National State of Play: Belgium by LLL-Hub

NATIONAL STATE OF PLAY

BELGIUM DEFINITIONS AND STRATEGIES IN LLL

This project has been funded with the support from the European Commission. This publication reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.

Content Introduction..........................................................................................................................................................2 1. National Frameworks for lifelong learning: towards flexible pathways and comprehensive education and training systems ...................................................................................................................................................8 1.1.

Short introduction on the national culture as regards lifelong learning..............................................8

Definition of LLL in Flanders .................................................................................................................8

II.

Formal, non-formal and informal learning ...........................................................................................9

III.

Culture on LLL .................................................................................................................................11

1.2.

National strategy ................................................................................................................................12

Policy ..................................................................................................................................................12

II.

Incentives ...........................................................................................................................................13

III.

Links with other policies .................................................................................................................15

1.3.

Implementation of the EU frameworks..............................................................................................15

Flemish Qualifications Framework (FQF) ...........................................................................................16

II.

EPOS ...................................................................................................................................................17

III.

Lifelong Learning ............................................................................................................................17

IV.

Acquisition of prior learning in Flanders ........................................................................................17

V. 2.

Conclusion ..........................................................................................................................................18

Lifelong learning actors: taking the jump towards learner centred systems.............................................19 2.1. Educators, teachers, school heads, inspectors, guidance professionalsâ&#x20AC;Ś ..............................................19 I.

Participation in EU policy making in education and training .............................................................19

II.

Participation in national policy making in education and training.....................................................19

2.2. Lifelong learners ......................................................................................................................................20 3.

Lifelong learning communities: partnerships and shared responsibility ...................................................22

Policy recommendations to improve the implementation of lifelong learning .........................................25

References ..................................................................................................................................................29

Annex 1: Interviews ....................................................................................................................................30

Annex 2: Good Practices.............................................................................................................................70

Annex 3: Life Stories ...................................................................................................................................81

Introduction During the last 15 years, Flanders had several initiatives to strengthen LLL for adults, but we are realising that there is still a way to go. In 2014 the Flemish Education Council1 consulted different experts to reopen the debate on LLL and to explore strategic topics on LLL for the next decades. The main question was: “How can the goal of the full participation of the adults be achieved in the present complex, high-tech and fast changing society that is setting high expectations for people and their functioning?” In their platform text the group of experts analyzes the challenges for LLL in Flanders and formulates 15 key issues and several recommendations for policy makers and other LLL stakeholders. (VLOR, 2014) As in most of the European countries the labour market changed a lot in Belgium. Over the past four decades, employment in the manufacturing sector decreased, while on the other hand it increased in the service sector. Employment in the service sector requires a higher level of skills. A lot of services are based on the analysis and transformation of information and are highly dependent on computers and ICT. Jobs for higher educated workers become more and more important.

Figure 1: (OECD, 2013)

Figure 2 shows the evolution of the education level of Flemish adults between 25 and 64 years old (on the left: total population – on the right: working population). Over the last decade the education level of the Flemish population increased tremendously. In 1999, still more than 40% of the Flemish adults between 25 and 64 year was low-educated, while in 2011, only 26% of the adults had low qualifications. The evolution of the working people is comparable, but the proportion of low-educated working people is much lower. This indicates that low-educated people have a weaker position on the labour market in Flanders.

The Flemish Education Council, in Dutch: de “Vlaamse Onderwijsraad” (Vlor), is the official advisory body on the education and training policy of the Flemish Community. Representatives of all the different stakeholders in education and training meet in the Vlor. Together they look for ways to further improve education and training in Flanders. 2

Figure 2: Evolution education level of the Flemish population (25-64 years) Laaggeschoold = low-educated, Middengeschoold = medium-educated, Hooggeschoold = high educated

â&#x20AC;&#x201C;

1999-2011

The Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC) investigated what level of competencies adults need nowadays to participate in our modern society. To do so they focused on different disciplines such as numeracy, literacy and problem solving in technology-rich environments. (Cincinnato & De Meyer, z.d.). Figure 3 shows the evolution on the employment defined by the level of the PIACC-skills or proficiencies. It is obvious that the labor market demands high literacy, numeracy and problem solving skills.

Figure 3: (OECD, 2013)

In Belgium, the PIACC-research was only conducted in the northern, Flemish part. The average literacy score for the OECD member countries participating in the assessment is 273 points; the average literacy score for Flanders is 275, which put Flanders on the 8th position in the international raking of proficiency in literacy. The average numeracy score among the OECD member countries participating in the assessment is 269 points. With an average numeracy score of 280, Flanders takes the 3rd position in the international ranking. 3

Regarding the results on the problem-solving in technology-rich environments scale the situation of Flanders is less encouraging: the average score is 281 in Flanders (vs. average score of 283 in the OECD-countries) and Flanders takes the 14th position in the international ranking. For 19% of the Flemish adults (or almost half a million Flemish adults) solving problems in technology-rich environments is a major challenge. On the other hand, 7% of the Flemish adults reach the highest level on problem-solving proficiency, which is comparable to the OECD-average. (UGent, Department of Educational Studies, 2013) Averages Problem Solving Proficiency Country Av. SD Japan 294 1,19 Finland 289 0,83 Australia 289 0,89 Sweden 288 0,65 Norway 286 0,57 Netherlands 284 0,76 Austria 283 0,74 Average OECD-countries 283 0,21 Denmark 283 0,68 Czech Republic 283 1,10 Korea 283 0,80 Germany 283 1,04 Table 1: Average results on problem-solving Source: (UGent, Department of Educational Studies, 2013)

Country Canada Slovak republic Flanders (Belgium) UK (England, N. Ireland) Estonia United States Ireland Poland

Av. 282 281 281 280 278 277 277 275

significantly < Flanders (Belgium) no significant difference significantly > Flanders (Belgium) technology-rich environments

SD 0,68 0,82 0,82 0,93 1,01 1,15 1,01 1,33

scale

PIAAC,

Regarding the literacy and numeracy skills there is a large gap between highly and lowly educated adults (literacy: +60 points, numeracy: +66 points), native born adults and immigrants (literacy: +43, numeracy: +41), younger and older people (literacy: +30, numeracy: +23) and men/women (literacy: +5, numeracy: +16). Compared to the other OECD-countries, the differences are more prominent in Flanders for all these groups and the differences are most evident between lower and higher educated adults and native born vs. adults with a migration background.

Flanders 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0

OECD

Flanders

60 52 43 31

24 5

High vs. low Native born vs. Youngsters vs. educated migrants seniors

Male vs. female

70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0

OECD

60 41 33 23

High vs. low Native born vs. Youngsters vs. educated migrants seniors

Male vs. female

Figure 4: Difference in literacy skills according to socio- Figure 5:Difference in numeracy skills according to sociodemographic characteristics, Flanders and OECD demographic characteristics, Flanders and OECD Source: (UGent, Department of Educational Studies, 2013) Source: (UGent, Department of Educational Studies, 2013)

First, in contrast with the domains of literacy and numeracy, there is an age based gap concerning problemsolving proficiency (+46 points in Flanders; +36 points in the OECD-countries). The differences between high and low educated adults and native born adults and immigrants are also quite high (higher education: +42 in Flanders, native born: +23 in Flanders). Compared to the other OECD-countries, the differences are more prominent concerning the age, education and migrant background. (UGent, Department of Educational Studies, 2013)

Flanders

OECD

70 60 50 40

42 36 28

23 16

0 High vs. low educated

Native born vs. migrants

Youngsters vs. seniors

Male vs. female

Figure 6: Difference in problem-solving skills according Flanders and OECD, Source: (UGent, Department of Educational Studies, 2013)

socio-demographic

characteristics,

Due to the fast technological changes, the decreasing amount of information and the evolution towards a knowledge society, a lot of people do not have the appropriate skills and competences to find work. This can be partly explained by the lack of continuous training. (VLOR, 2014) But what is the participation rate of adults in LLL in Flanders? And how well are Flemish adults participating in LLL compared to other countries? The answer to this question is not unequivocal, because Flemish research on LLL refers to different sources to illustrate the participation rate. Some researchers are using the Adult Education Survey (AES). The AES is a survey carried out in 29 countries in the European Union (EU), in EFTA-countries and EU-candidate countries between 2005-2008. Information was collected on education and lifelong learning activities by individuals aged 25-64 living in private households. The AES-statistics are quite raw, because the requested education can take one day as well as a whole year. In addition, the definition of the target group can be discussed. In Flanders, quite a lot of -25 year olds are enrolled in adult education for second chance education. (VLOR, 2014)

Figure 7: Average participation rate adult education, (NF= Non formal learning â&#x20AC;&#x201C; F= formal learning) (Boeren & Nicaise, 2012)

25-64

year

old,

AES

2007-2009

According to the results of AES, 40% of the Belgian adults and even 49% of the Flemish adults should participate in a training on an annual base. As far as the formal education sector is concerned , Flanders is in the top 3 ranking, together with Sweden and the United Kingdom. In Flanders, 13% of the adults participate in a formal education activity. (VLOR, 2014) Other researchers are showing a less promising picture, referring to the Labour Force Survey (LFS).

The Flemish government is using LFS data in policy publications and monitoring reports for the policy indicators on LLL.2 In 2014, only 7 % of the interviewed Belgian adults and 7.5% of the Flemish adults was in a training four weeks before the survey. The participation rate even diminished until 2012-2013, but seems to go up again. The goal of the Flemish government is to reach a participation rate of 15% in 2020 (Pact 2020 goals).

GEO/TIME

2010 2011 2012 2013 2014

Belgium

7,2

7,1

6,6

6,7

7,1

Flemish region 8,2 7,5 6,8 7,1 7,5 European Union (28 countries) 9,1 8,9 9,0 10,5 10,7 Table 2: Participation rate Belgium and Flemish region, 2010-2014, source: Eurostat

Figure 8: Participation rate of adults (participation = 4 weeks before the international benchmark 2013 (VRIND, 2014)

in LLL survey),

Whatever dataset is used, there are important differences in participation depending on age, gender and initial level of education (Desmedt, Groenez, & Van den Broeck, 2006). While in most European countries women participate more in LLL-programs, the participation rate of men and women in Flanders is almost equal3. Younger adults participate significantly more than the 45-54 years old. This is understandable, because they are at the beginning of their career. Older employees have on the other hand a more vulnerable position in the labour market. And the tendency is that all employees should retire later and work longer. An investment in LLL for this target group is not an unnecessary luxury. As shown in figure 10, highly educated adults (level 5 and up) have a much higher participation level than the low and middle educated adults. Nevertheless, lowly educated adults have a weaker position on the fast changing labour market as argued before. One of the researchers of the VLOR-debate mentions in this context the Matthew effect: the adults who need adult education most are participating less. (VLOR, 2014) Participation rate by age 55-64

Participation rate by level of education

3,8

Levels 5-8

45-54

11,8

5,9

Levels 3-4

35-44

5,4

7,8

25-34

11,1

Levels 0-2

3,0

VRIND: Annual report on the Flemish regional indicators 2012: men: 6,2% -women: 6,9%; 2013: men: 6,6% - women: 6,8%; 2014: men: 6,7% - women: 7,6% (source: Eurostat) 3

Figure 9: Participation rate by age, Belgium, 2014 Figure 10: Participation rate by level of education4, (source: Eurostat) Belgium, 2015 (source: Eurostat)

Level 0-2: less than primary, primary and lower secondary education; level 3-4: upper secondary and post non-tertiary education; level 5-8: tertiary education.

1. National Frameworks for lifelong learning: towards flexible pathways and comprehensive education and training systems 1.1. Short introduction on the national culture as regards lifelong learning I.

Definition of LLL in Flanders

The European Commission defined lifelong learning as “All learning activity undertaken throughout life, with the aim of improving knowledge, skills and competencies within a personal, civic, social and/or employment-related perspective”. In brief, lifelong learning is ‘all learning’ that people acquire across their entire life spans in formal, non-formal or informal settings (EUCIS-LLL, 2014). Lifelong learning (LLL) in Flanders is defined as “a process in which people as well as organisations, in all contexts of their functioning, enhance the knowledge and competences needed to handle their professional, economic, social and cultural tasks in a better way in the fast developing society and in doing so, be able to be critical, meaningful, and responsible” (translated from * (CANON, n.d.)). Both definitions put the focus on the action/process as well as on the goal of the learning, which is the improvement of knowledge and skills to ameliorate the quality of life. Although Flanders follows the broad European definition of LLL, the experts of the expert panel5 observe a tendency in the Flemish policy to narrow LLL towards employability. Most of the experts are concerned about the shift to an instrumental interpretation of LLL. This tendency came up with the economic and financial crisis of 2008-2009 and the urge of the government to cut budget deficits. The experts notice that a lot of lifelong learning activities are not visible in the official statistics. As will be explained later, in Flanders, a lot of adult learning activities take place in socio-cultural organisations and this participation is not counted in the Eurostat statistics. Moreover, the Eurostat statistics are counting participation of 25-65 year old adults and is thus disregarding the growing interest of minus 25 year olds, while the reality is that more than 25% of the students in second chance programs in Flemish adult education institutions are younger than 25.

An expert panel on lifelong learning in the Flemish region of Belgium was organised by CVO Antwerpen on 11 May 2015, bringing together experts of all relevant sectors.

II.

Formal, non-formal and informal learning

In Flanders the sector of LLL is rather fragmented. The OECD defines formal learning as [learning that] “is always organised and structured, and has learning objectives. From the learner’s standpoint, it is always intentional: i.e. the learner’s explicit objective is to gain knowledge, skills and/or competences”6. Mostly, this kind of learning is certificated. In Flanders, formal learning is organised and financed by different ministries and departments. Formal adult education is subsidized and controlled by the Ministry of Education and takes place in Centres for Adult Education (CVOs) and Centres for Basis Education (CBEs). There are five levels distinguished (from one to five) from the European framework. The CBE organizes programs at level 0 to 2: Dutch, mathematics, social skills, ICT and Dutch as a second language. The CVOs have programs from level 3 to 5, including second chance learning, Dutch as a second language and (vocational) programs from level 3 to 5. These trainings lead to the achievement of an educational qualification: a certificate or a degree. In Flanders, non-formal learning partly takes place in the working environment, in CSO’s (Civil Society Organizations), but also through socio-cultural work. Vocational trainings and job related trainings are organized by different partners:  The public employment service (VDAB) offers vocational trainings for unemployed and employed people. This service is a Flemish government institution and is controlled by the Ministry of Work and Employment.  Another certified institution for vocational trainings is Syntra, the agency for Entrepreneurship and Training. This agency is authorized and controlled by the Ministry of Work and Employment as well.  A few years ago the Belgian social partners (trade unions and federations of employers) agreed to create funds to invest in trainings and programs to (re)enforce the competences of employees and unemployed people). These funds of the economic sectors are quite unique in Europe. The participation in this kind of programs is not visible in the official statistics and there is no official certification for acquired competences in these programs. Sometimes, these programs are organised in cooperation with formal adult education centres. In that case, participants can gain an official qualification. Trainings organized by the economic sectors are thus semi-formal in Flanders.  Other partners for vocational trainings are the so-called “third parties”: they are often associations funded by European subsidies and organising programs for special target groups, for instance migrants or long-term unemployed people. Flanders has a very long and rich tradition in socio-cultural work. Four different kinds of social and cultural work are financially supported by the Flemish government (Culture department), because of the Flemish Parliament Act of the 4th of April 2003 related to social and cultural work for adults (socius, n.d.). These four categories are associations, non-formal adult education centers, rural training institutions, and associations and movements of all kind. Flanders counts more than 50 socio-cultural associations, organizing activities in almost 13.000 local units all

Source: http://www.oecd.org/edu/skills-beyond-school/recognitionofnon-formalandinformallearning-home.htm

over the country7. Almost 1/5th of the Flemish population is member of one or another association. A lot of these associations and movements depend on the engagement of volunteers. Courses and activities, organised by socio-cultural organisations, do not lead to the achievement of official certificates. Socius8 is the coordinating organization for the socio-cultural sector and developed a methodology to validate competences gained in the socio-cultural sector, named OSCAR (see later). Informal learning is never organised, has no set objective in terms of learning outcomes and is never intentional from the learnerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s standpoint. Often it is referred to as learning by experience or just as experience. The idea is that the simple fact of existing constantly exposes the individual to learning situations, at work, at home or during leisure time for instance. (OECD) Concerning the recognition and validation of non-formal and informal learning, a difference is made between EVC (translated: elsewhere achieved competences) and EVK (translated: earlier achieved qualifications (in formal education9)) (further: EVC/EVK) in Flanders. All formal education institutions have rules on EVC/EVK, but a coordinating legislation is lacking. For some professions, there are assessment procedures for the validation non-formal learning and informal learning. These assessments are taking place in recognized assessment centres. The list of registered professions is however not extensive. Socius, the coordinating organization for the socio-cultural sector, developed a methodology to validate competences gained in the socio-cultural sector, named OSCAR. Oscar validates competences achieved in voluntary work, youth work, cultural organizationsâ&#x20AC;Ś The assessment and validation of competences takes place in recognized youth and student organizations and subsidized socio-cultural adult education centres. This excellent initiative is still quite unknown. The former Minister of Education prepared in 2014 a draft decree for an integrated policy on the validation of non-formal and informal learning. Until today, this draft has not been coordinated into a final decree. The new Minister of Education reaffirmed the intention to work on an integrated EVC-policy. (Crevits, 20142015) All experts in the expert panel agree that a lot of learning takes place in non-formal and informal learning and recognize that a lot of non- and informal learning is not visible in the official statistics. They acknowledge the importance of informal learning for human competency building. Unfortunately, the Belgian labour market and the HRM culture is not competency minded and is depending strongly on diplomas and certificates. This is particularly the case for official and government subsidized employment. One the one hand, the experts insist on the importance of formal recognition of non- and informal learning, but on the other hand, they feel hesitant about formalizing all learning.

Source: http://www.fov.be/. FOV is the federation of organisation active in the popular (non-formal) adult education scene in Flanders. 8 Source: http://www.socius.be/Ondertussen+in+Vlaanderen 9 E.g.: A student of HE can switch to a level 5 program in adult education. The student can receive exemptions for certain modules on the basis of achieved certificates in HE.

The experts of the adult education centres confirm they use all the opportunities to recognize and validate EVC/EVK when students enrol. But they notice there are contradictions and negative effects on the financing mechanism while doing so. Adult education centres are paid for participation and not for the recognized exemptions they give. Moreover, the assessment procedures for EVC/EVK cost a lot of time and money. While discussing the difference between formal and non-formal education institutions, the question of flexibility or lack of flexibility comes up. Formal education centres can give out official and recognized diplomas and certificates, but on the other hand, they lack flexibility to adjust programs according to the needs of students, employers… (Predefined regulations on participation, program lengths, content and fixed objectives…). The non-formal sector has more freedom to organize programs in a flexible way. All experts regret the fragmentation of the sector of LLL in Flanders. There is no agreement on the topic weather it should be better to put LLL under the supervision of one Ministry. But they all agree that more coordination is needed. Finally, the expert perceive the non-finalisation of the decree for an integrated policy on the validation of non-formal and informal learning as a missed chance. III.

Culture on LLL

As described before, in Flanders, a lot of value is given to official qualifications and degrees. Experienced people without a degree do not get a job very easily. Especially in the government sector, the classification of jobs usually depends on the level of degree. The general level of educational qualification of the population in Flanders increases. In 1999 low-skilled people represented 42.3% of the whole population of 25 to 64 year olds, in 2011 only 26.2% of this population is low skilled. This tendency can also be noticed in the working population. In 1999, one out of three employees were low skilled, while in 2011 no more than one out of five people belong to this group. It is very obvious that the percentage of low-skilled people in the total population is more that the percentage in the working class. This indicates a strong underrepresentation of the low skilled population in the paid labour (VDAB, 2013). And what is the attitude on LLL of policy makers and citizens? On the policy side, the experts notice a weakened attention for LLL and they plead for a more proactive policy. The Flemish government led a public opinion survey on the LLL topic between 2003 and 2007. 1500 Flemish citizens between the age of 18 and 85 participated in this survey. They were asked different questions over a period of six years. In 2001 the first series of questions was asked, then again in 2003 and the last session took place in 2007. Participants were asked to give their opinion on a few statements by checking boxes ranging from ‘I strongly agree’ to ‘I strongly disagree’. The first statements covered the attitude of Flemish adults towards lifelong learning. Over the years, it is clear that the attitude of the respondents remained stable concerning a few statements 11

like ‘Without permanent training and education we are doomed to drop out of our fast changing society’ and ‘The government should make sure everyone is able to acquire basic skills’. The third statement was ‘Everyone should be offered a chance to participate in training or extra course during his/her career without losing wage and social rights’. Almost 74% of the population agreed with the first statement in 2001 as well as in 2007. In 2001, more or less 86% of the respondents answered (strongly) agree to the second statement and in 2007 we notice a small increase with 1%. The third statement got more or less 84% in 2001, but over the years, it lost almost 6% (Vanweddingen, 2008) In 2001, one fifth of the population was not willing to take extra courses about their job, not during working hours anyway. In 2007, this percentage slightly increased to almost one fourth of the population. Positively stated, two third of the population is willing to participate in this kind of courses. Notice this share does not change much during the years (Vanweddingen, 2008). There are almost no differences in gender concerning their opinion on LLL. Until 2007, being employed or unemployed had no influence on the opinion of the population. People without a job give more importance to extracurricular courses than people with a job. No difference between part time or full time workers is noticed, but there is a slight difference according to the professional status of the respondent. Only 65% of self-employed people are interested in extra trainings. Level of education is a strong indicator of the given importance to LLL. People with a higher level of education are more likely to give importance to LLL. Age is also a strong indicator for the value given to LLL. More than 75% of the ‘older’ (55-85) people agree with the following statements: ‘Without permanent training and education we are doomed to drop out of our fast changing society’ and ‘Everyone should be offered a chance to participate in a training or extra course during his/her career without losing their wage and social rights’, probably because they experience what it’s like to live in this fast changing society. Young adults who are still in school or recently left school are not strongly agreeing with this statement: only 60% of the 18 to 25 year olds agreed (Vanweddingen, 2008). The study of the Flemish Government described above shows us that a lot of Flemish adults find LLL important (more or less 75%). A positive attitude towards lifelong learning can be noticed. In this survey, nobody was asked to make a ranking of the kind of knowledge or types of education form. 1.2. National strategy I.

Policy

If Flanders aims to be an innovative, sustainable and caring society in 2020, it will have to produce better results in a lot of areas. These objectives have been laid down in the Pact 2020 by the Government of Flanders and all the major social partners. Pact 2020 consists of twenty ambitious objectives with a clear delineation of the target figures. With this Future Pact, the signatories want to book progress within five principal domains:  greater prosperity and welfare;  a competitive and sustainable economy;  more workers gainfully employed, in more suitable jobs, and for longer average career terms;  a high quality standard of living; 12

 an efficient and effective administration. Each year, the Government of Flanders monitors whether we are on schedule in achieving the objectives of the Pact 202010. One of the objectives monitored on a yearly basis is the participation rate for LLL. The objective of the Pact of Flanders is a participation rate of 15%. In more general terms of education and learning, the Pact 2020 formulates the ambition that “in 2020, Flanders has grown into a learning society. The number of lowly educated citizens has been cut in half. Within higher education, the participation rate is rising, irrespective of the student’s origin, the employment situation or the education level of the parent”11. In the Pact 2020, the objectives of earlier agreements with the mayor social partners, the so called “Competentieagenda12” of 2010 are reinforced:  facilitate LLL and stimulate personal development planning for all employees  recognition of EVC  competency development The recognition and validation of non-formal and informal learning is thus one of the priorities of the Pact 2020. But as we mentioned before, the planned decree on an integrated policy on the validation of nonformal and informal learning is set on hold and there are only a few assessment centres recognizing competencies for a limited amount of professions. II.

Incentives

In Flanders, there are several incentives for LLL. Most of the incentives are only for formal learning activities in adult education centres and non-formal learning in the public employment office (VDAB) and the centres of entrepreneurship (Syntra). Students in non-formal learning courses in socio-cultural centres cannot benefit from these incentives. Financial incentives See below under ‘3.3. Funding’. Time cost incentives Employees working in the private sector can benefit from a system called “betaald educatief verlof” (payed leave for educational purposes). This leave system allows working adults to spend some working time for their studies or further training courses. The programs qualified for educational leave are fixed by the government. Employers cannot refuse to approve an educational leave if all conditions are fulfilled. The leave hours are only for face to face learning. Adult in blended learning programs or distance education cannot fully benefit from this system.

http://www.vlaandereninactie.be/en/about and http://www.vlaandereninactie.be/en/about/pact-2020 http://www.vlaandereninactie.be/en/about/labour-market 12 Translated: Agenda on competencies. This “agenda” contains 10 priorities, including: more opportunities for dual learning, reinforcement of the policy on recognition of EVC, support to the development of competency policies in companies and organisations. 11

In 2013 research was conducted on the experience and satisfaction of students in formal adult education centres. The Ministry of Education wanted to know how well students are informed about the incentives. A lot of students declared they weren’t aware of the potential reductions and of the exemptions. The system of educational fee was the best known. (De Pryck, Zhu, Van Laer, Kupriyanova, & Cools, 2013) One of the experts of the Flemish Education Council cites a research on “Policy instruments to foster training of the employed” (EIM/SEOR, 2005). As shown in the next table, Flanders is at the top of the EU15-countries in relation to LLL incentives for employees. The author is questioning whether all these incentives are efficient, effective and if they are reaching the purposed goals. According to the author, a part of the students would participate in LLL anyhow, even without the financial incentives.(VLOR, 2014) This conclusion is confirmed in the research on the experiences of the students in adult education (De Pryck, Zhu, Van Laer, Kupriyanova, & Cools, 2013).

In the expert panel, most experts agreed that Flanders has enough incentives to promote LLL, although not all of these incentives are well known. To the experts’ opinion, there is no need for new incentives, but some of them must be fine-tuned to special and less participating target groups such as migrants, low educated people, etc. The most important purpose of incentives is taking away participation barriers. The most important barriers to participate are not necessarily financial. The experts argue that the time aspect is probably even more 14

decisive than the financial aspects. They promote the idea of a sort of “lifelong learning time credit”, that can be freely used during their career. III.

Links with other policies

During the last 15 years, the government of Flanders initiated several initiatives to engineer the synchronisation of formal, non-formal and informal learning. The first example are the Edufora (2000-2003). The Edufora were sub-regional consultative bodies that gather several adult education organisations. In the Edufora the following sectors were participating:  the public employment service (VDAB)  the centres for entrepreneurship training (Syntra)  the formal education centres  socio-cultural work The goals of the Edufora were to analyse the regional educational needs and to coordinate the supply. Since 2003 the Edufora project was implemented in DIVA. DIVA (2003-2008) was a service for education and tuned education with other fields. It was the fruit of a cooperation between different authorities such as several ministries and was instructed to make a coherent and complementary education-policy in Flanders following the philosophy of lifelong learning. DIVA tried to synchronize different forms of learning. DIVA was dissolved in 2008. In 2009, 13 regional consortia for adult education were installed (2009-2014). The goals of the consortia were similar to these of the Edufora, although only official centres of adult education participated. The mission of the consortia was to analyse regional educational needs and to stimulate cooperation with other actors in the field of LLL. The consortia were cancelled in 2014. All these initiatives make clear that policy makers are aware of the necessity of cooperation across the different domains. Unfortunately, all these initiatives were stopped after a few years. During the expert panel, some experts refer to above mentioned initiatives and regret that the subsidies for these initiatives were stopped in an early stage, before reaching sustainable results. The experts argue that LLL should be incorporated in every policy domain and not only in education, employment and culture. The different subsidy mechanisms impede sometimes collaboration between different organizations. The experts plead for a shared holistic vision on LLL for all sectors. 1.3. Implementation of the EU frameworks Since 2000, the European Union has taken initiatives to enhance cooperation, mobility and transparency in the educational field between the different states. By doing this, member states are given support, although they remain responsible for education policies in their own country (AKOV, 2014). In the 21st century, Europe is facing changing challenges in economy and society, because of globalization and other developments. The European Council, gathered in Lisbon, proclaimed to be striving to “becoming the most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economy in the world, capable of sustainable economic growth with more and better jobs and greater social cohesion” (AKOV, 2014). This urges for another type of education and training in the European Union. The Lisbon European Council decided to put emphasis on increasing the transparency of qualifications in order to meet the demands of 15

the modern knowledge-based society. This is done by stimulating lifelong learning and enlarging the possibilities of mobility for students and employees between the member states. Also, to contribute to the objectives, vocational education and training was the subject of European cooperation. This led to the Copenhagen Declaration (AKOV, 2014). Both the Lisbon Strategy and the Copenhagen Process resulted in the development of a European Qualifications Framework (EQF). In the fields of vocational and higher education, several sub frameworks and subsystems were developed:  European Quality Assurance Reference Framework (EQARF, nowadays: EQAVET)  European Credit System for Vocational Education and Training (ECVET)  The European Higher Education Area (EHEA) (as a result of the Bologna Declaration). The European Qualifications Framework is meant to be a reference for and to connect the National Qualifications Frameworks (NQF) that different member states are developing. It facilitates the comparison of qualifications, which helps mobility, t h e description of skills, the development of knowledge and competences and t h e validation of non-formal and informal learning (AKOV, 2014). Belgium is one of the countries participating in the EQF. Of the three communities in Belgium (French speaking, German speaking and Dutch speaking), the Flemish community was the first to have an approved NQF. The other communities are currently in the process of development. There will be no common reference report, but a Royal decree makes sure there is consistency and alignment between the educational levels of the three communities. Also it ensures a match between the three NQFs and the EQF (AKOV, 2014). To be more precise, from now on, in the case of Flanders, we will speak of the Flemish Qualifications Framework (FQF) instead of a NQF.

Flemish Qualifications Framework (FQF)

Because the development of the FQF took place in the same period as the EQF, there is great similarity between the two systems. As in the EQF, the FQF is divided into 8 levels, corresponding to level 1 to 8 of education. For each level, there are indicators of the qualifications that have to be met in order to obtain a certain level. Other similarities are the use of learning outcomes and the use of elements of knowledge, skills, autonomy and responsibility. The FQF, moreover, offers a more detailed description of the levels and is more individual-orientated. This results in higher requirements for each level. The overall conclusion is that the FQF and the EQF are well aligned in the description of the levels. Also the process by which the development took place meets the 10 criteria that the EQF considers important. The Flemish government approved the FQF and the implementation is now undertaken (AKOV, 2014). In Flanders, there was great need to improve the connection between education and training on one hand and the labour market on the other. Two ministries, Education and Training, and Work and Social Economy, joined their forces in order to build “a learning and working Flanders without exclusion”. Following the Lisbon Strategy, Flanders developed its own plan called “Flanders in Action”. Flanders wants to be a top 5 economic region in Europe by 2020. In the plan, seven key areas are described; one of them is lifelong learning. The implementation of the plan is made tangible in the Pact 2020, which is signed by the government, social partners and civil society organizations (AKOV, 2014). 16

II.

EPOS

EPOS is responsible for the implementation of the European guidelines regarding education. EPOS is the Flemish national agency for the Erasmus+ programme, education and training. EPOS works together with three other parties: the Ministry of Education and Training, the Flemish public employment and vocational training service VDAB, and Syntra Flanders (EPOS).

III.

Lifelong Learning

It is important to have proof of valued acquired competences (prior learning). As mentioned before, this is confirmed in Flanders in Action Pact 2020. These competences can be acquired through education or through jobs, voluntary work or other experiences. The European Council proposes a Key Competence Framework to ensure that everyone possesses key competences. The Council has made recommendations on which key competences should be included in lifelong learning and how to acquire them. The 8 key competences are: 1. Communication in the mother tongue, 2. Communication in foreign languages, 3. Mathematical competence and basic competences in science and technology, 4. Digital competence , 5. Learning to learn, 6. Social and civic competences, 7. Sense of initiative and entrepreneurship 8. Cultural awareness and expression The Key Competence Framework aims at offering all young people, including the disadvantaged, the means to develop key competences which prepares them for future life, including work. All adults, including the vulnerable ones, should be able to develop and update key competences throughout their lives. Infrastructure, accessibility and support are important in this (EUR-lex). In Flanders, there seems to be emphasis on the acquisition of key competences within the formal education. Tools are being developed for ensuring developing and validating key competences for adults in non-formal and informal settings.

IV.

Acquisition of prior learning in Flanders

The Flemish Qualification Framework makes a distinction between professional qualifications and educational qualifications. Professional qualifications can be acquired through education, training or practical experiences. These qualifications are different per profession. Educational qualifications are only awarded by educational institutions. These qualifications are a complete and aligned set of skills necessary to function in society and to be able to follow studies in secondary or higher education (Vlaams overheid). AKOV, the Agency for Quality Assurance in Education and Training, coordinates the process of the acquisition of the professional and educational qualifications. AKOV is responsible for the quality assurance of the Flemish Qualifications Framework (Vlaamse overheid). The process of the acquisition of competencies consists of three steps: identification, evaluation and validation of acquired skills. In the phase of identification, a person must be able to identify his or her skills 17

and make them visible, through documents that prove these skills. The next step is to see if the competences are in line with the ones described in the Flemish Qualifications Framework. For this, an assessment centre or an institution looks at the documents, like a portfolio or exam, and decides if this is the case. In the last phase, a qualification certificate is issued, which can be used to access the labour market or to access further learning pathways (Vlaamse overheid).

Conclusion

Flanders took initiatives to make sure the European guidelines are implemented. The FQF and the EQF are well aligned and the Flemish framework meets the 10 criteria Europe has set. The implementation is now undertaken. Also, although Flanders puts emphasis on the acquisition of competences in formal education, public policy starts to focus more on non-formal and informal settings.

2. Lifelong learning actors: taking the jump towards learner centred systems See annex 1: interviews See annex 2: good practices See annex 3: life stories 2.1. Educators, teachers, school heads, inspectors, guidance professionals… Here, the question of impact on different educational actors by the policies in and around the educational institutions is raised. Are these actors aware of the European policy in terms of lifelong learning? What are the obstacles in the implementation of the above-mentioned frameworks and initiatives? And how to overcome these? How flexible are the systems?

Participation in EU policy making in education and training

It is clear there is a gap between teachers and school heads/policy makers when it comes to being aware of EU cooperation in education and training. Teachers feel they are being informed by their organization but mainly on European projects that their organization is involved in. “In our school we are being informed about several projects but a lot of teachers don’t know anything about EU policy making.”

But this does not seem to bother them much as they consider this to be the task of the policy makers within their organization. “If we would like to be more involved in EU debates on lifelong learning, we would try to contact our board, who communicates with governments (Flemish or EU).”

However, when it comes to being more involved in EU debates on lifelong learning, policy makers such as coordinators of specific educational programs and (vice) directors were mostly unable to identify the added value of doing so. They feel this is partially due to the lack of appropriate information and partially due to the fact they believe there are other bodies more qualified to do so. “I would like to be involved but I do not know whether it is necessary for me. Maybe I’m not subscribed to the right news channels?”

II.

Participation in national policy making in education and training

Teachers and policy makers realise it is important to stay informed on national policy debates in the field of lifelong learning but admit it is challenging to be properly informed when being fully occupied with other 19

professional activities. Participation in national policy making is being achieved by participation in cross sectoral meetings and different advice committees such as the Lifelong Learning committee where problems are being detected and discussed upon and where recommendations towards the government are being developed. “When you are fully occupied with your job, it is difficult to follow these debates.”

2.2. Lifelong learners Between 2004 and 2009, the drop-out rate in secondary education in Flanders had been quite stable (between 11 and 12%), but in 2009, it increased up to 14,5%. In 2006, 1 out of 10 girls and 1 out of 5 boys left secondary education before achieving their diploma. When looking at research, one of the main reasons for dropping out of secondary education is the socialeconomic background of students. For example, the higher degree of drop-outs in secondary education amongst immigrants in Flanders (especially amongst female immigrants) can mainly be explained by the socio-economic background of these students. Drop-outs can later on in life decide to achieve their diploma by registering for one of the following educational pathways:

1) The exam commission of the Flemish Community: students study at home and chose when they wish to take an exam. Exams are organised all year round. 2) A second chance to learn is offered by adult education providers: they offer adults (from the age of 18 upwards) the opportunity to obtain a diploma secondary education. In 2013, approximately 3.000 students enlisted for the Exam Commission of the Flemish Community. This resulted in 678 diplomas of secondary education. Most of the students were still very young, since the average age of the students was 20 years old. 30% of the students left secondary school less than a year ago, 48% left secondary school more than one year ago. Only 1% had never followed full-time secondary education. When having to motivate their registration at the Exam Commission, 21% said they were tired of going to school and decided to drop-out. (Source: yearly report 2013 Exam Commission) More and more students try to achieve their diploma of secondary education in second chance to learn programs offered by adult education providers. In 5 years’ time, the number of students doubled reaching a total number of 8.167 in the school year 2013-2014 whereas in 2008-2009 they were only 4.006. Experts participating in the expert debate (see above) believe that there are sufficient provisions for disadvantaged groups in the Flemish region of Belgium. Nevertheless, there is a growing need for:

•

flexible custom-made programs and initiatives for activation

•

more practice-based programs, in-service training, dual learning programs

•

activation of learning in social services, health services, employment services…

•

a reform of existing incentives for learners: potential learners should be motivated by the fact they will get time to learn. 20

2.3. Employers A training profile is the set of objectives, specific final objectives and basic competences for which a program trains students. A training profile includes the minimum number of teaching periods and the number of modules within a program. The final objectives, specific final objectives and basic competences in it are distributed among the modules. For several years now, new training profiles for the adult education sector are developed by the consortium of education and counselling services from the 4 educational networks (GO! onderwijs van de Vlaamse Gemeenschap, OVSG, POV and VDKVO) and Vlaams Ondersteuningscentrum voor het Volwassenenonderwijs (VOCVO, www.vocvo.be). Such a profile is always based on a framework of reference such as a professional competences profile (developed by Serv, http://www.serv.be/competentieteam/), the European reference framework for foreign languages, a study profile or a different framework of reference. This makes it possible to tailor training to broad social trends. Important here is the fact that these professional competence profiles are being developed together with social partners experts, employers, employees, the different sectors. This makes trainings more attuned to the needs of the labour market resulting in the fact there is a more efficient flow from educational programs towards the labour market. 2.4. Learning strategies Hilde Crevits, the current Flemish minister for Education, has specifically mentioned the importance of entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial attitudes in her policy document for 2014-2019. Together with her colleagues responsible for Work, Economy and Social Economy she will develop an action plan for stimulating entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial attitudes through education. Kenniscentrum Ondernemersvorming (Competento) is an initiative of the Flemish government and elaborated by the Flemish Agency for Entrepreneurial training - SYNTRA Flanders. Kenniscentrum Ondernemersvorming contributes to a more entrepreneurial society. Competento supports actions aimed at stimulating entrepreneurial skills, for instance by bringing together existing initiatives for training and education providers on their website to counter the fragmentation among the large offer on 'learning entrepreneurshipâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;. Through education, Competento tries to bring students and learners in touch with entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial attitudes in the broadest sense of the word. (www.competento.be) Based on what experts had to say in the expert panel, the following obstacles for a learner centred orientation in the Flemish region of Belgium can be detected: 1) Legislation and financing mechanisms in adult education: adult education providers are being financed based on the amount of learners whereas a more qualitative financing mechanism based on learning results and effects would enable more flexible programs for learners and the development of custom-made programs in cooperation with economic sectors. 2) Learning programs in non-formal socio-cultural organisations can be organised in a flexible and learning centred manner but competences acquired in these programs are not fully recognized by formal educational organisations due to an inadequate EVC/EVQ policy in the Flemish region of Belgium. In addition, there is a general human resource culture depending on formal diplomas and certificates, making it difficult for some qualified learners to enter the labour market. It would therefore be advisable to develop a national and European framework allowing nonformally acquired competences to be recognized and validated, both by formal educational institutions and employers. 21

“Lulieta quit secondary school at 18, six months before she would get her degree because of a private situation. She always worked as a secretary in different companies. During her years at work she noticed that she did not get the same opportunity to follow extra trainings like for example languages. She felt insecure and had the feeling she always had to prove herself more because she did not have the right piece of paper. She also got paid less than others while she was doing the same job. She thinks employers should pay more attention to the training of their employees.”

3. Lifelong learning communities: partnerships and shared responsibility 3.1. Partnerships Vlor (www.vlor.be) is the strategic board for the policy domain Education and Training. Within this Board, educational, inter-professional and sectoral social partners from the different economic sectors debate on the link between education and the labour market. One of the sub-boards of the Vlor is the Board for lifelong and life-broad learning. This Board is one of the main bodies for inter-professional exchanges and policy advice in terms of lifelong learning in the Dutch region of Belgium. http://www.vlor.be/category/raad/raad-levenslang-en-levensbreed-leren In practice, there are some initiatives worth mentioning in terms of partnerships between education and the labour market. 



Collaboration between bpost and adult education providers in the Dutch and French speaking regions of Belgium. Bpost is the Belgian company responsible for the delivery of national and international mail and one of the largest civilian employers in Belgium. The employees of Bpost who do not have a secondary education diploma get the opportunity to achieve this diploma in a centre for adult education by going through the second chance to learn program. Since these learners have to work throughout the week, most of the learning program is offered in distant learning. They only come a couple of Saturdays to school. This movie proves it is an effective way of lifelong learning in practice: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fpjiPRLxGQw. Trajectory towards the labour market for illiterate non-native speakers. It is the fruit of a collaboration between VDAB Mechelen, centre for basic education Mechelen, Levanto, Prisma and Karel De Grote University College. Because trajectories often take 2 to 3 years, a lot of illiterate nonnative speakers drop-out of language courses. It then takes them a couple of more years before graduating from a course leading towards work. The above mentioned partners therefore developed a model trajectory which enables these learners to go through both courses in 1,5 years. Students studied Dutch for 8 months (24 to 28 hours/week). This trajectory was linked with an internship and career counselling. Students’ language competences were sometimes still limited but, at the end, they acquired enough competences and were ready for the labour market. 22

In general, cooperation and partnerships in terms of lifelong learning do exist in Flanders, but are hindered by the subsidies policy and the fragmentation of legislative rules over different departments (Education – Culture – Employment), resulting in a certain degree of fragmentation in the lifelong sector in Flanders. Best practices are therefore often bottom-up initiatives based on the current regional needs. One solution for this issue was proposed during the LLL-HUB Forum, namely colocation where several lifelong learning actors are located in a single location. Based on the case studies the following barriers/challenges to improve the dialogue between actors in the field and public authorities were identified: 

A lack of long-term vision on lifelong learning:

“The short-term legislations are also a barrier. This leads to them thinking only about a short-term period instead of focusing on a long-term period.”



Financial aspects

“Only 3% of the education budget is allocated to adult education, so the means to work with are not that high. The challenge is to reach as many objectives with as little money as possible.”



The complementarity between non-formal learning, informal learning and formal education in the learning process is not recognized enough. A common strategy for lifelong and life-wide learning is therefore missing. There is a need for a more social point of view instead of the limited labour market vision.

“When we abandon the short-term view and if we give each other space for realizing educational and social tasks, the partnership will pay dividends on a long-term view as well on the economic level as on the individual and social level.”



Lack of flexibility:

“We should organise education based on the needs of the learners in order to ensure that they do not only start their education but also graduate from it.”

3.2. Raising awareness on lifelong learning There have been several initiatives in Flanders on lifelong learning and building partnerships but all of them disappeared too quickly. The Lifelong Learning Week used to be a well-known event to promote lifelong learning towards its different target groups, but unfortunately it got annulled. There are some regional initiatives to promote lifelong learning such as recently: •

Workshop ‘Adult education and lifelong learning. A powerful synergy’, organized by the Vlor (see above): on the 4th of February 2015, 160 participants met in Gent for a workshop on stimulating learning for adults. The focus thereby was the role of adult education from a network perspective and collaboration with all relevant stakeholders. Participants could listen to some inspiring testimonials and reflect on policy recommendations during workshops. http://www.vlor.be/verslag/het-volwassenenonderwijs-en-levenslang-leren-een-krachtige23

•

synergie Network days for all regional lifelong learning stakeholders, organized by RESOC Zuid-WestVlaanderen. http://www.vocvo.be/content/tweede-contactdag-levenslang-leren-op-7-december

The main research institute concerning lifelong learning in Flanders is ‘HIVA’ (Onderzoeksinstituut voor Arbeid en Samenleving), a multidisciplinary research institute of the University of Leuven (KU Leuven). HIVA performs scientific, policy-aimed research that can respond to topical policy questions. Education and lifelong learning has been one of the spearheads of its research activities since its foundation. Focus is on the problem of social inequality and disadvantaged groups such as low-skilled people and people with a migration background. Thematically, its multidisciplinary research tackles the pre-school period until the transition between education and employment, the transition to higher education, the participation in and the efficiency of lifelong and life-wide learning, cultural education, socio- cultural work, education and globalization and education in developing countries. Their clients range from local governments to foreign governments and international organizations. http://hiva.kuleuven.be/nl/onderzoek/og-onderwijs-en-levenslang-leren 3.3. Funding The entrance fee for adult education is established by the government. In January 2015 the fee was raised to 1.5 euro/hour. The maximum fee/year is 600 euro. There are a few exemptions/reductions:  For the programs regarding learning Dutch as a second language, there is a reduced registration fee of 50 eurocents per hour lesson.  Special target groups, such as disabled people, unemployed people, migrants in an integration training, prisoners… are fully or partly exempted from paying entree fees.  There is a bonus for those who participate in a program to get their diploma in secondary education through adult education.  If a person is entitled to get child allowance, they will be able to keep this if they are enrolled in a programme with at least 18 hours of college or internship a week.  Low educated people, following courses in a centre for basic education, don’t pay any fee and get a reduction if they continue their training in another centre for adult education. Education cheques can be used to recuperate a part of the entrance fee and other costs, such as handbooks, materials… This incentive can only be applied when the students follow a course that leads to work, and not when following a creative course. Over the last years, the rules for education cheques became stricter (only for courses leading to work, restrictions for high educated students). The education cheques are only for employees. https://www.vdab.be/opleidingscheques/werknemers.shtml

4. Policy recommendations to improve the implementation of lifelong learning Concerning the policy recommendations, the experts refer to the study of the Flemish Education Council (VLOR13 ). In 2014 the VLOR consulted different experts to reopen the debate on LLL and to explore strategic topics on LLL for the next decades. The main question was: “How can the goal of the full participation of the adults be achieved in the present complex, high-tech and fast changing society that is setting high expectations for people and their functioning?” In their platform text the groups of experts analyzes challenges for LLL in Flanders, formulates 15 key issues and several recommendations for policy makers and other LLL stakeholders. (VLOR, 2014) The key issues are formulated as recommendations for the adult learners, small and big institutions, companies, policy makers and all social and cultural partners active on the field. Most of these topics were discussed during the expert panel. 1

Elaborate a broad, holistic and shared vision on learning

As mentioned before, the discourse on LLL is becoming more and more instrumental and focused on job related competencies. The experts hold a plea for a right of lifelong learning with a life wide dimension that transcend narrow economic and vocational aspects. According to the experts, it is important that all policy decisions should be tested against this principle. 2

Work on a global strategy beyond the boundaries of policy domains

It is explained earlier that in Flanders, the sector of LLL is fragmented. The experts hold a plea for a stronger coordination and cooperation between the departments of Education, Culture and Employment. According to the experts, Flanders needs a broad and shared vision on learning (see before) and this vision should be the fundament for long-range plans of departments and organisations. For now, the LLL-policy is based on a short-term vision and short-term actions. 3

Target on the effect of learning

The European and Flemish goals on LLL are focused on participation rates. Of course, participation rates are appropriate for benchmarking purposes, but don’t express the effects of learning, such as learning gains, empowerment, well-being, career opportunities, social inclusion… While focusing on participation rates, the effects of informal learning are ignored. Especially for low educated people, learning in informal situations is crucial. The experts accentuate the importance of visualising all types of learning. At this moment, funding concepts and instruments are lacking. More research has to be done on this topic.

The Flemish Education Council, in Dutch: de “Vlaamse Onderwijsraad” (Vlor), is the official advisory body on the education and training policy of the Flemish Community. Representatives of all the different stakeholders in education and training meet in the VLOR. Together they look for ways to further improve education and training in Flanders. 25

Link mandatory continuing education and autonomy

Can unemployed people, illiterate people, new migrants or refugees be forced to enrol in trainings? In Flanders, mandatory continuing education is a controversial topic in the debate of LLL. Believers argue that mandatory continuing education leads to the participation of groups of people who elsewise would never participate. Opponents reply that mandatory learning cannot be effective. Nevertheless, the reality is that some groups are obliged to follow courses in Flanders. According to the experts, it is important to link mandatory continuing education to the autonomy of the learner. They argue that it is important that for the learners to be able to take initiatives and to negotiate their own learning conditions. 5

Stimulate networks, partnerships and cooperation

During the last 15 years, the government of Flanders initiated several initiatives to engineer the synchronisation of formal, non-formal and informal learning. All these initiatives were stopped in an early stage. According to the experts, it is important to create ONE identity for adult education, where adult education centres, vocational training centres and the socio-cultural sector are equal partners. Despite the difficulties experienced in the past, the government must keep on stimulating cooperation and collaboration on a regional scale. The experts believe that a bottom-up approach should give the best results. Regional networks (=LLL-Labs) should not only include existing LLL initiatives, but should also include other organisations and networks for special target groups such as migrants, underprivileged people, social services… There have been several initiatives in Flanders on lifelong learning and building partnerships but all of them disappeared too quickly. There is hence a growing need for: • • • •

a new vision on what ‘learning’ in Flanders could and should mean in the future, based on a profound analysis of what kind of learners our society needs a sustainable communication plan on lifelong learning a focus on lifelong learning in every policy department (employment, social welfare, education …) more learning advisory services for adults such as  Leerwinkel, a free service for adults looking for information or individual/group counselling when selecting a training or course or dealing with possible barriers before registering for a course such as financial barriers, mobility, language issues etc.  http://www.blijvenleren.be/: online and interactive tool where potential learners can get in touch with most of the training providers in the region. They select the course they are looking for and their request is being forwarded to all the fit training providers.

According to the experts, special attention should be payed to colocation of educational infrastructures and government infrastructures. Colocation will stimulate cooperation and can result in LLL-campuses, where different sectors and different generations can learn together.

Provide information, guidance and learning support

In Flanders, there is a lot of educational supply and the information on this supply is overwhelming. Especially for low educated people or migrants, it is very difficult to find their way in the adult education landscape. The experts emphasize the importance of independent information offices, where questions on learning can be guided and supported. In addition, social workers, counsellors in other sectors, librarians and family doctors should be informed very well on the learning opportunities for each target group and should be trained in detecting learning needs. 7

Foster a positive learning climate

A positive learning climate is indispensable for high participation rates in LLL. Nevertheless, adults are facing sometimes a lot of obstacles before entering adult education. The experts list 3 important elements for a positive learning climate: ď&#x201A;ˇ Research has shown that self-regulation, self-efficacy and self-reflection are important attributes for successful learning. These competences should be fostered in compulsory education and higher education. ď&#x201A;ˇ Adults with negative experiences in compulsory education hardly participate in LLL. Consequently, it is important to invest in positive learning experiences in compulsory education. The drop-out of students should be prevented. Instead of speaking of failure, the focus should have to be on the gained competencies of pupils. ď&#x201A;ˇ Finally, a positive learning climate is the concern of the whole society. 8

Focus on effective financial and time-investing incentives

As we explained before, Flanders knows a lot of incentives of all kind. The existing incentives are very complex or badly known. Research shows that time is the most important hindrance to participate in LLL, before the financial aspect. The experts plead for a more transparent system of incentives. 9

Foster a learning leadership style

Research points out that the style of leadership is predominant in labour organisations. A learning leadership style can foster a positive learning climate in workplaces and the experts believe this can give a boost to LLL on the work floor.

10 Promote flexible learning and differentiation in learning The population in adult education is very diverse and participants have a very different learning history. Therefore, flexibility and differentiation is very important. Due to its flexible access and learning mode, blended and online learning (OBL) is becoming more and more popular in adult education in Flanders. The experts advise to promote and reinforce online and blended learning. 11 Value and validate all kinds of learning According to the experts, flexibility and differentiation are closely related to the recognition of non-formal and informal learning. The experts are positive about the policy interest on this topic and the explicit attention for the recognition of elsewhere-acquired competencies. 27

The experts believe that the adultsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; abilities to estimate their own competencies are very helpful for the selfesteem of adults. On the other side, the experts deplore that the official and government subsidized employment depends strongly on diplomas and certificates. Since 2012, it is possible to candidate for vacant places in the Flemish administration on the basis of recognized portfolios, but the procedures are very complicated and thus rarely exploited.

12 Improve and stimulate workplace learning The learning opportunities in the workplace differ a lot according to the job sector. Nevertheless, the reality is that employees have to work longer and have to be motivated to keep on learning. According to the experts, job quality and learning opportunities in workplaces are very important to reach this goal. If learning and working are going hand in hand the stimuli to learn will be stronger. 13 Professionalize the educators In Flanders, there are no specific trainings for adult educators. Nevertheless, it is important that adult educators can create powerful learning environments for adult learners. The experts gave the advice to offer specialisations on adult education in teacher trainings. They plead for specific in-service and in-house trainings in adult education. In addition, they advise to consult the opinion of adult learners in creating professionalization programs for adult education. 14 Foster evidence based policy In Flanders, research on adult education and LLL is limited. Policy decisions on LLL are hardly based on scientific evidence. The experts gave the advice to stimulate research on adult education and LLL. 15 Promote and monitor the quality of adult education and LLL Finally, the experts recommend a coordinated quality framework for the sector of LLL (non-formal and formal education). This quality system should focus on the effects of LLL: the learning effects for participants, but also the personal effects and the effects on the whole society. This quality framework should be developed in cooperation with other European institutions.

5. References AKOV. (2014). Referencing the Flemish Qualifications Framework to the European Qualifications Framework. Brussels: Agency for Qualification Assurance in Education and Training. Boeren, E., & Nicaise, I. (2012). Benchmark participatie volwasseneneducatie: Adult Education Survey en Labour Force Survey. Steunpunt Studie en Schoolloopbanen. CANON. (n.d.). Vernieuwende impulsen voor een oude wijsheid. Opgehaald van http://www.canonsociaalwerk.eu/be_scw/details.php?Cps=11 Crevits, H. (2014-2015). Beleidsnota 2014-2019. Brussel: VLaamse regering. De Pryck, K., Zhu, C., Van Laer, H., Kupriyanova, V., & Cools, W. (2013). Deelnemen aan het volwassenenonderwijs in Vlaanderen vanuit de ervaring van de cursist. Brussel. Desmedt, E., Groenez, S., & Van den Broeck, G. (2006). Onderzoek naar systeemkenmerken die de participatie aan levenslang leren in de EU-15 beïnvloeden. Leuven: HIVA. EIM/SEOR. (2005). Policy instruments to foster training of the employed. Zoetemeer/Rotterdam: EIM. EPOS. (sd). Opgeroepen op November 15, 2014, van EPOS: www.epos-vlaanderen.be EUR-lex. (sd). Opgeroepen op November 15, 2014, van EUR-lex: http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legalcontent/EN/TXT/?Qid=1415540738694&uri=URISERV:c11090 OECD. (2013). OECD Skills Outlook 2013: First Results from the Survey of Adult Skills. OECD Publishing. OECD. (sd). Recognition of Non-formal and Informal Learning. Opgehaald van http://www.oecd.org/edu/skills-beyond-school/recognitionofnon-formalandinformallearninghome.htm UGent, Department of Educational Studies. (2013). Vaardig genoeg voor de 21ste eeuw? Overzicht van de eerste Vlaamse resultaten bij PIAAC. Gent: UGent, Department of Educational Studies. Vanweddingen, N. (2008). Leren een leven lang in Vlaanderen? Brussel: Drukkerij Hendrickx NV. Vlaams overheid. (sd). Opbouw en structuur. Opgeroepen op November 15, 2014, van http://www.ond.vlaanderen.be/kwalificatiestructuur/vlaamse-kwalificatiestructuur/opbouw-enstructuur/ Vlaamse overheid. (sd). Naar een geïntegreerd EVC-beleid. Discussienota. Opgeroepen op September 8, 2015, van http://www.fov.be/IMG/pdf/Discussienota_EVC.pdf Vlaamse overheid. (sd). Rol van AKOV. Opgeroepen op November 2015, 2014, van http://www.ond.vlaanderen.be/kwalificatiestructuur/procedure-vlaamse-kwalificatiestructuur/rolvan-akov.htm VLOR. (2014). Blijven leren: de toekomst! Volwassenen stimuleren om te leren. Leuven: ACCO. VRIND. (2014). VRIND 2014, Vlaams regionale indicatoren. Brussel: Studiedienst Vlaamse Regering.

6. Annex 1: Interviews Interview 1: Busra Name (individual or organisation) Busra

Sector of activity Student in CVO, Dutch

Country Belgium

1. About lifelong learning How do you understand lifelong learning? She has never heard of the term ‘lifelong learning’, at least not in Dutch or English, maybe in French, but the interviewer could not translate the term in French. She might have read it somewhere but she does not remember

Do you consider your organisation as a lifelong learning organisation? CVO does consider LLL as a priority. Busra states that the students taking courses in CVO Antwerpen are very divers and differ a lot in age, where they come from, …

2. About participation in EU policy-making in education and training What do you know about EU cooperation in education and training? /

Do you feel EU institutions take your interests into account? /

Would you like to get more involved in EU debates? /

Would you be interested in participating in national/regional consultation LLL Forums that would allow you to express your views on EU cooperation in education and training? / 3. About participation in national policy-making in education and training Are you following national policy debates in the field of lifelong learning / education and training? She does not know a lot about lifelong learning, but she tries to follow the news. She knows that policy makers are trying to change the policy and make it more inclusive, so people with a handicap could go to ‘regular’ schools as well.

Do you consider that lifelong learning is a priority in your country? Yes, she notices that people in Belgium tend to study for a very long time. She made a comparison with Maroc and she says over there, age does matter. You finish secondary education, start higher education and start to work, everything as soon as possible. If you want to take a break between graduating high school and starting university and college, in Morocco it is very hard to start later. She states that in Belgium, we get a lot of opportunities to start learning, even when you are older. She says ‘In here, age does not matter as long as you have your degree of secondary education’. But the things she states here is only about formal information.

Should lifelong learning be a priority in your country? Busra states that she herself loves to learn and discover new things and that she hopes she never stops learning. ‘Learning is the solution of everything’ is a quote from the interview. She thinks the government could invest more in LLL or education in general.

Are you/is your organisation consulted by public authorities when it comes to national policies in education and training? / Would your organization wish to get more involved in the definition of public policies? / According to you, do public authorities consider participation and consultation of your organisations/your participation as important? Busra is a student, so she speaks in the name of students when she states that it is clear that policymakers do not pay a lot of importance to what students want. All the recent strikes in Belgium are an example of the discontent of Flemish people. But she also states that she believes that the government tries its best to improve everything, also things concerning education.

According to you, what are the main challenges/barriers to improve the dialogue between actors in the field and public authorities? She does not know a lot about the policy, but she herself says she does not encounters any barriers that stop her from taking classes.

4. Transversal/transectorial cooperation Do you cooperate with other organisations/institutions in your own sector and or with other education and training sectors/actors? / If yes, with whom? / 5. Other A lot of courses in CVO only take place late in the evening, and it is impossible for her to follow them because she has to take care of her children. But overall, she is very content about CVO and her Dutch courses and her teacher. Note from the interviewer: Busra clearly knows what lifelong learning is, she has her mind set on learning so she can improve her life (socially, economically and professionally). She pays a lot of importance to learn so you don’t fall behind (for example: she would recommend following courses in IT, so you know how to use computers …).

Interview 2: Els Name (individual or organisation) Els

Sector of activity Student in CVO, accountancy.

Country Belgium

1. About lifelong learning How do you understand lifelong learning? Els only pays importance to the formal form of LLL. She understands LLL as courses you take during your whole life, also while you are working. She says that you can also take these courses out of interest. But, that is what she thinks, because she actually never ever heard about the term lifelong learning. Later on she says that taking courses when your work offers you to is not part of lifelong learning.

Do you consider your organisation as a lifelong learning organisation? Yes, CVO offers courses to adults so she describes it as an LLL organization. BUT she does not think that she herself is participating in LLL, because as soon as she graduates, she wants to start working and not learn any more.

2. About participation in EU policy-making in education and training What do you know about EU cooperation in education and training? Not much, it is not Elseâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s priority to follow the EU cooperation or policy. But she states that the EU pays her diploma back.

Do you feel EU institutions take your interests into account? /

Would you like to get more involved in EU debates? /

Do you consider that lifelong learning is a priority in your country? Els says that LLL (the way she understands it) should not be a priority, well she states that it depends from person to person, but for herself she should not consider it as a priority. She wants to start working as soon as possible, especially since studying is so expensive. She wants to earn her own money.

Should lifelong learning be a priority in your country? No.

According to you, what are the main challenges/barriers to improve the dialogue between actors in the field and public authorities? /

4. Transversal/transectorial cooperation Do you cooperate with other organisations/institutions in your own sector and or with other education and training sectors/actors? / If yes, with whom? /

Interview 3: Linda Name (individual or organisation) Linda

Sector of activity Student in CVO, Dutch.

Country Belgium

1. About lifelong learning How do you understand lifelong learning? She says she does not know what the definition of LLL is, she never heard about it. She doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t know anything about LLL. Her story is interesting though, you can read it in the life stories.

Do you consider your organisation as a lifelong learning organisation? /

2. About participation in EU policy-making in education and training What do you know about EU cooperation in education and training? Linda just came to Belgium so she has no clue about the European/Flemish policy.

Do you feel EU institutions take your interests into account? /

Would you like to get more involved in EU debates? /

Do you consider that lifelong learning is a priority in your country? /

Should lifelong learning be a priority in your country? /

Are you/is your organisation consulted by public authorities when it comes to national policies in education and training? / 34

According to you, what are the main challenges/barriers to improve the dialogue between actors in the field and public authorities? /

4. Transversal/transectorial cooperation Do you cooperate with other organisations/institutions in your own sector and or with other education and training sectors/actors? / If yes, with whom? / 5. Other Linda says that she only knew one organization that offers courses in Dutch and it was CVO. Raising awareness of other institutions, if there are so, may be very important.

Interview 4: Lulieta Name (individual or organisation) Lulieta Csomay

Sector of activity Lulieta is a student â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;commercial administrative assistantâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;. This training is established in cooperation with the VDAB (Flemish service for employment and vocational training) and the CVO (centre for adult education) Country Belgium (Flanders). Her mother is from Hungary. 1. About lifelong learning How do you understand lifelong learning? Lifelong Learning means learning from daily experiences, as well from positive experiences as from negative ones. Do you consider your organisation as a lifelong learning organisation? /

2. About participation in EU policy-making in education and training What do you know about EU cooperation in education and training? No, absolutely nothing. She would like to be more informed about projects.

Do you feel EU institutions take your interests into account? / Would you like to get more involved in EU debates? Yes, she thinks it would be an added value to sit together with other people who can think downto earth and realistic. But only if policy-makers take their opinions into account.

3. About participation in national policy-making in education and training Are you following national policy debates in the field of lifelong learning / education and training? No

Do you consider that lifelong learning is a priority in your country? / Should lifelong learning be a priority in your country? Education is important, but no one can be forced to study.

Are you/is your organisation consulted by public authorities when it comes to national policies in education and training? She doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t know.

Would your organization wish to get more involved in the definition of public policies? / According to you, do public authorities consider participation and consultation of your organisations/your participation as important? No one ever asked for her opinion. She doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t know how much the VDAB and the CVO is consulted, but she hopes they are. The fact that she can participate in this training means that there is attention for her interests.

According to you, what are the main challenges/barriers to improve the dialogue between actors in the field and public authorities? / 4. Transversal/transectorial cooperation Do you cooperate with other organisations/institutions in your own sector and or with other education and training sectors/actors? yes

If yes, with whom? The training Lulieta follows is a cooperation between the VDAB and a CVO of Leuven.

Interview 5: Nicolas Name (individual or organisation) Nicolas Verdickt Sector of activity Nicolas is a student ‘commercial administrative assistant’. This training is established in cooperation with the VDAB (Flemish service for employment and vocational training) and the CVO (centre for adult education) Country Belgium (Flanders) 1. About lifelong learning How do you understand lifelong learning? “I will be studying during my whole life” Nicolas says that it has a positive and a negative connotation. The positive one means that people have the chance to study and to learn during their whole life. Even if you 70 years old, you will be able to go to university, to get a degree and to enrol in courses. The negative connotation is that if you study that long that you are taking advantage of society. He compares this with university students that start a study, get money from their parents but quit after two years and never finish what they started. Also, the later you enter the labour market, the less experience you have and the more difficult it will be to get a job. Do you consider your organisation as a lifelong learning organisation? Nicolas did not give any statements about this topic. But he did mention that the VDAB should invest more in the follow-up of potential students. He said there are a lot of people in need for this kind of education, but that they are not reached by the VDAB. Nicolas also said that the VDAB should motivate people even more to follow this degree-directed training. 2. About participation in EU policy-making in education and training What do you know about EU cooperation in education and training? He does not know a lot about the cooperation between the EU and the education- and trainingsector. He does know that there are exchange- programmes announced in the hallways of the learning centre. He also thinks that these projects are strongly connected to someone’s interests. He, for example, is not interested in language exchange programmes, but would like to go to another country if it is about another topic. He thinks that the fact that people are confronted with different cultures and new experiences is very enriching. Do you feel EU institutions take your interests into account? /

Would you like to get more involved in EU debates? /

Do you consider that lifelong learning is a priority in your country? He does not really follow these policy debates, so it is difficult to say something about this. Should lifelong learning be a priority in your country? He thinks that lifelong learning is important. It is not possible to make millions and millions of euroâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s free in the budget, but Belgium is highly rated concerning education. This can only be improved. Nicolas also says education is important since it is part of brining someone up. Are you/is your organisation consulted by public authorities when it comes to national policies in education and training? / Would your organization wish to get more involved in the definition of public policies? / According to you, do public authorities consider participation and consultation of your organisations/your participation as important? / According to you, what are the main challenges/barriers to improve the dialogue between actors in the field and public authorities? / 4. Transversal/transectorial cooperation Do you cooperate with other organisations/institutions in your own sector and or with other education and training sectors/actors? Yes

If yes, with whom? The training Nicolas follows is a cooperation between the VDAB and a CVO of Leuven. After he graduated he also wants to continue learning during his evenings at other institutions. His plans considering this are still vague.

Interview 6: Felix Name (individual or organisation) Felix

Sector of activity ICT-Teacher in the CVO

Country Belgium- Flanders

1. About lifelong learning How do you understand lifelong learning? The first time LLL came is was around 2000. Several projects were initiated by the government. LLL for me is any form of studying that is not related specifically to get a job or a diploma. For example learning Dutch for people who don’t have Dutch as their native tongue, is not LLL because they are forced to do so. LLL can’t be forced. I can’t imagine that LLL wouldn’t exist.

Do you consider your organisation as a lifelong learning organisation? Yes, more people are studying, in several forms of education. Some people take the idea of lifelong learning very seriously, they keep studying.

2. About participation in EU policy-making in education and training What do you know about EU cooperation in education and training? In our school we are informed of the several projects. In other schools they don’t communicate about EU-projects. A lot of teachers don’t know anything about the possibilities. The press doesn’t inform people enough either, they don’t use their possibility to bring these project under the attention of a large group of people.

Do you feel EU institutions take your interests into account? We mostly know about projects when they are linked to our field of study. The success varies.

Would you like to get more involved in EU debates? No

Would you be interested in participating in national/regional consultation LLL Forums that would allow you to express your views on EU cooperation in education and training? No

Do you consider that lifelong learning is a priority in your country? 40

I feel that the Flemish government is less occupied with this idea. The interest field shifted towards other areas because of the economic crisis.

Should lifelong learning be a priority in your country? Sensitisation can’t harm nobody.

Are you/is your organisation consulted by public authorities when it comes to national policies in education and training? We don’t really know a lot about this. If i would give an advice regarding LLL I’d say the current measures should be reconsidered. The information is not transparent, and anyone need to search for information on the internet to know more. This affect not only students, companies too are discouraged to find trainings for their employees.

Would your organization wish to get more involved in the definition of public policies? That would be something the board should consider. I can’t decide whether this would be necessary in order to obtain our work.

According to you, do public authorities consider participation and consultation of your organisations/your participation as important? /

According to you, what are the main challenges/barriers to improve the dialogue between actors in the field and public authorities? The practical barrier, to combine studies and working for example is still existing. The people who would like to follow a “niche-study”, have to travel further because of the fact that those courses are less wide-spread.

4. Transversal/transectorial cooperation Do you cooperate with other organisations/institutions in your own sector and or with other education and training sectors/actors? If yes, with whom? We work mostly together with sevora. We try to make our courses useful for the later profession. We try to match our subjects with the real life situations, but because of the strict regulations regarding curricula we can’t always work the way it would be ideal for both parties.

Interview 7: Katja Name (individual or organisation) Katja Scheel â&#x20AC;&#x201C; CVO Volt

Sector of activity Vice-director of CVO Volt (Centre for Adult Education Volt). I am responsible for the pedagogic and agogic policy of this CVO.

Country Belgium (Flanders)

1. About lifelong learning How do you understand lifelong learning? On one hand it means giving people who did not finish their education the chance to obtain their degree. On the other hand giving people, who already have a degree but want to keep up with new developments, the chance to learn.

Do you consider your organisation as a lifelong learning organisation? The CVO is a lifelong learning organisation. We offer a lot of different courses for adults that will result in obtaining a degree. Apart from this we are also a life-broad learning organisation. We also offer easy accessible courses that are not necessarily related to the learnerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s profession but are more pointed towards social integration We are not providing non-formal education. This should be more situated in for example sports clubs.

2. About participation in EU policy-making in education and training What do you know about EU cooperation in education and training? I know less about this than on a national level. When I inform myself about this, it is only out of my own interest. The cooperation on a EU level is not relevant for my current job at CVO.

Do you feel EU institutions take your interests into account? Not specifically for this CVO, but we get support from the EU for certain projects.

Would you like to get more involved in EU debates? No, when I handed in my project proposal, there was no one who told me to do the project completely different. So I do not think it is necessary to be more involved. On a higher level the CVO itself is not involved. There are other organisations, above the CVO on a higher level, that are responsible for this task.

Would you be interested in participating in national/regional consultation LLL Forums that would allow you to express your views on EU cooperation in education and training? Yes, out of interest and the need for more information. I do not think it would be interesting to put us all together and to let us think about concrete actions. I think first we should be informed about the current situation.

3. About participation in national policy-making in education and training Are you following national policy debates in the field of lifelong learning / education and training? Mostly I am informed about the national policy debates. I am involved in meetings with and about the VDAB (Flemish service for employment and vocational training) because I participate the steering committees of the VDAB. Further I am also invited for meetings with the administration, but they invite a selected group of people from the work field. It is my task to be present in these meetings. To be honest I do not undertake a lot of action in these meetings, but if there is something interesting for my CVO I will participate more active.

Do you consider that lifelong learning is a priority in your country? At this moment there is not a lot of attention for our sector because of the new government. A lot of projects are running down. The biggest issue is that there is not a lot of attention for the synchronization concerning regulations between the labour market and the field of education. The new government asks for their cooperation but there is a lack of flexibility in administration to cooperate between these two fields. For example, it is difficult for the VDAB to synchronize their trainings with the regulations concerning certification the formal educational sector asks for.

Should lifelong learning be a priority in your country? See question above.

Are you/is your organisation consulted by public authorities when it comes to national policies in education and training? I am involved because of my participation in the different steering groups. On a higher level it is not me personally who is involved. But the CVO is indirectly involved in policy because they are represented in different umbrella organisations. There are always people from these organisations represented in the VLOR (the Flemish Education Council). These umbrella organisations ask on a regular base for the opinion and remarks of the different CVOâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s in Flanders.

Would your organization wish to get more involved in the definition of public policies? It depends. At this moment at this level I think it is okay. I feel like I am enough involved. I expect that when there will be consultations about the synchronization of the different sectors, the CVOâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s will be heard in this discussion and that we will be strongly involved.

According to you, do public authorities consider participation and consultation of your organisations/your participation as important? See questions above.

According to you, what are the main challenges/barriers to improve the dialogue between actors in the field and public authorities? On my level I do not experience any challenges or barriers.

4. Transversal/transectorial cooperation Do you cooperate with other organisations/institutions in your own sector and or with other education and training sectors/actors?

yes

If yes, with whom? Cevora VDAB Resoc Local education council Secondary schools HUB (High school of Brussels) School for training of teachers

Interview 8: Leen Name (individual or organisation) Leen De Belder

Sector of activity Teacher “second chance education” and coordinator of the “G-project” (project that focuses on literacy)

Country Belgium- Flanders

1. About lifelong learning How do you understand lifelong learning? Lifelong learning is learning in a professional setting, as well as a leisure time activity. It gives people the chance to learn something, but also to meet new people, to expand their social network. LLL is important for everyone, because there is a saying in Flanders that state “standing still makes sure you will get behind”. For me this saying is strongly related to the importance of education, at any age, at any time.

Do you consider your organisation as a lifelong learning organisation? CVO is strictly LLL I would say, because the people who are enrolled in this program are not “regular” students. The system is different to, from the regular system, because we use a modular system to make it easy for the students to continue their education if they, for some reason, have to stop their study for a while. Not only our students are motivated to study. We, as teachers, are motivated to keep studying to. This broadens our perspective as a teacher and makes sure we can relate to our students (whom are adults too).

2. About participation in EU policy-making in education and training What do you know about EU cooperation in education and training? Not much, besides there are some projects from time to time in which are school participates as much as possible.

Do you feel EU institutions take your interests into account? The projects the EU initiates are very valuable. We notice a lot of positive effects on the students who participated in a project.

Would you like to get more involved in EU debates? If we would want to be more involved we would try to contact our board, who would communicate with governments (Flemish, or EU).

Would you be interested in participating in national/regional consultation LLL Forums that would allow you to express your views on EU cooperation in education and training? /

3. About participation in national policy-making in education and training Are you following national policy debates in the field of lifelong learning / education and training? We feel the consequences of the measures directly but we are not really up to date with the decision making. There are a lot of uncertainties because of the measures to reduce cost for the government.

Do you consider that lifelong learning is a priority in your country? We feel that our centres, for adult education, are seen as competition for the regular system. Not everyone sees the idea of learning on a later age as something positive. In times of economic difficulties, such as these, the government tries to find money where they can and the easiest way to do so is to cut back financial measures that aren’t effecting the ‘regular’ group of citizens.

Should lifelong learning be a priority in your country? Yes because of the multiple positive outcomes.

Are you/is your organisation consulted by public authorities when it comes to national policies in education and training? If we would be consulted than they would consult the board. We would not be involved directly in this decision making. We are consulted by “the community education (GO)”, but this involves more personal questions like “Do you feel good in your work environment?”.

Would your organization wish to get more involved in the definition of public policies? I would think of it as a positive thing. It would help to be more conscious of the idea of LLL.

According to you, do public authorities consider participation and consultation of your organisations/your participation as important? We notice that the Flemish government sees the education sector as a sector where they can cut in financial measures easily without any negative reactions. On the other hand: people who want to follow a study in their leisure time, will do it. People who should do it, because it would be really useful don’t, because of several barriers. On the other hand we notice that we have more and more students. People who were in a NT2route, choose to study further for example. Another reason is that having a diploma is more important nowadays. We also feel we are a safety net for students who for some reason don’t fit in the regular school system. We feel the direct consequences from the “waterfall model” in our education.

According to you, what are the main challenges/barriers to improve the dialogue between actors in the field and public authorities? There are several things that I notice to be a challenge for my students to participate:  Past school experience  Being an older person amongst younger students, age  Digitalisation  Time: most of the elder people have families to take care for  Language  Attitude of the students (no discipline)  Health conditions  De term “second chance education”. A better term would be LLL. Second chance has a negative connotation, and is not right because most people get third, fourth,... chances too.

4. Transversal/transectorial cooperation Do you cooperate with other organisations/institutions in your own sector and or with other education and training sectors/actors? If yes, with whom? The board is more in charge of this cooperation. We (the teachers) try to make sure our colleges are linked with “real life” situations as much as we can, but we feel that it is hard to do this, because of restrictions of the government.

Interview 9: Carolien Name (individual or organisation) Carolien De Hertogh

Sector of activity I am active in the sector of adult education. I work for the ‘consortium L4’ (Lifelong Learning Leuven). This is the umbrella organisation of different CVO’s (Centre for Adult Education) and the ‘centrum voor basiseducatie’ (Centre for Adult Basic Education) in the district of LeuvenHageland-Tervuren.

Country Belgium (Flanders)

1. About lifelong learning How do you understand lifelong learning? Lifelong learning means getting the chance to learn and to improve your knowledge and skills at any time in your life. This should not necessarily occur with a professional goal in mind. The choice to learn can also be based on someone’s general interests. It means that you can start studying and learning at any time to enrich your life. The good thing about adult education and the options we have in Flanders is that there are many different formats. There is an adapted method to learn for everyone’s lifestyle.

Do you consider your organisation as a lifelong learning organisation? Yes, the core business of L4 is lifelong learning. One of the main goals of all stakeholders aligned with L4 is ‘Lifelong Learning’ and providing the chance to learn for everyone.

2. About participation in EU policy-making in education and training What do you know about EU cooperation in education and training? Not that much. I do not get a lot of information from this level. Maybe I’m not subscribed to the right news channels, but I would not know where to get this information.

Do you feel EU institutions take your interests into account? /

Would you like to get more involved in EU debates? I would like to be involved but I do not know whether it would be necessary for me. In order to be useful, it has to bring something extra to the job I am currently doing.

Would you be interested in participating in national/regional consultation LLL Forums that would allow you to express your views on EU cooperation in education and training? See question above

3. About participation in national policy-making in education and training Are you following national policy debates in the field of lifelong learning / education and training? 48

Not enough. When you are fully occupied with your job, it is difficult to follow these debates. Other reasons are that I am mainly active in the field and that there is not a lot of information coming through from the department. I get enough relevant information for my projects, but that does not mean that I know all the details of these policy debates. I am not that interested in policy anyway, so it is not necessary to know all the details and I will for example never start reading 37 notes.

Do you consider that lifelong learning is a priority in your country? It should be a priority. But since the new government is cutting back in all sectors, this will also affect education. Programmes that lead straight to a job will be financed at any time but programmes that you follow out of interest like for example photography will perhaps suffer under these new regulations. The new government focuses mainly on qualifying programmes, so the VDAB- trainings will not experience a lot of problems, but the registration fee for a student at a CVO is sharply increased, so perhaps less people will subscribe in the future for a course

Should lifelong learning be a priority in your country? See the question above.

Are you/is your organisation consulted by public authorities when it comes to national policies in education and training? The department of education established a commission of stakeholders of adult education in 2013. They are not occupied with ‘adult education’ in general, but more specific with OKOT (educational qualifying training programmes). An example of that kind of programme is TKA (second chance education). This commission includes the VDAB, Syntra and different consortia of the CVO’s of Flanders. They meet a few times a year. So yes, the consortium is consulted.

Would your organization wish to get more involved in the definition of public policies? It is difficult to say this for the consortia, because they will be removed in the near future. I think it would be interesting to involve the CVO’s more in policy debates since they are active in practice. Policy is always based on input from practice, so therefore it is important that these CVO’s are involved. Policy-makers should know what is happening in practice.

According to you, do public authorities consider participation and consultation of your organisations/your participation as important? See questions above

If yes, with whom? VDAB (Flemish service for employment and vocational training)

KHLeuven: (Catholic school of higher education Leuven). L4 is the umbrella organisation of the following different schools:          

CBE CVO CVO CVO CVO CVO CVO CVO CVO CVO

Open School ACE-Groep T CLT De Oranjerie Hageland VOLT SSH SVV VIVA Brabant Tervuren-Hoeilaart VTI Leuven

TKO (second chance education) is a part of CVO volt.

Interview 10: Jurgen Name (individual or organisation) Jurgen Cuypers

Sector of activity VDAB (Flemish

service for employment and vocational training) – costumer consultant.

Jurgen is working on the ‘degree oriented training’ programme in cooperation with different CVO’s (Centre for Adult Education). This programme gives adults without a degree the chance to follow a vocational training in order to receive their degree in the end. The certificates are hand out by the CVO, but since this programme is in cooperation with the VDAB, these students will not lose their alimony during their training. Jurgen tries to recruit the right people for the programme and tries to lead them towards the right training.

Country Belgium (Flanders)

1. About lifelong learning How do you understand lifelong learning? Lifelong learning does not only mean obtaining a degree. It also means realizing that we will enrol in different jobs, with different job contents during our whole life. Lifelong learning is a kind of ‘carrier guidance’ between different employers and job contents mainly in sectors where technological innovation is a big challenge. Having a degree is not the end of learning, but it is a start of lifelong learning.

Do you consider your organisation as a lifelong learning organisation? Yes and no. Students can do this degree oriented training in cooperation with the CVO (Centre for Adult Education)) only once. If we only look at this programme, the VDAB is not a lifelong learning organisation but tries to stimulate people to learn. In fact, it is a first step towards LLL. We try to work towards a better and more sustainable employment of our students. Having a degree will give them also more job opportunities in the future. On contrary, our carrier guidance programmes are on a long-term period. The VDAB can for example organise internal trainings in a company.

2. About participation in EU policy-making in education and training What do you know about EU cooperation in education and training? Not that much.

Do you feel EU institutions take your interests into account? We get support for our trainings from the European social fund, so I think they take our interests into account.

Would you like to get more involved in EU debates? I am not involved in EU debates, but if necessary I want to be involved.

Would you be interested in participating in national/regional consultation LLL Forums that would allow you to express your views on EU cooperation in education and training? Every year I am involved in a regional evaluation about the project. See question above.

3. About participation in national policy-making in education and training Are you following national policy debates in the field of lifelong learning / education and training? To some extent, I follow what happens in the media. But mostly I am just interested in what happens concerning the four trainings I am responsible for. I am also present in meetings concerning the training centres on a local and sometimes provincial level, but apart from this I am personally not really involved. I am more active on an executive level.

Do you consider that lifelong learning is a priority in your country? I do not think it is already a priority.

Should lifelong learning be a priority in your country? Yes. The first think employers or recruiters do when they are hiring someone new is checking whether the applicant has a degree. People without a degree are not even invited for an interview. I think it should be a priority not only in Flanders but also in Belgium as a whole, to give people the chance to obtain a degree. I think it is also a priority for the labour market since having that certain certificate, will be always a strong indicator to recruit someone for a job.

Are you/is your organisation consulted by public authorities when it comes to national policies in education and training? The VDAB is consulted about the Flemish Qualification Structure on a regional level. We will start with the training â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;electricityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; at the VDAB. The difference with the other trainings I was talking about is that this one will be without the cooperation of the different CVOâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s but nevertheless the students will work towards a degree.

Would your organization wish to get more involved in the definition of public policies? Now and then they inform their selves about how we organize everything in practice. For now, I think it is okay.

According to you, do public authorities consider participation and consultation of your organisations/your participation as important? Yes, to execute this policy into practice. I do not know to what extent we are involved in policymaking.

According to you, what are the main challenges/barriers to improve the dialogue between actors in the field and public authorities? There will always be a discussion about the role of the VDAB and the recognized education network. On should not take over the role of the other. That is something to keep in mind.

4. Transversal/transectorial cooperation Do you cooperate with other organisations/institutions in your own sector and or with other education and training sectors/actors? Yes

If yes, with whom? CVO (Centre for adult education) In other programmes, also with other organisation.

Interview 11: Kathleen Name (individual or organisation) Kathleen

Sector of activity Head of the second chance education in “CVO” Antwerp This means she is also in charge of the bpost project and the project for second chance education in prison.

Country Belgium- Flanders

1. About lifelong learning How do you understand lifelong learning? LLL for me personally means that you have the chance to learn, at any given moment in your life. Whether you are young or old, whether you have a job or not. Certainly in my field of work, the education-sector, we have to be aware of all the new developments. I consider LLL important as a parent to. Our children learn things at school we sometimes have never heard of. LLL learning, for me personally, thought me to broaden my interest, knowledge. The first time I heard about LLL was at this school. I experienced what LLL beholds by participating in it, over the years.

Do you consider your organisation as a lifelong learning organisation? Our school focuses on education for adults. We are certainly a LLL-organisation. People who come here to study, have several goals. They want to learn more about something, they want to get a diploma, they want to change jobs… We see often that people who come here to learn something more of a field of interest of theirs, mostly evolve in changing jobs. They can make a living out of their hobby.

2. About participation in EU policy-making in education and training What do you know about EU cooperation in education and training? We are not entirely aware of every measure the EU takes regarding education. I’ve learned more about it by working in this sector. We also are notified when there are interesting projects were we can participate in. we have a team that is occupied with all the projects that can be interesting, projects from the EU, but also other projects. When there is an interesting project, it is stated in our internal newsletter. The information regarding EU-decisions for example is available if we would want it.

Do you feel EU institutions take your interests into account? The projects are very interesting, and very useful. We participated in several programs from Grundtvig. Now, with Erasmus + we think it can be more difficult to participate and to see everything clear.

Would you like to get more involved in EU debates? We always think it is useful to exchange experiences. Our board is more involved in decision making.

Would you be interested in participating in national/regional consultation LLL Forums that would allow you to express your views on EU cooperation in education and training? I think we would like to keep participating in the projects to exchange experiences.

3. About participation in national policy-making in education and training Are you following national policy debates in the field of lifelong learning / education and training? We feel there are a lot of insecurities because of the new measures. We don’t have enough hours to initiate the courses we want. The hours we are get, depends on the previous amount of students. The system is too bureaucratically and not flexible enough to make it easy for us to fit the needs of our students. Another insecurity is the continued existence of our projects in prison.

Do you consider that lifelong learning is a priority in your country? We feel that we are the victim of recesses in Flanders. Because our school provides education for a minority-group, we are seen as less important sometimes.

Should lifelong learning be a priority in your country? There should be a more flexible policy when it comes to education, that fit the needs better of the students and teachers. When we are given the possibility to fit the needs of a student better, and to make a study-route “custom made”, more students would finish the program.

Are you/is your organisation consulted by public authorities when it comes to national policies in education and training? Our opinion is not always asked, certainly not enough in my opinion

Would your organization wish to get more involved in the definition of public policies? Yes, because we are much known with the system, we can see where things go wrong.

According to you, do public authorities consider participation and consultation of your organisations/your participation as important? No, our opinion is neglected a lot. The people who make the policy never have been a teacher, or have any professional experience in the educational sector. We would like to be consulted more. It would help a lot if the policy-makers would come and visit several centres to see how we work.

According to you, what are the main challenges/barriers to improve the dialogue between actors in the field and public authorities? The system is not flexible enough. The system with financial measures works, but will be cut back.

4. Transversal/transectorial cooperation Do you cooperate with other organisations/institutions in your own sector and or with other education and training sectors/actors? We work together with the prison (Begijnenstraat, Antwerp). Prisoners are given the chance to get their secondary school diploma in a modular system. Therefore, when they are transferred they can still finish the program because of the already finished modules. Because the education is linked to our school, the prisoners can study here, their diploma is acknowledged.

Another cooperation is with the “higher marine school”. Students can get certificates here for studying languages like for example English. Another very successful cooperation is with bpost. Employees are given the chance to get their secondary school diploma, bpost pays the whole education. The education is “custom-made”. The students follow courses by the method of distance-learning, the courses that are initiated are on the time where most employees don’t have to work. In 2 years’ time they can get their diploma. Others are with secondary schools, Sevora.

Interview 12: Marieke Name (individual or organisation) Marieke Genard

Sector of activity Werk Met zin, offers career counselling and training to employees. Marieke is responsible for the functioning of the centre.

Country Belgium

1. About lifelong learning How do you understand lifelong learning? She says she does not know what the definition of LLL is, but she believes in trainings as well as non-formal and informal learning in the working area and she also believes in learning something while doing it. â&#x20AC;&#x153;The day you stop learning you start to tatter.â&#x20AC;? The first time she heard about LLL was about ten or twelve years ago when she started working in the social sector.

Do you consider your organisation as a lifelong learning organisation? They offer trainings so yes. She says that career counselling supports people to start learning again, so the organization does play an important role in LLL. While recruiting their coaches, they also pay importance to the willingness of developing themselves and learning more during the working hours. So they offer trainings to their employees (the coaches) as well.

2. About participation in EU policy-making in education and training What do you know about EU cooperation in education and training? Marieke does not know a lot about this, because she is more occupied in the field of employment. She says LLL is a little bit included in the policy of work and employment but that EU focuses more on work itself.

Do you feel EU institutions take your interests into account? She says she knows how the policy making takes place and there is need of a big percentage of a certain idea before it can be included in the policy or before policy makers pay attention to it. She says she is not very involved with the European part of LLL, so she is not aware if the needs of her organization are well implemented by EU.

Would you like to get more involved in EU debates? Marieke does not have a clear opinion about the policy making in Europe.

Are you following national policy debates in the field of lifelong learning / education and training? Marieke is mostly aware of the employment part in policy and not that much of the education and training side.

Do you consider that lifelong learning is a priority in your country? Marieke states that in Flanders people tend to graduate in their early 20’s, and stop learning or studying on purpose afterwards when they get a job. She says that you or either learning or working and people forget that you can still learn while you are working. Flanders does not focus enough on LLL. Marieke declares that people need some time to take a break for work and follow extra trainings. People should be offered temporary breaks or periods where they can work less to focus on education, because combining work, learning, and in some cases having a family is too much work. Economically speaking, LLL should be a priority because it is one thing that can lead to innovation according to Marieke. It makes sure we move forward. The conclusion is that policy should be more flexible towards giving time to employees.

Should lifelong learning be a priority in your country? Marieke states that in Flanders people tend to graduate in their early 20’s, and stop learning or studying on purpose afterwards when they get a job. She says that you or either learning or working and people forget that you can still learn while you are working. Flanders does not focus enough on LLL. Marieke declares that people need some time to take a break for work and follow extra trainings. People should be offered temporary breaks or periods where they can work less to focus on education, because combining work, learning, and in some cases having a family is too much work. Economically speaking, LLL should be a priority because it is one thing that can lead to innovation according to Marieke. It makes sure we move forward. The conclusion is that policy should be more flexible towards giving time to employees.

Are you/is your organisation consulted by public authorities when it comes to national policies in education and training? The same ‘problem’ occurs here. The do consult the organization, but not when it comes to education, only employment. They do have close bonds with the policy and also with researches from the KUL (Catholic University of Leuven). The researches investigate various subjects and their advices are formulated and proposed to the policy makers. Sometimes, Werk met zin also has direct contact with policy makers. They don’t feel like their influence is very big, because they are a small organization, but Marieke states that when having a discussion or a talk with the policy makers they show interest and understanding.

Would your organization wish to get more involved in the definition of public policies? She thinks it is really nice and important that organizations participate in policy making, by inter alia, reading different versions of policy texts. The main reason is because they know what the people want, not only the organization but also the students/employees/… So, if she gets an invitation, she will definitely try to participate, but she cannot promise she will do it, because she does not have that much time. Especially not because of the tons of work she has to do. She can also not make other people participate because it is all voluntarily. She says it is hard work, you put a lot of effort into helping the policy makers, and you are not even sure whether they will implement your advice and if they do so, when.

According to you, do public authorities consider participation and consultation of your organisations/your participation as important? Marieke does not think the minister would listen to her directly, but as stated above, she does think that participating in surveys from the Flemish government and stuff like that may change the policy. She has a few close contacts, individuals, working for the government or working related to policymaking and she states that they do give importance to her opinion or the opinion of her organization. She also states that they work for the VDAB (Flemish employment and training service, Vlaamse Dienst voor Arbeidsbemiddeling en Beroepsopleiding). The VDAB functions as an intermediate between the organisations and the policy.

According to you, what are the main challenges/barriers to improve the dialogue between actors in the field and public authorities? Politics are a difficulty for the implementation of regulations concerning LLL. Not all politic parties support LLL vision. The short period of time ministers work for the government is also a barrier. This leads to them thinking only about short term period instead of focusing on a long term period, which is according to Marieke very necessary. Right now, ministers are trying to make people work longer and give them less time to follow trainings etc.â&#x20AC;Ś This is according to Marieke a very bad thing for LLL. She does not offer a solution though.

4. Transversal/transectorial cooperation Do you cooperate with other organisations/institutions in your own sector and or with other education and training sectors/actors? yes

If yes, with whom? ESF, European Social Fund (Europees Sociaal Fonds). Werk met Zin started a new cooperation together with de8, a centre for integration of immigrants. They are now working on a project to include higher educated foreigners to find a job according to their degree. More information about this project can be found in the case studies. SMEâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s They also work together with a lot of companies (SME) to promote trainings to avoid that employees get a burnout. They have a license to offer trainings and advice in companies. They also work together with non-profit organizations. The content of the trainings and/or advice differs from company to company. Marieke says they always look for partners who can offer them something complementary. The first cooperation described above (ESF) is a perfect example of this vision. Werk met Zin offers trainings and career counselling and de8 is more professionalized in dealing with foreigners.

5. Other /

Interview 13: Kris Name Kris De Nys

Sector of activity CVO Lethas Brussels, Kris is responsible for the internationalisation projects, including the welcoming of delegations of other countries.

Country Belgium

1. About lifelong learning How do you understand lifelong learning? Kris thinks it is important to keep learning, because society is changing fast. He states that we are somehow responsible to develop ourselves, and LLL, in his opinion, is a great tool to do this.

Do you consider your organisation as a lifelong learning organisation? He says that it is good to be able to be part of an institution that can contribute to help people develop themselves in this society. Society asks for people who know their way in the digital world and LLL can be a tool to make them comfortable with digital media. He also puts emphasis on the specific needs of people who have newly arrived in Brussels: their biggest need is to learn the language as soon as possible in order to provide for themselves. These people experience a big change in their lives (new country, different context), so they feel the need to learn something new to adjust to their new situation.

2. About participation in EU policy-making in education and training What do you know about EU cooperation in education and training? He has heard of this cooperation in the EU. He states that Belgium needs to make sure that it meets the criteria described by the EU, for example a certain percentage of the people in an EU-country must be able to participate in LLL. In Belgium, there are organisations in the field of training, and with a collaboration with organisations in the field of education. Kris states that all these initiatives, like Syntra of VDAB, must be taken into account when you want to know which percentage of the people in Belgium participates in LLL. He says it is important that every country in the EU decides for their own country whether their citizens can participate in LLL. What are the indicators on which you decide that your country has met the criteria?

Do you feel EU institutions take your interests into account? He wonders if the EU takes the interest of the CVO into account when making new plans. He knows that there is an evolution in the way LLL is defined. Where a few years ago the EU stimulated that different EU-countries made connection with each other, the EU now puts emphasis on strategic collaborations that go further than just meeting each other. So if you want to work with another country, you have to make clear why and which benefit this meeting will create. He states that the EU puts too much emphasis on the functional aspect of LLL, this means that LLL focuses on education to get access to the labour market instead rather than on personal development. The EU pays more attention to courses that have an impact that will guarantee access to the labour market than to courses that are seen as â&#x20AC;&#x153;hobby-coursesâ&#x20AC;?. So if the CVO wants to do something new, first they need to make sure this project reaches the objectives that the EU wants to see in LLL, but in Brussels, courses are more aimed at getting a job, so in that way, the CVO in Brussels is offering courses that have an impact, for example learning Dutch, so people can communicate and be able to find work in Flanders. Kris says that in his personal opinion, the evolution is worrying, because now more and more accent is put on money and not on people who are participating in LLL. You can never know what someoneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s motivation is to get

involved in LLL; it can start with a hobby-course, but this may also help people to achieve competencies that are useful for the labour market; for example courses to be a chef or a florist. He believes that not everything has to be aimed at getting a job, there should also be room for personal development. The EU, however, makes it less and less easy to attend courses with attention for personal development. In Flanders, for example, training vouchers are no longer accepted for â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;hobby-coursesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;, so it is clear that courses with a strong link to the labour market are more favourable, according to the EU. Kris says that there is a discussion whether personal development is a core business of education or maybe this is something that the private market should take care of.

Would you like to get more involved in EU debates? /

Do you consider that lifelong learning is a priority in your country? /

Should lifelong learning be a priority in your country? /

Are you/is your organisation consulted by public authorities when it comes to national policies in education and training? The CVO takes part in advice committees. The members of the committee write reports on how the government should act on problems in the field of LLL, but also give advice on aspects they, as a committee, think the government should take into account.

Would your organization wish to get more involved in the definition of public policies? /

According to you, do public authorities consider participation and consultation of your organisations/your participation as important? The CVO is regularly asked for their opinion on LLL, and even if the government doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t consult them, they will give advice about the sector. According to Kris, this is an advantage of being a small democracy; it is not difficult to get engaged in a dialogue with the regional government, because the people responsible for education are aware of the situation. Another issue that is different in Brussels is the integration process, so that is an aspect where the CVO can advise in.

According to you, what are the main challenges/barriers to improve the dialogue between actors in the field and public authorities? According to Kris, there is only one barrier and that is the financial aspect. Only 3% of the education budget is allocated to adult education so the means to work with are not that high. The challenge is to reach as many objectives with as little money as possible. Furthermore, the challenge is to offer a high service to the client, but not to use a lot of money from the government. Kris believes the CVO should get more means to work with according to the objectives they meet, so it is frustrating. Another challenge is to meet the new goals that the government decides, due to the changing field or situation, so the CVO needs to make sure they follow the new plans of the government.

4. Transversal/transectorial cooperation Do you cooperate with other organisations/institutions in your own sector and or with other education and training sectors/actors? Yes

If yes, with whom? They work with organisations who also care about their target group, like a OCMW or VDAB.

Interview 14: Ronny Name Ronny Leenknegt

Sector of activity Social-Cultural work

Country Flanders

1. About lifelong learning How do you understand lifelong learning? Lifelong and life wide learning is a process in which persons and organisations can acquire knowledge and skills which can be used in professional, social and cultural tasks. In a fast changing society it is important to be critical and responsible towards this process. The process of lifelong and life wide learning is embedded in the personal and social life of the participants and pays attention to their experiences and needs (Baert, 2004). Lifelong learning refers to the time aspect of learning. Learning does not end after the school but there is also adult education besides and after formal education. Lifelong learning means that learning does not end after the finalisation of salaried labour. Life wide learning highlights that the finality of the learning process can be outside the economic context: personal development, social employability, social and cultural tasks, social defensibility and individual signification. The learning process takes place in all domains of life: family, neighbourhood, public space, job context. There is a thematic diversity: relations, health, work/family, meaningfulness. Lifelong and life wide learning implies that not all learning processes are linear, often flexible learning paths are possible.

Do you consider your organisation as a lifelong learning organisation? Oscar and the whole story about documenting and explicating learning processes in non-formal and informal learning environments is fully in line with the definition (see above) of lifelong and life wide learning. Oscar makes lifelong and life wide learning visible, it is about the learning which takes place outside the formal education and the education that is focussed on certifications. In that way, there will be a complementarity which a learning society needs to recognise and concede. As well by the used method (portfolio) as by the direct involvement on daily learning processes, Oscar is a useful instrument for the implementation of a wide policy concerning lifelong and life wide learning. Personal development also means that the individual becomes aware of his/her competences.

2. About participation in EU policy-making in education and training What do you know about EU cooperation in education and training? The interventions of Socius concerning the support of the international activity of social-cultural organisations can be divided on three lines:

Facilitating the international exchange of substantive knowledge, professional expertise and good practices

Facilitating the process international partnerships

Socius as the defender of the non-formal adult education and the lifelong and life wide learning

recruiting

financial

resources

and

partners

for

Socius works, for the international representation of interests in the area of lifelong learning, together with EPOS, sister organisation in EAEA (European spokesperson which Socius is a member of).

Do you feel EU institutions take your interests into account? The most recent policy actions of the European Commission (for example: including non-formal adult education in the Commission of Social Affairs and Employment) together with the fight for giving the non-formal adult education a place in European programmes (for example: Erasmus +) raises the suspicion that they see lifelong learning with a dominant focus on the labour market.

Would you like to get more involved in EU debates? Through an international network, Oscar is involved in European debates. We try to follow up these debates and try to take a position as a spokesperson of non-formal and informal education.

3. About participation in national policy-making in education and training Are you following national policy debates in the field of lifelong learning / education and training? Yes, trough strategy documents, reflection on policy actions, mandates in partnerships (for example: the EVC-team, EPOS, Grundtvig advice commission, expert panels, and so on). Furthermore, Oscar explores divers channels for the subsidisation of international partnerships in which social-cultural organisations can participate.

Do you consider that lifelong learning is a priority in your country? Yes, lifelong learning can be seen as a priority but unfortunately the finality is exclusively economic and lifelong learning is seen as a remedy against the economic crisis. The policy concerning lifelong learning has a labour market focus and has a short-term view.

According to you, what are the main challenges/barriers to improve the dialogue between actors in the field and public authorities? The recognition of the complementarity of non-formal learning, informal learning and formal education and this in a common strategy for lifelong and life wide learning. There is a need for a more social point of view instead of the limited labour market vision. When we abandon the short-term view and if we give each other space for realising educational and social tasks, the partnership will pay dividends on a long-term view as well on the economic level as on the individual and social level.

4. Transversal/transectorial cooperation Do you cooperate with other organisations/institutions in your own sector and or with other education and training sectors/actors? The Oscar method is implemented in more than 30 organisations in the social-cultural field. In the 6 involved sectors as well as cross-sectoral, there is an intensive partnership. The common policy concerning Oscar is defined by a steering committee in which all involved actors are represented.

Interview 15: Stefanie Name (individual or organisation) Stefanie De Man

Sector of activity Senior project manager bpost. Responsible for the cooperation between bpost and CVO.

Country Belgium- Flanders

1. About lifelong learning How do you understand lifelong learning? Lifelong learning gives people the possibility to a higher position, for example in the work field, but also broadens people view on things, not only in the work-area but further, in their vision for example on how society works, too.

Do you consider your organisation as a lifelong learning organisation? Our organisation has a strong link with LLL thanks to our project we started with CVO Antwerp. The organisation itself is not a LLL organisation as such.

2. About participation in EU policy-making in education and training What do you know about EU cooperation in education and training? We donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t really have an idea how it works.

Do you feel EU institutions take your interests into account? No, it would help if there was a framework who helped companies to organise these sort of education for their employees.

Would you like to get more involved in EU debates? We are interested in the outcomes of this research, and other researches.

Would you be interested in participating in national/regional consultation LLL Forums that would allow you to express your views on EU cooperation in education and training? /

3. About participation in national policy-making in education and training Are you following national policy debates in the field of lifelong learning / education and training? We are confronted with the differences between Flemish and French-speaking part of Belgium. I feel that in our policy in general we must think out of the box. Now everything is fit in a certain bow, but broadening our perspectives can only lead to better results. We feel that a specific training can be useful but only on a short-term base. The government is not thinking on a longterm. Flexibility is something the educational system lacks, but needs.

Brussels also gets more ways to finance their education-systems.

Do you consider that lifelong learning is a priority in your country? The government is not investing enough in the education, certainly not in education of employees without a diploma for example. Nevertheless we only see positive outcomes when our employees get the chance to get their diploma. They find a job more easily, or are given the chance for promotion within our company.

Should lifelong learning be a priority in your country? We notice that education is very vulnerable. In our company, but also because a study provides more than just a diploma.

Are you/is your organisation consulted by public authorities when it comes to national policies in education and training? No, we would like to be able to work together more closely with other companies but because of the economic struggles, other companies neglect to focus on the education of their employees.

Would your organisation wish to get more involved in the definition of public policies? Yes, cooperating can result in a win-win situation for everybody.

According to you, do public authorities consider participation and consultation of your organisations/your participation as important? No, because we are not consulted yet. This gives us the idea that the government is not very interested in projects like ours. Whenever we launch an idea for a project concerning education (for example the initiation of a re-orientation toward a profession in health care because of the need for people, and the reducing financial measures for companies), it takes very long to get it approved by the government.

According to you, what are the main challenges/barriers to improve the dialogue between actors in the field and public authorities? The main challenge is more flexibility. We should organise education based on the needs of the learners in order to ensure that they do not only start their education but also graduate from it.

4. Transversal/transectorial cooperation Do you cooperate with other organisations/institutions in your own sector and or with other education and training sectors/actors? If yes, with whom? We work together with Cocon. Cocon was originally initiated by two men, almost retiring and looking for something extra to study. Cocon contacted the HR-manager of bpost, who was interested in the initiative. Since then the cooperation between CVOâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s, centres for learning on a distance and bpost was initiated. Other companies who worked together with Cocon too and invested in the study for their employees are McDonalds and Carrefour. Sadly, both companies also recently stopped to cooperation because of changing â&#x20AC;&#x153;financial interestsâ&#x20AC;?.

Interview 16: Veerle Name Veerle Adams

Sector of activity Veerle is the president of the CVO Lethas in Brussels. The Adult Education Centre offers Dutch as a second language, French, English, different types of HBO courses (Higher Vocational Education), for example accountancy, and a Teacher Training.

Country Belgium

1. About lifelong learning How do you understand lifelong learning? Veerle states that she learned about the term ‘Lifelong Learning’ the first time it was launched. She has worked for over 30 years in the field of adult education and she witnessed the evolution from evening school to an independent institution within the field of formal education. This change meant a different look on LLL. Not only offers LLL the possibility to learn something about a specific topic, it is also a way to learn something new when one is already working. You’re never too old to learn something new and LLL is a way to make this possible, to learn something when compulsory education has ended.

Do you consider your organisation as a lifelong learning organisation? The Adult Education Centre (CVO) offers people opportunities to learn something they can apply in their own lives, so as stated above, even people who already have a job can feel the need to develop themselves by following (adult) education.

2. About participation in EU policy-making in education and training What do you know about EU cooperation in education and training? Veerle knows about this cooperation. She compares the situation in Belgium with the situation in Scandinavia, where the link between education and the labour market is clearer. The main difference in the most countries is: who is responsible for the link between those two fields. This will have an effect on the way adult education or post-initial education is organised.

Do you feel EU institutions take your interests into account? She says she knows that the CVO can submit different projects with different topics, but she says that the main problem is the administrative aspect of the projects; the EU does not always grant or can give the money that is needed to support the different projects. She sees an evolution from LLL aimed at personal development to LLL aimed at the achievement of competencies. The context of Brussels is a context where people need to learn Dutch in order to survive in the city, so there is nobody that is learning Dutch as a way to personal development. It is this context that makes Brussels a place with its own characteristics.

Would you like to get more involved in EU debates? /

Do you consider that lifelong learning is a priority in your country? /

Should lifelong learning be a priority in your country? /

Are you/is your organisation consulted by public authorities when it comes to national policies in education and training? The CVO takes part in different advice committees, like the Lifelong Learning committee, where problems are being detected, and in which recommendations are written for the government on how to act to these problems. CVO Lethas is also consulted for the specific context in which they operate. Furthermore, the context of Brussels has implications for the needs of the people in Brussels and the courses the CVO offers, so the CVO is asked to help to detect changes or evolutions in this context.

Would your organization wish to get more involved in the definition of public policies? /

According to you, do public authorities consider participation and consultation of your organisations/your participation as important? As stated before, the context of Brussels makes it necessary to listen to the CVO, because they know what the needs of their target group are.

According to you, what are the main challenges/barriers to improve the dialogue between actors in the field and public authorities? According to Veerle, the administrative and operational aspect of the dialogue is the main barrier; the means are not as high as expected, so they need to work with less means to reach the set objectives. The system that decides how much money every institution gets from the department of Education is not beneficial for the CVO. It takes a long time to receive the money they deserve and in the meantime they are working with too little money.

4. Transversal/transectorial cooperation Do you cooperate with other organisations/institutions in your own sector and or with other education and training sectors/actors? Yes

If yes, with whom? In different forums this is encouraged. Outside the field of education, there is cooperation with the VDAB and Syntra.

7. Annex 2: Good Practices Good practice 1: bpost General Description Location / Country / Region Belgium

Short description (free text), key words bpost started an initiative to enrol their employees without a secondary-school degree in a program to finish their secondary school education, and get their diploma.

Actors Involved (including LLL-Learners, facilitators, intermediaries, institutions, decision makers, etc. 

Employees without a secondary school diploma



bpost



Ministries

separately) 

education(

Flanders

and

Wallonia,

Cocon



CVO Antwerp (centre for adult education)



Vives (centre for long distance learning)

Target audiences: Employees of bpost without a secondary school diploma

Time frame (when, how long, was it one shot or multiple, etc.) The project with CVO Antwerp started 3 years ago (2011). The project is still going. The new programs restart in September and January, on a yearly basis. The employees are enrolled in a 2year program.

For which theme is this story relevant (main theme, keywords)? Theme 3: lifelong learning pathways – towards a relevant educational provision

Relevant links, websites, etc. /

Background Several employees of bpost arenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t graduated from secondary school. Because this can be a problem when the firm is restructuring personnel or when workers want to work their way up, bpost initiated this program.

Links with the European Framework This can be seen as an initiative regarding LLL, but is mostly a way to help their employees in a quickly developing economy.

Links with national / regional priorities As said before, this initiative comes from bpost itself. The government is a partner, but only because b-post themselves initiated contacts to validate the diplomas and degrees for this program.

Political and Economic dimensions Political: this was a demanding task for the company itself, because the government, although supportive, was not taking initiatives to activate this kind of programs in companies. The decision making process was very slow and inflexible. Because the department of education is a regional subject, both departments (Flemish speaking and French speaking) had to be contacted separately. Economic: because of the graduated employees, who already know how the company works, it is easier to grow to a higher function in the company. On the other hand, when there are people fired, it is easier to find a job because of their diploma.

Social dimensions It is easier for people to get a job when fired. People enrolled in the program are after the program motivated to start a new education. It is easier to promote within the company.

Technical dimensions The diploma is a specific diploma, with a program that is useful for every employee. The program is adjusted to fit the needs of the employee, but from bpost too.

Environmental dimensions /

1. Detailed description The goal of the program is to obtain a secondary diploma. The program is adjusted to the needs of the employees and employers. For example: the program contains English, French, but ICT-class too. The group of students are selected based on motivation. The group is limited to 15 persons a time. The students are counselled by the company during the program to keep motivated. bpost pays for the whole education. The lessons are on Saturday, because then there were the least problems to fit in the program in the work-situation.

2. Analysis Innovativeness Only two other companies were enrolled in a program that is comparable. The program is adapted to the working environment, and fits the needs in time-management, skills… of both parties.

Key success factors The close counselling from the students. The adaptation of the program to the working-environment.

Sustainability The results are promising. Five people already finished the program. The success of the program is still.

Contributions to LLL Policy (Current frameworks, future frameworks in short and long term) The main contribution is the acknowledgment of the program, which was ‘custom made’. The other acknowledgment is that employees get a chance to get a diploma, which is important in our knowledge economy.

What could be appropriated by others? And how? The idea of a company facilitating programs for their employees can be appropriated in several forms, also the ‘custom made’ program, that fit the needs, are an advantage for both parties.

How does it contributes in qualify members for the Labs and experts for the Forums? The fact that this program is unique and a big success. Also bpost did all the work to make this program work (contacts with CVO, contacts with government...)

3. Lessons Learnt Regarding the building of a shared definition of LLL in LLL-Hub LLL in this example consist giving the chance to make it possible to get a diploma, in order to improve the work situation and options of a worker. It is a good link between labour market and education.

Regarding the possibilities of having practices in LLL which evolve and become more innovative The idea of leading people towards a diploma that can help them, instead of firing people for example, or just hire new people whenever needed, is a new and humane idea.

Regarding the key actors, their roles and activities in LLL The key actor in this example is a company; this shows that companies can play a significant role in the LLL to.

Regarding the appropriateness between local / national and European frameworks and how to act upon them to make them converge This program could be an example for other work areas and countries. The problem in Flanders specifically is that in the department of education differs in both languageregions (Dutch-speaking and French-speaking). This makes it hard to start a program that is comparable, the rules are different in both parts, because the goals of the both departments differ. The process to start a new program that doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t follow the same process as other programs (because of other learning hours for example), goes very slow. This despite all effort to start something that benefits both persons individually, companies, but the government too (reducing unemployment as a long-term objective). Also, companies arenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t informed about this kind of initiatives. There for there isnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t the possibility to exchange experiences between companies, to learn from each other...

Good Practice 2: Leren werkt! General Description Name / Title Leren werkt! (Learning works!)

Location / Country / Region Belgium – Flanders. The project started in the region of Leuven, but got widely spread over whole Flanders.

Short description (free text), key words ‘Leren werkt!’ is a cooperation between L4 adult education and the VDAB (Flemish service for employment and vocational training). Low-educated adults that are unemployed get the chance to learn a profession and to obtain their degree in one year. This training is called OKOT (= OnderwijsKwalificerende Opleidingstrajecten). Because of this, the chances of the learner on the labour market will be strongly reinforced. Besides, they will also get a better self-esteem.

Actors Involved (including LLL-Learners, facilitators, intermediaries, institutions, decision makers, etc. Target audiences: Low-educated adults that are unemployed for a long time. Partners: Educational organisations in the region of Leuven-Hageland-Tervuren such as: CVO Leuven-Tienen-Landen, CVO VTI Leuven, CVO De Oranjerie and CBE Open School. Next also the VDAB (Flemish service for employment and vocational training) was involved. With the support of the European social fund they could establish the project.

Time frame (when, how long, was it one shot or multiple, etc.) They started developing the project in 2011. Now, in 2014 the project is spread over whole of Flanders.

For which theme is this story relevant (main theme, keywords)? LLL The need for a degree on the labour market Synchronizing education with the labour market

Relevant

links,

websites,

etc.

http://www.lerenwerkt.org/professionelen/esf-project http://www.vdab.be De Hertogh, C., Peeters, K.,& Tratsaerts, P. (2014), Leren Werkt! Een nieuwe tweedekansleerweg voor laaggeschoolde werkzoekenden. http://www.lerenwerkt.org/sites/default/files/esf-project_leren_werkt_0.pdf. geraadpleegd op 16 december 2014

Background Links with national / regional priorities -

The Flemish qualification framework

The Flemish government puts emphasis on the development and valorisation of talents in different settings: adult education, part-time art education, taking exams in front of the Flemish examination board and the acquisition of prior learning. The government wants to improve the transition of education to labour by stimulating workplace learning, internships and part-time learning. In policy around Lifelong Learning there is a special attention for low chance groups

Political and Economic dimensions Our economy is more and more knowledge-based, so having a degree is becoming more important. 43,1% of unemployed adults in Flanders, is low-educated (Source: Arvastat, basisstatistieken werkloosheid – Vlaanderen augustus 2014). Higher-educated people are taking their positions and mostly low-educated people are in a less-advantaged statute. Bottleneck professions will be filled in when this group of unused potential workforces enters the labour market.

Social dimensions Being qualified leads to a higher self-esteem.

1. Detailed description ‘Leren werkt!’ is a cooperation between L4 adult education and the VDAB (Flemish service for employment and vocational training). Low-educated adults that are unemployed get the chance to learn a profession and to obtain their degree in one year. This training is called OKOT (= OnderwijsKwalificerende Opleidingstrajecten). Because of this, the chances of the learner on the labour market will be strongly reinforced. Besides, they will also get a better self-esteem. The CVO’s (Centre for adult education) are providing the theoretical courses that are necessary to receive the degree. The practical training takes place in VDAB-training centres. Because of the Flemish Qualification Framework and the connected validation of acquisition of prior learning, the students can get recognition for the competencies they learned elsewhere like for example in their previous job. To be allowed in the programme, the learner should be unemployed for a while and aligned to the VDAB, should be at least 22 years old, cannot have a degree secondary education and should be able to study full-time. If someone wants to study for a higher degree, he/she must find a job apart from school. Students with alimony can keep this during the whole year, because they are doing a full-time training of 35 hours a week. The training is free of charge and also the use of books, work clothing and working tools. They also get a free pass for public transport by bus and get €0,15 repayment for each kilometre when they have to go to their internship. Even, when the distance between the home of the student and the training-centre is big enough, he/she can get a repayment for housing. There is also a repayment for day care for children. If they finish the training, they also get a bonus. After the training there is also the possibility to get six months of career guidance by a consult of the VDAB. The students of this training also have some obligations. They are obligated to be present in class at all time and they have to sign the school regulations. After the training, they are obligated to accept each job offer that corresponds with the competencies they gained during the training.

2. Analysis Innovativeness The cooperation between the labour market and education is remarkable in this training. The students get a lot of practical courses and because of the cooperation with the VDAB which provide professional instructors, these students will be uppermost prepared to enter the labour market.

Another element is the fact that students can study and keep their alimony at the same time. Because of this, the barrier to start the training is less high. Apart from this there are also a lot of free services they can use during their studies which makes it easier to combine their private life with studying. For example, the child repayment for day care for children.

Key success factors -

The cooperation between the VDAB and the different involved schools for adult educations (CVO’s). The low barrier that is created for students to enrol in the programme.

Sustainability The project is spread over whole Flanders and there are regular evaluation sessions.

Contributions to LLL Policy (Current frameworks, future frameworks in short and long term) -

Connecting adult education to the labour market validation of acquisition of prior learning

What could be appropriated by others? And how? -

engaging different actors in the LLL-field

How does it contributes in qualify members for the Labs and experts for the Forums? The people involved in this programme are experts in the field of Lifelong Learning. They combine practice with the labour market and therefore they are excellent members for the lab. They have a unique view on lifelong learning and the way this can be made accessible for adults.

3. Lessons Learnt Regarding the building of a shared definition of LLL in LLL-Hub There must be a great emphasis on ‘labour market’ in the definition of LLL.

Regarding the possibilities of having practices in LLL which evolve and become more innovative It is difficult to cooperate between different organisations since the administrations of for example the VDAB and the education network (CVO’s...) are not synchronized.

Regarding the key actors, their roles and activities in LLL Try to cooperate with as many as relevant organisations as possible. Only because of the fact that the VDAB and the CVO’s acted together on this programme, it was possible to link the practical trainings given by the VDAB to a degree.

Good practice 3: Oscar

General Description Name / Title Oscar

Location / Country / Region Flanders

Short description (free text), key words Oscar is a portfolio method that edits competence documents (on paper and digital) that can be awarded by social-cultural organisations to the participants in these activities. The aim is to document learning experiences that have been acquired in non-formal and informal learning environments.

Actors Involved (including LLL-Learners, facilitators, intermediaries, institutions, decision makers, etc. Different sectors are involved: - Social-cultural adult work (Socius vzw) - Youth work (Ambrassade) - Cultural heritage (Faro) - Amateur arts (Formum voor Amauteurskunsten) - Municipal youth services (Vereniging Vlaamse Jeugddiensten) - Student councils (Vlaamse Scholierenkoepel) Flemish Community: the agency Culture-Youth-Sport-Media and the minister of culture.

Target audiences: Oscar provides competence documents for a general public. Social-cultural organisations can make use of Oscar for certain target groups or for learning experiences that are difficult to explicate. Oscar wants to articulate the competences in a language which can be understood and used by the recipient of the competence document.

Time frame (when, how long, was it one shot or multiple, etc.) Preparatory phase (2003-2008): Different sectors develop a common vision on the policy on the recognition of competences acquired in spare time, in non-formal education, informal education and voluntary work. In association with social-cultural organisations the decision was made to develop a portfolio method. Phase I (2008-2010): In February 2010 the portfolio instrument ‘Oscar’ was created, tested and launched. All this was based on a subsidy of € 300 000. Phase II (2010-2011): A project funding for the development of a wider framework for formulating and describing competences and the outlining of a communication strategy. Phase III (2013-2014): Operating funds for the further development of Oscar within the cultural sector.

For which theme is this story relevant 77

The aim is to document learning experiences which have been acquired in non-formal and informal learning environments.

Relevant links, websites, etc. www.oscaronline.be www.socius.be

Background Links with the European Framework Oscar was stimulated by foreign examples as the youth portfolio in Finland and a digital portfolio in the Czech Republic. Several foreign organisations/institutions, for example the folk high school of Vienna, showed interest in Oscar. Budgetary restrictions forces Oscar to keep the focus on Flanders. 

Recommendation of the European Commission (2012)

The European Commission has launched a new initiative to stimulate the recognition of competences which have been acquired in non-formal and informal learning environments. The Commission formulates a recommendation to the member states to develop a system to validate non-formal and informal learning. The European Commission wants to make these competences visible so that they can be used in the labour market.

Links with national / regional priorities The policy on the European and Flemish level focuses more and more on the integration of competences which have been acquired in non-formal and informal learning environments in the EVC-policy. It is essential in the EVC-story to recognise these competences and to make them visible. Documents where the importance of the documentation of EVC is mentioned: Strategy document - Schauvliege For the minister of Culture the recognition and appreciation of competences is an important pillar. There need to be a development of possibilities to recognise competences which have been acquired in non-formal and informal learning environments. Reflection document ‘Naar een geïntegreerd EVC-beleid’ This reflection document (2012) wants to start up a reflection about a coherent policy between different sectors (Labour, Education, Culture, Youth and Sport) about the recognition of competences. The document refers explicitly to Oscar and mentions three phases in the EVCprocess: the recognition, the evaluation and the validation. There is special attention to the first phase, the recognition of competences, in a coherent EVC-policy. Strategy document (2014) - Gatz This Strategy document refers to the visibility of competences which have been acquired in the cultural field. People need to be more aware of what they have learned end they need to be able to recognise these competences.

Political and Economic dimensions Competences that have been acquired in non-formal and informal learning environments, have to be visible so that they can be used in the labour market.

1. Detailed description Oscar is a portfolio method that edits competence documents (on paper and digital) that can be awarded by social-cultural organisations to the participants in these activities. The aim is to

document learning experiences which have been acquired in non-formal and informal learning environments. Oscar makes competences more visible both for the organisation/institution and the participant. On one hand it is interesting for the organisation to see which influence their activities have on the participants and which competences the organisation offers to the public and the civil society. On the other hand it offers the participants a document with the competences they have acquired in non-formal and informal learning environments. Oscar is a method to archive competences and competence documents in a personal (digital) portfolio. It can form the base for a learning biography. At the moment 18 233 persons received a competence document, 4 345 of them are registered online. In total 26 376 competence documents have been provided. The involved organisations (Socius, Faro and Forum for Amateur Arts) address to the minister of Culture for operating funds. This request for funds has 4 purposes. First, there is the need for a further development of the policy on EVC-procedures. Secondly, funds are needed for prospection and the introduction of new sectors in the culture policy. Thirdly, there needs to be attention for the implementation of the communication- and promotion plan. Finally, funds are needed to update the software.

2. Analysis Innovativeness 

The system, the way of formulating, describing and documenting competences is adaptive to the character of the learning experience and not vice-versa. A reflection about explicating competences takes place.



The focus is on the participants who are stimulated by the visualisation of their competences to use their competences more conscious in the future. They learn to distinguish the value of their own learning process, which leads to more awareness of the own knowing, skills and attitudes.



The manner in which organisations and participants reflect about their competences and the value of their learning in non-formal contexts can often lead to a more open and complete view on learning.

Key success factors 

The connection with the European and Flemish policy



The innovativeness of the project in the EVC-policy



The possible growth of Oscar within the cultural sector (libraries, community centres, cultural centres), but also within other sectors. This last one is difficult to realise because of the lack of funds in this sector to invest in other sectors, but the interest is definitely present.

Contributions to LLL Policy The European Commission has launched a new initiative to stimulate the recognition of competences which have been acquired in non-formal and informal learning environments. The Commission formulates a recommendation to the member states to develop a system to validate non-formal and informal learning. The European Commission wants to make these competences visible so that they can be used in the labour market.

What could be appropriated by others? And how?

The concept of Oscar, namely the visualisation and archiving of competences, is applicable in other countries. A software program needs to be developed and organisations that want to participate in the project have to be found.

3. Lessons Learnt Regarding the building of a shared definition of LLL in LLL-Hub In the context of lifelong learning it is important to make this process visible. Competences which have been acquired in non-formal or informal learning environments need to be made explicit and have to be documented.

Regarding the key actors, their roles and activities in LLL The learner plays a central role in process of documenting competences

8. Annex 3: Life Stories Life Story 1: Ali

ID of the LLL Learner Ali Safari Between 20 -25

Location / Country / Region Belgium (Flanders) He is from Iran

Short summary (free text), key words, …(Max 10 lines) Ali comes from Iran and received his degree of secondary education over there. He never worked in Iran but got experience in welding. He used to repair cars with some friends. The VDAB (Flemish service for employment and vocational training) motivated him to follow a training. He followed a preparing course NT2 (Dutch). Now he is enrolled in the course ‘mechanics’.

Actors Involved (including LLL Learners, facilitators, intermediaries, institutions, decision makers, etc. VDAB

Time frame (when, how long, was it one shot or multiple, etc.) /

For which theme is this story relevant (main theme, keywords) Importance of a degree Qualification of competencies LLL Studying in a foreign language Language education

Relevant links, websites, etc. http://www.lerenwerkt.org/cursisten/tweedekanstrajecten (in Dutch) http://www.vdab.be/opleidingen/ Background Personal context 81

Environment (professional, social, economic, etc.) /

Links with national issues and frameworks In Belgium it is extremely important to have a degree. Adults without a degree have difficulties in finding a job. They don’t even get invited for interviews.

Links with European issues and frameworks Recognition of competencies. Ali has a lot of experiences with mechanics in Iran.

Others The importance of the knowledge of the language you study in.

Detailed description (Max 60 lines) Ali comes from Iran and received his degree of secondary education over there. He never worked in Iran but got experience in welding. He used to repair cars with some friends. The VDAB (Flemish service for employment and vocational training) motivated him to follow a training. He followed a preparing course NT2 (Dutch). Now he is enrolled in the course ‘mechanics’. His current programme exist out of 50% theory and 50% practice.

Analysis Innovativeness Ali enrolled in a languages class before he started studying. This way, it is easier for him to process the courses and to work in practice.

Impact on the LLL-Learner LLL and professional Pathway Because of this training Ali will be able to get his degree and will be able to get a better and more sustainable job.

Key success factors His knowledge of Dutch is a great advantage. Starting a training in a language you don’t manage enough, is not effective.

Sustainability Ali will be able to find a decent job.

What could be appropriated by others? And how? Motivating people to enrol in a language course before they start a training.

What would you differently if the opportunity happened again (for you or somebody else) /

Lessons Learnt 82

Regarding the building of a shared definition of LLL in LLL-Hub /

Regarding the possibilities of having practices in LLL which evolve and become more innovative Motivating people to enrol in a language course before they start a training.

Regarding the key actors, their roles and activities in LLL /

Regarding the appropriateness between local / national and European frameworks and how to act upon them to make them converge /

Others (please specify)

Life Story 2: Lulieta

ID of the LLL Learner Lulieta Csomay 24 years old

Location / Country / Region Belgium (Flanders) Her mother is from Hungary

Short summary (free text), key words, …(Max 10 lines) Lulieta quit secondary school at 18, six months before she would get her degree because of a private situation. She always worked as a secretary in different companies. During her years at work she noticed that she did not get the opportunity to follow extra trainings like for example languages. She felt insecure and had the feeling she always had to prove herself more because she did not have the right piece of paper. She also got paid less than others while she was doing the same job. Because of this programme she has the financial opportunity to study. She enrolled in the course ‘commercial administrative assistant’. This is a cooperation between the VDAB and the CVO’s. This programme is that unique because of the fact those students are still getting their alimony while they are studying. This way they are also safe on a financial level. Her mother is from Hungary and obtained her degree over there. Once she came to Belgium it was nothing worth anymore, so she worked during her whole life in the catering industry. She has physical problems and had a surgery last year. Right now she has to stay home to recover.

Actors Involved (including LLL Learners, facilitators, intermediaries, institutions, decision makers, etc. She quit secondary school at 18 and never got the chance to study ever since. Until she heard about this programme.

Time frame (when, how long, was it one shot or multiple, etc.) She quit School at 18 and started the programme at 24.

For which theme is this story relevant (main theme, keywords) Importance of a degree Combination work and learning LLL Giving people chances to obtain their degree

Relevant links, websites, etc. http://www.lerenwerkt.org/cursisten/tweedekanstrajecten (in Dutch) http://www.vdab.be/opleidingen/

Background 84

Personal context Lulieta quit secondary school at 18, six months before she would get her degree because of a private situation. She always worked as a secretary in different companies. During her years at work she noticed that she did not get the opportunity to follow extra trainings like for example languages. She felt insecure and had the feeling she always had to prove herself more because she did not have the right piece of paper. She also got paid less than others while she was doing the same job. Because of this programme she has the financial opportunity to study. She enrolled in the course ‘commercial administrative assistant’. This is a cooperation between the VDAB and the CVO’s. This programme is that unique because of the fact those students are still getting their alimony while they are studying. This way they are also safe on a financial level.

Environment (professional, social, economic, etc.) Now Lulieta is living together with someone, she has the financial opportunity to earn less and to study in the programme. Her mother is form Hungary and is a single mother and worked in the catering industry.

Links with European issues and frameworks Synchronization of degrees in Europe (European Qualification Framework). Lulieta’s mother used to have a degree back in Hungary, which she can’t use in Belgium.

Others Awareness of employers towards education and training

Detailed description (Max 60 lines) At first Lulieta studied to become a hairdresser secondary school. This was physically too heavy, so she quit and started the training “office”. She quit six months before she would get her degree because of a private situation. She was 18 at that time. She always worked as a secretary in different companies. During her years at work she noticed that she did not get the opportunity to follow extra trainings like for example languages. She felt insecure and had the feeling she always had to prove herself more because she did not have the right piece of paper. She also got paid less than others while she was doing the same job. She thinks employers should pay more attention to training of their employees. When she moved in together with her boyfriend and got much more financial stability she went to the union and the VDAB to talk about her option. They directed her towards the course ‘commercial administrative assistant’. She got screened and tested and got accepted. Lulieta thinks the screening might become even more severe. She thinks they should also screen also on people’s appearance, clean language and attitude. Because of this programme she has the financial opportunity to study. The largest barrier for her to participate used to be her financial situation. Because of the time-consuming training, her private-life is running low at this moment. Also because she has to travel a lot to come to school each morning. She lives far away from the training centre, but there is no other centre that offers the same course. Lulieta gets a lot of support from her friends and family. They help her when she doesn’t understand something and without a decent support, she thinks that the training is almost impossible to finish.

Her mother is from Hungary and obtained her degree over there. Once she came to Belgium it was nothing worth anymore, so she worked during her whole life in the catering industry. She has physical problems and had a surgery last year. Right now she has to stay home to recover. Lulieta motivated her to talk to the union and the VDAB, but didn’t give her any clear advice about a possible training. She gets an income supplement because of her problems, but at the same time she could be studying this year. Lulieta thinks the VDAB focuses mainly on young people and does not motivate everyone enough to enrol in trainings.

Analysis Innovativeness Because of this training Lulieta will be able to earn more for doing the same job

Impact on the LLL-Learner LLL and professional Pathway Because of this training Lulieta will be able to earn more for doing the same job

Key success factors The support from friends and families and her great motivation.

Sustainability This degree will influence Lulieta’s carrier and wellbeing. She will feel more confident and get better jobs.

What could be appropriated by others? And how? /

What would you differently if the opportunity happened again (for you or somebody else) /

Lessons Learnt Regarding the building of a shared definition of LLL in LLL-Hub She sees LLL as ‘learning from every situation whether it is a positive or a negative one’.

Regarding the possibilities of having practices in LLL which evolve and become more innovative Raise awareness among employers about the importance of training and education.

Regarding the key actors, their roles and activities in LLL There is need for someone who motivates people actively to study and a better overview of the existing opportunities. They should also try to motivate people at a higher age to study and to obtain their degree.

Regarding the appropriateness between local / national and European frameworks and how to act 86

upon them to make them converge /

Others (please specify)

Life Story 3: Busra

ID of the LLL Learner Busra Student at CVO, Dutch classes married two kids

Location / Country / Region Belgium, but she is from Morocco

Short summary(free text), key words, …(Max 10 lines) Busra moved to Belgium, because the man she was going to marry lives there. She finished her master’s degree in biological engineering in Morocco. After living here for a few years, taking Dutch classes etc.… she still can’t find a job. She states that all her friends in Morocco who graduated the same year she did are now working.

Actors Involved (including LLL Learners, facilitators, intermediaries, institutions, decision makers, etc. Busra is an LLL-learner, taking classes at CVO (a centre for adult education) and she also is ‘member’ of an integration centre (de8).

Time frame (when, how long, was it one shot or multiple, etc.) Busra moved to Belgium in 2010, she has been here for four years now.

For which theme is this story relevant (main theme, keywords) Integration and not being able to find a job for not having enough experience.

Relevant links, websites, etc.

Background Personal context Busra moved to Belgium, because the man she was going to marry lives there. She finished her master’s degree in biological engineering in Morocco. After living here for a few years, taking Dutch classes etc.… she still can’t find a job. She states that all her friends in Morocco who graduated the same year she did are now working.

Environment (professional, social, economic, etc.) Bursa wants to be able to talk fluently in Dutch. Not only for working, but also or making friends here.

Links with national issues and frameworks National issue is that people need a degree as well as experience, if you lack one of them, it is very hard to find a job, especially if you are from a different origin.

Links with European issues and frameworks / Others / Detailed description Busra moved to Belgium, because the man she was going to marry lives there. She finished her master’s degree in biological engineering in Morocco. After living here for a few years, taking Dutch classes etc.… she still can’t find a job. She states that all her friends in Morocco who graduated the same year she did are now working. She could not find work so she started classes at CVO. After almost a year she started her studies of urbanism and planning in the ULB (university in Brussels). This did not work out because it took her so long to travel every day to Brussels (she lives in Antwerp) and because her little kid needed nursing. She then started working, but was underpaid. Meanwhile she also took classes of English, this for about one year. She also participated in classes to become a drawer, where she learned how to work with AutoCAD. It was almost impossible combining all this (working during the day, in the afternoon the English classes and in the evening the drawer courses) with the nursing of her two children, so after two years, she stopped working and she restarted her classes of Dutch at CVO. Recently, Busra went to de8, a centre for integration. They offered her the help of a mentor, a person who has got the same degree (biological engineering) as Busra herself. He/she will help her decide what she should do professionally and help her find a job. Now, Busra says that moving to Belgium, immediately after graduating, is her biggest mistake, in Morocco she could have found a job and the experience would be of more value in here as well.

Analysis Innovativeness

/Impact on the LLL-Learner LLL and professional Pathway If Busra learns how to speak Dutch, she may find a job more easily, especially with the help of a mentor from de8.

Key success factors / Sustainability Once she finds a job, she might still need her mentor, hopefully de8 will sustain her in that. When she finishes her classes, the only way to make sure her Dutch does not ‘fade away’ is to keep on practicing. Hopefully she finds a job, because she will be able to practice Dutch while working.

What could be appropriated by others? And how?

/ What would you do differently if the opportunity happened again (for you or somebody else) Busra says she would have never come to Belgium if she knew it was going to be like this. All her friends in Morocco are already working. She thinks that if she stayed there she would have found a job by now.

Lessons Learnt Regarding the building of a shared definition of LLL in LLL-Hub / Regarding the possibilities of having practices in LLL which evolve and become more innovative / Regarding the key actors, their roles and activities in LLL Integration is a very important subject. Immigrants often have the right qualities and the right degree, but they donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t find a job as easily as people from that country do (although nowadays finding a job is hard for everyone).

Regarding the appropriateness between local / national and European frameworks and how to act upon them to make them converge / Others (please specify) /

Life Story 4: Els

ID of the LLL Learner Els

Location / Country / Region Belgium

Short summary(free text), key words, …(Max 10 lines) She finished ‘caretaking’ at school, but after a few years of working, she discovered that she is not as interested in that as she first thought. She got a few classes of accountancy and she was very interested in them. She then participated in second chance education but she did not finish it. Later, she started to take the courses at CVO and this works very well for her. She only has to finish her internship and then she’ll be graduated. She started her graduate already and hopes to finish in two years. After finishing, she wants to start working as soon as possible.

Actors Involved (including LLL Learners, facilitators, intermediaries, institutions, decision makers, etc. Els is a student at CVO, a centre for adult education.

Time frame (when, how long, was it one shot or multiple, etc.)

In two years, hopefully she’ll be graduated. She first took a few other courses, so her trajectory is a little different. She did not finish her educational career in one shot.

For which theme is this story relevant (main theme, keywords) When you don’t know what you want to do with your life and later on in your life, you decide to switch career.

Relevant links, websites, etc. Background /

Personal context She finished taking care at school, but after a few years of working, she discovered that she is not as interested in that as she first thought. She got a few classes of accountancy and she was very interested in them. She then participated in second chance education but she did not finish it. Later, she started to take the courses at CVO and this works very well for her. She only has to finish her internship and then she’ll be graduated. She started her graduate already and hopes to finish in two years. After finishing, she wants to start working as soon as possible.

Environment (professional, social, economic, etc.) 91

Definitely professional, Els did not like the sector she was working in, so she decided to change.

Links with national issues and frameworks / Links with European issues and frameworks / Others / Detailed description She finished taking care at school, but after a few years of working, she discovered that she is not as interested in that as she first thought. She got a few classes of accountancy and she was very interested in them. She then participated in second chance education but she did not finish it. Later, she started to take the courses at CVO and this works very well for her. She only has to finish her internship and then sheâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll be graduated. She started her graduate already and hopes to finish in two years. After finishing, she wants to start working as soon as possible.

Analysis Innovativeness / Impact on the LLL-Learner LLL and professional Pathway Els takes courses that allow her to study what she loves. She found out she really like accountancy while studying something else and CVO gave her the opportunity to study accountancy. They will hand out her degree as if she studied accountancy right away after her secondary education. She will be able to find a job more easily because of the degree.

Key success factors / Sustainability / What could be appropriated by others? And how? / What would you differently if the opportunity happened again (for you or somebody else) / Lessons Learnt Regarding the building of a shared definition of LLL in LLL-Hub / Regarding the possibilities of having practices in LLL which evolve and become more innovative / 92

Regarding the key actors, their roles and activities in LLL LLL (in this case CVO Antwerpen) offers people a second chance. Els will be able to find a job she loves because of the degree they will give her. She now has an equal shot at finding a job as people who get their degree at a university or college.

Regarding the appropriateness between local / national and European frameworks and how to act upon them to make them converge / Others (please specify) /

Life Story 5: Lidia

ID of the LLL Learner Lidia 55 years old married

Location / Country / Region Belgium, but she is from Argentina

Short summary(free text), key words, â&#x20AC;Ś(Max 10 lines) Lidia is Argentinian, but she moved to the Netherlands for love. She worked there for 13 years but decided to move back to Argentina. Building a life there seemed impossible. They decided to move to Belgium, thinking it would be a new start.

Actors Involved (including LLL Learners, facilitators, intermediaries, institutions, decision makers, etc. In Belgium: First, Lidia tried to apply for courses from VDAB (they help adults get a job and offer courses specifically related to jobs as well). They refused to help her because she was overqualified. She decided to join Werk Met Zin, and now she gets career counselling. They help her in making choices.

Time frame (when, how long, was it one shot or multiple, etc.) 13 years of working with kids in the Netherlands.

For which theme is this story relevant (main theme, keywords) Integration, degree seems to be more important than skills, experience and knowledge

Relevant links, websites, etc. You can find Lindaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s complete story in the link below. It is written in Flemish though. http://werkmetzin.be/107-internationaal-talent-werkt/289-lidia-schinkelvertelt.html#.VHyR_sn07cc

Background Personal context Lidia is Argentinian, but she moved to the Netherlands for love. She worked there for 13 years but decided to move back to Argentina. Building a life there seemed impossible. They decided to move to Belgium, thinking it would be a new start.

Environment (professional, social, economic, etc.) She is now taking career counselling to get some help by her professional trajectory.

Links with European issues and frameworks / Others / Detailed description Lidia is Argentinian, but she moved to the Netherlands for love. She worked there for 13 years but decided to move back to Argentina. Building a life there seemed impossible. They decided to move to Belgium, thinking it would be a new start. In the Netherlands, she found out her degree is not of the same value as the ones handed out in the Netherlands. She was told she needed to study 2 and a half years more to get the same degree. Because she did not speak the language very good, she started doing different kinds of chores (helping children, helping older people,). She saw a vacancy in child care and filled out an application. They hired her and she worked 13 years with great pleasure, but was overqualified for the job. In Belgium, first, both Lidia and her husband took an inurement course. They tried to align their degrees, but it did not work for them both, because they were too old. Lidia started to work as a cleaning lady, because otherwise they would both be unemployed. The man she cleaned for offered a job to her husband as well. But after a few years, Lidiaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s body could not handle all the cleaning anymore. Lidia tried to apply for courses from VDAB (they help adults get a job and offer courses specifically related to jobs as well). They refused to help her because she was overqualified. She decided to join Werk Met Zin, and now she gets career counselling. They help her in making choices.

Analysis Innovativeness / Impact on the LLL-Learner LLL and professional Pathway Lidia is a very initiative taking lady, otherwise she would not have found any help. In Flanders, there are many sources you can use to get help, but you need to be the one who goes there and asks for help. And even if you do so, you might get rejected. Lidiaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s case shows us that looking for help while finding a job is not always that easy. She is now getting help after quite a while, but she still cannot find an appropriate job.

Key success factors Her story is not a success yet.

Sustainability / 95

What could be appropriated by others? And how? / What would you differently if the opportunity happened again (for you or somebody else) / Lessons Learnt Regarding the building of a shared definition of LLL in LLL-Hub / Regarding the possibilities of having practices in LLL which evolve and become more innovative / Regarding the key actors, their roles and activities in LLL Lidia is a perfect example of how you can try your very best, be integrated in the country, have a lot of experience, a degree (the one she got in Argentina) and still canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t find a job. This must be very frustrating, and since the immigration in Flanders reaches a high level, she canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t be the only one going through all of this.

Regarding the appropriateness between local / national and European frameworks and how to act upon them to make them converge / Others (please specify) /

Life Story 6: Linda

ID of the LLL Learner Linda

Location / Country / Region Belgium, but she is from Peru

Short summary(free text), key words, …(Max 10 lines) Linda is from Peru, but when she met her true love she decided to move to Belgium. He was a Belgian boy, traveling to Peru with his family and that’s how they met. She finished her studies first and then moved to Belgium. Now she is taking Dutch classes and she hopes that after her graduation, she will find a job.

Actors Involved (including LLL Learners, facilitators, intermediaries, institutions, decision makers, etc. Linda is the LLL-learner, CVO is the institution that offers education to adults.

Time frame (when, how long, was it one shot or multiple, etc.) She is now taking Dutch classes for 4 months, but only one month ago, she decided to start taking the courses in CVO Antwerpen, where we took the interview.

For which theme is this story relevant (main theme, keywords) Integration, experience seems to be more important than degree.

Relevant links, websites, etc. /

Background Personal context Linda is from Peru, but when she met her true love she decided to move to Belgium. He was a Belgian boy, traveling to Peru with his family and that’s how they met. She finished her studies first and then moved to Belgium. Now she is taking Dutch classes and she hopes that after her graduation, she will find a job.

Environment (professional, social, economic, etc.) She is taking classes to learn Dutch, so she can make Belgian friends, but most of all to find a job, so it is job-related.

Links with national issues and frameworks 97

National issue is that people need a degree as well as experience, if you lack one of them, it is very hard to find a job, especially if you are from a different origin.

Links with European issues and frameworks / Others / Detailed description Linda is from Peru, but when she met her true love she decided to move to Belgium. He was a Belgian boy, traveling to Peru with his family and thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s how they met. She finished her studies first and then moved to Belgium. Now she is taking Dutch classes and she hopes that after her graduation, she will find a job. She firstly started taking courses in CVO Rooseveltplaats, but they only offered courses where you learn how to write. She still takes these courses, but she also started participating in the courses in CVO Antwerpen in Hoboken (another campus) where they teach her how to peak Dutch. The day we had the interview, Linda was preparing herself fora n oral exam. She is now engaged with the man of her dreams, learning how to peak Dutch and hopefully she will get a job when she is finished with her Dutch classes. She earned her diploma for communication in Peru, so she already graduated over there. To make sure her degree as of the same value as the one she got in Peru, she still needs to write a master thesis. She hopes she will find a job in the sector of het degree, after finishing the thesis and finishing the Dutch classes.

Analysis Innovativeness In Belgium, a lot of immigrants take Dutch courses at CVO, this is not very innovative, but just a necessity.

Impact on the LLL-Learner LLL and professional Pathway Linda hopes that she will be able to find a job after she finishes her courses at CVO. She already got a degree in communication in Peru and she hopes this degree and the degree of Dutch will help her in her search.

Key success factors She is still looking for a job, so she did not book any success yet.

Sustainability / What could be appropriated by others? And how? / What would you differently if the opportunity happened again (for you or somebody else)

/ Lessons Learnt Regarding the building of a shared definition of LLL in LLL-Hub / Regarding the possibilities of having practices in LLL which evolve and become more innovative / Regarding the key actors, their roles and activities in LLL CVO offers Dutch courses to foreigners. Most of them already have a degree, so they hope taking the Dutch courses will help them to find a job.

Regarding the appropriateness between local / national and European frameworks and how to act upon them to make them converge / Others (please specify) /

Life Story 7: Nicolas

ID of the LLL Learner Nicolas Verdickt 30 years old

Location / Country / Region Belgium (Flanders)

Short summary (free text), key words, …(Max 10 lines) Nicolas is 30 years old and never obtained his degree. He did not finish secondary education because he failed his last year. He decided to start working and found a job in logistics. Later on he tried to continue his studies by second chance education and the Flemish exam board, but did not succeed because he could not combine this with his life at that point. Last year, his neighbour told him about the training of the VDAB (Flemish service for employment and vocational training) in cooperation with the CAW’s. He decided to follow the training ‘commercial administrative assistant’. For Nicolas, this programme is interesting, because he does not lose his independency. He still receives his alimony and is able to study at the same time.

Actors Involved (including LLL Learners, facilitators, intermediaries, institutions, decision makers, etc. First he tried to enrol in the regular second chance education. He was not able to combine this with his life at that point. Afterwards he tried to do his exams for the Flemish exam board, but it was too difficult to gather all the relevant study material. Because of his neighbour he enrolled in the course.

Time frame (when, how long, was it one shot or multiple, etc.) He dropped out of school at 18 and will normally achieve his degree when he is 30.

For which theme is this story relevant (main theme, keywords) Importance of a degree Combination work and learning LLL Giving people chances to obtain their degree

Relevant links, websites, etc. http://www.lerenwerkt.org/cursisten/tweedekanstrajecten (in Dutch) http://www.vdab.be/opleidingen/ Background Personal context

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Nicolas is 30 years old and never obtained his degree. He did not finish secondary education because he failed his last year. He decided to start working and found a job in logistics. Later on he tried to continue his studies by second chance education and the Flemish exam board, but did not succeed because he could not combine this with his life at that point. Last year, his neighbour told him about the training of the VDAB (Flemish service for employment and vocational training) in cooperation with the CAW’s. For Nicolas, this programme is interesting, because he does not lose his independency. He still receives his alimony and is able to study at the same time.

Environment (professional, social, economic, etc.) Nicolas used to work in logistics. He decided to study ‘commercial administrative assistant’ and used to study something alike in secondary school. Therefor he does not have to follow all the courses. Because he does not lose his alimony, he is able to study.

Links with European issues and frameworks /

Others He thinks mainly young adults should be more motivated to get their degree. He says that there is no one who stimulated him to study. Right now he says he can start thinking about the future, he never did that before. Employers should be more open for trainings in and outside the workplace. He had to explain to his boss why he wanted to go study because he couldn’t see the advantage of this. The only thing this man was thinking about was the fact that he had to find a new employee.

Detailed description When Nicolas was in secondary he started in economics. But after a few years he switched to assistant – languages. He did not finish his secondary school because he failed in his last year. He was demotivated and started to work. After two years he noticed he needed his degree to grow within the firm, so he enrolled in a second chance educational programme in Mechelen. This also did not work out, so he started working again in logistics. Throughout the years he got jobs with responsibility, but he noticed that he always had to prove himself first. At one time, he was responsible for 20 other employees. He knew he was able to do more with his life so tried to achieve his degree in front of the Flemish exam board. This was too difficult because he could not get the right study material. Last year, his neighbour who is enrolled in a programme at the VDAB told him about this project where he could study and get his alimony at the same time. For Nicolas this was the right combination and a chance to start over again. Because of his past in similar courses in secondary education, he does not have to follow each course. He does not have to go each day to school until January. From then on the programme will become much harder for him. He knows it will be difficult, since three years of education are put together in one year. He hopes he will be able to continue and to finish the whole programme. He thinks it might be better and more relaxing for students and employers to let the students work one month and study the next and so on. He thinks about people who study at a late age that they are taking advantage of society or at least he thinks that other people think like that. Apart from that he also knows that lifelong learning is important and he is beginning to act on it with his intention to study his whole life. After this, he hopes to study management or sports management in school at night. He does not know whether it will be possible to combine this with his private life, but he wants to try it.

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Analysis Innovativeness Impact on the LLL-Learner LLL and professional Pathway Nicolas got the confidence to study and to learn again. After many failures he is even thinking about continuing his education after this year.

Key success factors Although he does not have his degree yet, I think the economic support and the fact that he is strongly intrinsic motivated, will lead towards a success story.

Sustainability Having this degree will influence the rest of his life. He will be able to get better and more sustainable jobs and he will be able to grow faster within a company. The fact that he is more open towards education means also a lot.

What could be appropriated by others? And how? I think that his motivation and his case might be an example for others. Because of his courage he dared to fight for getting his degree in the end. I think he is an example of someone who will succeed in a programme like this.

What would you differently if the opportunity happened again (for you or somebody else) /

Lessons Learnt Regarding the building of a shared definition of LLL in LLL-Hub That apparently students might also have a negative definition or connotation when they talk about LLL

Regarding the possibilities of having practices in LLL which evolve and become more innovative Working more closely together with the labour market

Regarding the key actors, their roles and activities in LLL There is need for someone who motivates people actively to study and a better overview of the existing opportunities.

Regarding the appropriateness between local / national and European frameworks and how to act upon them to make them converge /

Others (please specify)

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