Abstract:

Although Guidelines on the importance of validation of competences acquired in formal and non-formal settings exist at the European and national levels, awareness of these themes amongst adult audiences is still lacking. Do they really know that life can become an actual learning environment? In general terms, what kinds of learning can the adult/third sectors offer?

KVALUES - Key competences: Validating Adult Learners’ EdUcational ExperienceS is a EU funded project that aims to contribute to this debate, by identifying what competences and skills can be evaluated.

KVALUES is a two year project that brings together adult cultural educators from Italy, UK, Germany, Sweden, Estonia, Bulgaria to develop and test the digital storytelling methodology as an innovative tool to guide adults and young adults in disadvantaged conditions to self-evaluate and recognize skills and key competences acquired through informal learning context.

The idea of the project springs from the successful feedback received from the previous project’s DeTALES, which showed that digital storytelling is a useful means to engage people of all ages and backgrounds. Based on past experiences in adult education and the cultural field, KVALUES partners realized that the target group in question (adults, young adults in disadvantaged conditions, unemployed, inactive people) is not aware that what you do at work, or in life, can be turned into a learning opportunity. They aren’t aware that, not only practical skills are useful to find a job or a better job position, but also the key competences such as social, transversal, cultural, creative and entrepreneurship thinking skills are an added value to their curricula.

The implementation of a digital curricula story puts the individual at the center of the learning, fostering key competences (creative, entrepreneurship, basics, cultural, etc.) and, consequently, the need/willingness to undertake a new training process. The process of validation helps learners to think about what they have achieved so far and identify their strengths and skills. It helps to identify longer-term goals and what they need to do to achieve them. The use of digital tools, combined with the narrative process, aims to encourage individuals, usually excluded from traditional pathways of formal training aiming at transferring practical skills, to become more aware of the importance of key competences to help them to re-enter in the labour market.

Keywords:

Digital storytelling, informal learning, key competences, validation.