The first part is devoted to general issues with regard to the accreditation of prior experiential learning across the EuroguideVAL partnership in Europe and highlights the many differences, divergences and challenges that have been ours for the duration of the project.
The second part concentrates on common issues and outcomes. It is a credit to the partnership that in spite of the seemingly insurmountable obstacles, they have been able to agree on these common European standards for professionals involved in the different stages of any APEL process. These common activity and training standards are the results of extensive documentary and field research, coupled with several pilot training courses undertaken during the project. They are a consensus between all partner countries involved as being the minimum required in respect of the Common Principles for the Validation of Non formal and Informal Learning agreed on by all European member states, but by no means implemented for the moment. This is regardless of whether these countries actually had an APEL provision or not at the time of the project.
Readers are reminded that these common standards are not of a prescriptive nature. They are a suggested starting point, and must be adapted according to the needs of the particular systems for the validation of non formal and informal learning adopted by each European country. Hopefully they will contribute to a certain harmony by helping to sing from the same song sheet.
Then there is a section devoted to each project partner country. Here the reader has an overview on how the issues were dealt with in each of these contexts. It may be a stark reality to perceive that such huge differences still exist but we have some consolation from the positive impact this work has already had in most participating countries. The partnership is serene in the knowledge that their production has the potential to facilitate the development of the ongoing recognition and validation of non formal and informal learning outcomes for all European citizens. Let there be no doubt that there is still much work to be done to achieve this aim.
The CD rom version of the handbook contains the paper version as well as the full field research reports, all the documentary research and in depth information on the overall project outcomes and issues seen from the perspective of each project partner country as well as a lot of support material.