Working on better recognition of youth work and non-formal education/learning is advocacy work that often aims at changes in relevant policies and official decisions, while working towards the establishment of new mechanisms. In regards to other advocacy initiatives, it is not enough to just form partnerships on the way, it is necessary to have a sound knowledge and understanding of any relevant policies that can strengthen your position. Having an understanding of policies from other sectors may also help you in finding the ‘common language’ and establish inter-sectoral partnerships at local and national levels. More information on European policies and practices can be found in the following pages, but let’s first hear the story about these developments at the European level.

The exciting story about European policy development on the recognition of non-formal education/learning in the youth field can be told from two perspectives – from the outside and from the inside of the youth sector. However, like in a dynamic omnibus movie these two stories often support each other, thus creating a joint story, while at other moments they continue along separate lines. The story from the inside begins with the growing youth sector, supported strongly by the establishment of the European Union’s YOUTH programme in 2000 and activities of the Council of Europe’s Directorate of Youth and Sport at the end of the 1990’s. Such a growing field resulted not only in quantity growth, but also in an increase of quality and enhanced awareness of its own value – both by young people themselves and youth workers. This subsequently resulted in calls for better recognition of youth work and non-formal education/learning at a European level, (e.g. the CoE Parliamentary assembly recommendation and the EU’s White Paper on Youth).

At the same time, in the outer story or call it the ‘bigger picture’, in 2000 the Lisbon Council of the European Union set a most ambitious strategic vision for Europe. The vision was that Europe should become the most dynamic and competitive knowledge based economy in the world, achieving not just economic growth and better jobs, but also greater social cohesion. For the policy makers it was clear that the existing formal education systems, normally too slow to respond to the dynamic changes in life and technology, would not be enough to bring Europe closer to that ‘knowledge based society’. Instead, another path was chosen – lifelong learning. This was the first time that European policies acknowledged that learning takes place in a variety of contexts, including formal, non-formal and informal, and should be valued. This path was followed by several initiatives in the field of education, in particular in the area of Vocational Education and Training, (VET). This saw the validation of informal and non-formal education/learning as one of the main tools for bridging gaps in the labour market and helping people get their qualifications in diverse ways. The enhanced cooperation among European countries in this field, led to the adoption of Common European principles for the validation of informal and non-formal education/learning in 2004 and later in more concrete guidelines in 2008. The other interesting process in the bigger picture was, ‘the shift towards learning outcomes’, which changed the perspective in education and put the focus on competences acquired. Eventually this led to the adoption of the common European framework; ‘8 Key Competences for Lifelong Learning’, by the European Parliament in 2006.

In parallel, the debate on the recognition of non-formal education/learning in the youth field continued and links with the wider lifelong learning agenda were sought and clearly established. Thanks to the Partnership between the European Commission and the Council of Europe in the field of youth, the position of the youth sector was formulated in the ‘Pathways’ paper in 2004. The paper called for better social recognition of non-formal education/learning and youth work, having in mind that they should not be regarded as a sub-category of education. The paper also stressed them as a means to prepare young people for both knowledge based society and civil society. The Pathways paper recognized the need to establish closer links with other stakeholders, (formal education, employers, social sector, etc.), and to develop concrete tools for recognition in the youth sector. This process resulted in the development of the European Portfolio for Youth Leaders and Youth Workers in 2006 and the introduction of the Youthpass as part of the Youth in Action Programme from 2007 onwards. Both instruments gave more focus to the competences of youth workers and young people. Following the developments in the ‘bigger picture’ Youthpass built on and imported the European framework of 8 Key Competences in its self-assessment part, thus bringing closer the learning outcomes from the youth field to other educational arenas and other stakeholders. At the time of writing this publication more than 120,000 Youthpass certificates have been issued.

In the youth field, calls for better recognition were followed up in the 1st European Youth Work Convention in Ghent in 2010; this led to the Council Resolution on youth work in November that same year. As part of the new developments, the EU-CoE youth partnership published a new paper, Pathways 2.0, in January 2011. This initiated the debate on future actions and paths of recognition in the youth field. The general plan for these actions was laid down during the Symposium on the recognition of youth work and non-formal learning, in November 2011.

On December 2012, the Council of the European Union adopted a Council Recommendation on the validation of non-formal and informal learning, based on the European Commission’s proposal. The Recommendation invites Member States to establish validation arrangements for the validation of non-formal and informal learning outcomes. The deadline for Member States to put in place national validation processes is 2018.

Young people are a key resource for building a social and just Europe, and providing them with structured support is an important investment Europe has to make for its present and future.

This is the underlying idea of the new Recommendation to the Council of Europe member states on youth work, adopted by the Committee of Ministers on 31 May 2017.

EU COUNCIL RECOMMENDATION (2012/C 398/01) on the Validation of non-formal and informal Learning

EU COUNCIL RECOMMENDATION (2012/C 398/01) on the Validation of non-formal and informal Learning

EU COUNCIL RECOMMENDATION (2012/C 398/01) on the Validation of non-formal and informal Learning