Valuing informal learning and transversal competences experienced in the voluntary service to increase employability, social responsibility and mobility Erasmus Project

Project Title

Valuing informal learning and transversal competences experienced in the voluntary service to increase employability, social responsibility and mobility

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for vocational education and training

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2017

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Recognition, transparency, certification; Regional dimension and cooperation; Recognition (non-formal and informal learning/credits)

Project Summary

How can we evaluate competences such as empathy, flexibility, and problem solving? How can we develop them? How can we make them visible in the interest of job recruiters, employers, trainers, and teachers?
LEVER UP provides a model, procedures, and a wide set of tools for identifying and valuing the transversal competencies of the individuals, and that are able to show that the informal contexts, such as volunteering, can be a melting pot of practice and learning for people. It defines a framework for individuals to validate their prior learning, as well as to nurture and to empower their soft skills for the future. It also outlines a governance model for the validation service with common policies to ensure equal quality standards and mutual recognition across Europe, yet sustaining the national peculiarities. Exploiting the legacy of the previous Erasmus+ LEVER project (2014-16), LEVER UP sets the basics for a 360-degree service, in other words, a validation system shareable by multiple European countries and supporting all the aspects for a continuing service over time.
As LEVER UP deals with soft and transversal competences and it aims at giving them visibility to increase employability, social responsibility and mobility, the competence framework played a key role for their valorisation in full transparency and transferability among VET, Volunteering and labour market. Various stakeholders may have different perspectives, yet they belong to the same socio-educational and economic context where individuals are the actual competence carriers in a lifelong, life-wide learning system. The learning outcome based approach and the alignment with the main EU references such as EQF made the LEVER UP frame more readable, portable, and consistent with the credits system approach (ECVET) and EU mobility tools such as EUROPASS. Nonetheless, the debate on how the soft and transversal competencies relate to the National Qualification Frameworks and can be valued in job matching platforms such as EURES is still open and in progress.
The main target groups of the project were volunteers, voluntary service organisations and their staff, employers, job recruiters and employees, training providers, schools, teachers and trainers, certification bodies, labour policy makers, young people, students and families, and all citizens. For VET, competence validation means easier access, higher qualification, and possibilities for exemption of (part of) a VET-path. For companies, it means to provide profit and non-profit organisations with an effective way to improve transversal competences that may influence personal and business performances. For volunteering, giving visibility to the competencies acquired means to foster social skills, social contribution and citizenship as chances of self-empowerment as well as a way to increase the quality of volunteering.
The project designed and implemented:
– A model, i.e. a set of 15 transversal competences, described according to EU frameworks standards, and a multiple step validation process;
– A toolkit, i.e. a set of 36 tools for LEVER UP candidates, assessors, tutors and trainers, released under a CC BY-SA 4.0 License and available online in English, Italian, Spanish, French, Polish, and Dutch;
– A validation service, with clear roles and responsibilities at local, national, and international level;
– A training service, i.e. an e-learning program releasing digital credentials (Open Badges) for future LEVER UP assessors, tutors, and trainers;
– A digital space, i.e. the LEVER UP Webtool, a web application for service centres to manage the validation of assessors, tutors, and candidates, and the e-learning platform, with training contents and the features for releasing the Open Badges;
– A governance model, outlined in a Memorandum of Understanding defining how to join the LEVER UP system within common policies that make it work transparently at local, national and international level.
LEVER UP approach and its outputs were tested in pilots and other activities. In 2019, about 300 people were involved in the training and about 600 candidates went through the competence validation process all over Europe.
About dissemination, LEVER UP reached more than 340 people with its 3 sets of multiplier events. The project was also selected as good practice in relevant international events such as the 3rd VPL Biennale (Berlin, May 2019), the ECVET Annual Forum (Rotterdam, June 2019), the 1st Validation Festival (Brussels, June 2018), and EQF Advisory Group Peer Learning Activity (Brussels, January 2019). There, it presented the approach and the results, enlarging its audience to other EU and non-EU countries. LEVER UP organised the final conference in Brussels in November 2019, jointly with the CEV Autumn Volunteering Congress. It was the last official event for the project to continue and nurture the debate at the presence of highly representative stakeholders and EU policy makers.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 337488 Eur

Project Coordinator

FONDAZIONE POLITECNICO DI MILANO & Country: IT

Project Partners

• ECOLE – ENTI CONFINDUSTRIALI LOMBARDI PER L’EDUCATION – SOCIETA’ CONSORTILE A R.L.
• CSVnet
• HOMINEM CHALLENGE SL
• AnciLab
• CENTRE EUROPEEN DU VOLONTARIAT
• FOUNDATION EUROPEAN CENTRE VALUATION PRIOR LEARNING/STICHTING EUROPEESCENTRUM WAARDEREN VAN LEREN
• Fundacja Dobra Siec