Print version Recommend this page Press release
10/ 2004
Bonn, 23.03.2004
A lot of knowledge - But little formal recognition!
BIBB seeks feasible ways to document informally acquired skills
Individuals learn (for life) not only in school, on the job, in educational institutions, and at universities - learning also takes place outside the structures of formal educa-tion, in other words, it occurs "informally" and by-the-by, so to speak. Be it through handling private inheritance matters, arranging financing for building one's own home, heading a club or organization, or providing overarching help at one's com-pany - everyone acquires skills in all areas of life that broaden their personal qualifi-cations profile. Experts estimate that up to 70 percent of all occupationally relevant skills are acquired informally - that is to say, outside of educational institutions. But how can these skills be described, measured and assessed? Which methods are best suited to making informally acquired skills so visible that they can be docu-mented via certificates - for use for job applications, for example? Some EU member states have already answered these questions and developed and implemented pro-cedures for evaluating and recognizing these achievements. Efforts to develop cohe-sive procedures for assessing and recognizing what an individual has learned infor-mally are still in the early stages in Germany. The Federal Institute for Vocational Training ("BIBB") is hosting a conference in Bonn on March 30 and 31, 2004
|
Special conference Informal learning - (Registration still possible! For details, please see www.bibb.de/de/1427.htm) |
that will provide impetus to push forward the development of ways to document and recognize informally acquired skills in Germany and outline prospects for the docu-mentation and recognition of informal skills. In Germany, certifying what the individual has learned is important almost solely in the area of formal general and vocational education. At the same time however, a wide array of projects, programmes and re-gional initiatives is striving to develop and apply concepts for assessing skills that have been acquired in a private or social setting, at work or even in the course of continuing education.
For this reason, the BIBB Special Conference will revolve around reports by ex-perts from the education field, science and companies providing training about cur-rent developments and on findings and practical experience with the use of instru-ments
- That draw on new developments and methods for documenting an individual's skills,
- For recording and documenting skills acquired in an in-company context,
- For integrating informal learning into Germany's vocational training system.
The conference will however also look beyond Germany's borders to Europe with an eye to learning from our European neighbours. Therefore, models and procedures for recognizing and documenting informally acquired skills - as are used in Norway and France - will also be presented and discussed at the conference.
The Special Conference is being held as part of the BIBB research project Tools for Registering Informal Learning in the Work Process. The purpose of this pro-ject is to identify, systematically evaluate and condense models and findings that ex-ist in Europe on documenting and recognizing informally acquired skills and then de-lineate possible ways to structure procedures for identifying skills.
Further German-language information on the BIBB research project:
- Irmgard Frank, Katrin Gutschow, Gesa Münchhausen: Vom Meistern des Lebens - Dokumentation und Anerkennung informell erworbener Kompetenzen. Grundsätzliche Überlegungen und interna-tionale Beispiele." In: Berufsbildung in Wissenschaft und Praxis (BWP) No. 4/2003 (€ 7.60)
- Irmgard Frank: Bewertungsverfahren im Kontext individueller Kompetenzentwicklung - gangbare Wege". In: Berufsbildung in Wissenschaft und Praxis (BWP) No. 1/2004 (€ 7.90 )
These publications can be ordered from: W. Bertelsmann Verlag GmbH & Co. KG, Postfach 10 06 33, 33506 Bielefeld, Germany; Tel. +49 521 - 91 10 111, fax: +49 521 - 91 10 119, e-mail: servi-ce@wbv.de
