A number of partners from several European countries have been working together over a number of years to create a system of validation of informal learning.
This work has resulted in the Level 5 approach for evaluating informal learning – a dual process that benefits the learner as well as the learning providers.
Vilma is a project partly funded by the European Commission under the Lifelong Learning Programme that builds on this past experience. It focuses on the validation of informal learning in mobility actions.
Mobility is a means to promote personal and professional development and contributes to the creation of a true European area of education and training.
It is difficult to evaluate and validate the acquired competences in a mobility action since a great deal of mobility learning activities consist of rather unplanned informal learning activities taking place in everyday life of the learners outside their habitual living and learning contexts.
Vilma intends to tackle the issue by providing instruments to assess and evidence competence development in mobility actions. It uses the Level 5 approach that has been applied in more than 40 micro-learning projects in 12 EU member states.
The local partner in the project is Opportunities Aid Foundation which is currently carrying out experimentation activities with local institutions that support mobility actions.
It is also responsible for the generation of informal learning patterns in mobility actions and participates in needs analysis research with providers of learning mobility actions and with the learners themselves.
The foundation is putting its experience in mobility actions to good use both as a receiving entity as well as an organiser of mobility professional training events mostly for teachers and educators.
The project is part of the Reveal network and is being coordinated by BUPNET GmbH of Göttingen, Germany, and the partnership includes organisations from Belgium, Austria, Lithuania, Spain, France and Malta.
For more information visit www.vilma-eu.org or e-mail vilma@oafmalta.org.