getting Skills Right: Engaging Low-Skilled Adults in Learning’ depicts evidence that many adults with low skills are anything but ‘low skilled’: they may have low literacy and numeracy levels, but they may also possess a range of other valuable skills; similarly, some adults may have low qualification levels, but they may have gained skills through years of work-experience that are equivalent to those associated with formal qualifications. Individuals, employers, and the economy all gain from recognizing these talents through validation and certification. It recognizes an individual’s (informal) learning effort, which can boost motivation and serve as a stepping stone to more formal learning. Employers profit from skill recognition because they may better match employees’ skill sets with jobs, resulting in improved production. Individual and employer gains from skill validation and certification boost labor market functioning [Kis and Windisch, 2018]. For these good impacts to occur, employers and society as a whole must esteem certifications received through skill recognition and regard them as equivalent to credentials obtained through formal learning.

The project aims to meet the requirements of educators and individuals – particularly those from vulnerable groups – who are concerned about the lack of acknowledgment of non-formal and informal learning.