The international project Validation of transversal skills across Europe (TRANSVAL-EU), jointly carried out by 16 European institutions, is an example of policy experimentation with all activities coordinated at ministerial level. The project results are intended to provide specific tools to support lifelong learning further, ease mobility and promote transparency of competences across sectors.

TRANSVAL-EU will develop a framework for transversal competences and tools for their validation, along with a wide training offer for practitioners. The outputs will be piloted in five countries. A comparative analysis of the pilot results will be the basis for developing European and national recommendations for performing and implementing validation of transversal competences.

The project, funded by Erasmus+, started on 28 February 2021 and will last 30 months. It includes 16 partners from Austria (coordinator country), Belgium, Denmark, France, Italy, Lithuania and Poland. The Polish partner is the Educational Research Institute (IBE).

The role of Poland in the project

Due to the significant involvement of the IBE as one of the project’s research partners, recommendations relating to the Polish national context will be developed. These can later be implemented as part of existing measures.

The IBE is jointly responsible for developing the training programme and toolkit for the validation of practitioners and counsellors. Both will be developed internationally and adapted to national conditions, then tested in pilot programmes. The IBE will also play an important role in developing, collecting and analysing data at the stage of mapping existing competence frameworks and tools, as well as in clarifying the research methodology.

The IBE will also organise and conduct one of the pilots, and offer input to the comparative analysis and final recommendations. In the Polish pilot programme, the activities will cover career counsellors and other specialists performing validation, including from higher education institutions.