Aktum There are many parties in Sweden involved in validation to map, document and acknowledge an individual's actual competence, his or her 'prior learning', that is.
Ther term 'Prior learning' includes all knowledge, regardless of how it was acquired. But how is validation carried out in practice? On 25 September, forty odd people gathered for a cross-border exchange of experiences with speakers from the Swedish Council for Higher Education (UHR) and Korta vägen.
Ongoing project
Organising course instances is one part of the ongoing Prior learning project in Umeå for 2016–2018. The project is linked to a large national pilot project coordinated by UHR.
Points up for discussion are for instance organisation, processes and communication. The objective is to increase the opportunities
for people to gain access to higher education through continuous processes for validation of prior learning, and to shorten the study period to make individuals available on the Swedish labour market at a faster
pace.
New issue-tracking system
Validation is an area in change where topics such as funding, quality assurance, and law and order are central. A national organisation for the assessment of general entry requirements is taking shape at the
same time as a few universities will implement VALDA, a new issue-tracking system for validation.
"It'll be exciting to see the outcome of the Government proposal for increasing the opportunities to access higher education, Tillträdespropositionen, and the outcome from the validation delegation," says Maria Nylén, project manager.
"There are loose plans for a continuation of the pilot project, but that's something time can only tell."