The European Commission inform that the "European Validation Festival" will take place on 14-15 June 2018 in Brussels, Belgium at the EGG, Rue Barastraat 175, 1070 Brussels. The event page can be found here. 

The Festival will gather around 250 practitioners, experts, policy makers, and users from the worlds of employment, social partners, adult education and VET, youth, higher education, etc to showcase policies and practices, discuss the shape of validation of informal and non-formal learning in Europe, and reflect on the future.

The Festival is organised during two days in Brussels: The first day is built around an interactive marketplace with spotlight stands on regional, national, sectoral and European practices, as opportunities to meet, discuss, and learn with and from peers. Several thematic seminars will also take place. The second day will be a conference where the floor will be given to policy developers, validation practitioners and other actors.

There are several important points at this stage :

-              For the 40 spotlight stands on validation practices and initiatives which will demonstrate the richness and diversity of local, regional and national validation practices we would be grateful if you could send us by 17 April 2018 your suggestions of validation initiatives to be shared through the stands. Please provide us with full contact details and, if possible, links to the initiative or practice.

-              We would like to put together a continuous loop of short videos on existing validation practices in Europe.  We would therefore welcome any short videos on the topic which may be available in your country. We would like to ensure a good mix of initiatives representing diverse sectors and actors.

-              We are also preparing a new video on validation, including interviews and testimonials, e.g. beneficiaries of a validation process, education and training providers, youth centres, companies. Recordings will take place in May 2018. We would welcome your suggestions for good candidates for video interviews by 23 April 2018. We will gather all suggestions to make a balanced selection of people and locations and will keep you informed.

We will also send you in the coming weeks a working draft of the Festival programme for your input and comments.

For any questions, and to share your feedback, please contact: EMPL-E2-VALIDATION-FESTIVAL@ec.europa.eu. Colleagues are also very happy to discuss directly: Pedro Chaves (pedro.chaves@ec.europa.eu), Lieve Van den Brande (godelieve.van-den-brande@ec.europa.eu),Koen Nomden (koen.nomden@ec.europa.eu) and Carlo Scatoli (carlo.scatoli@ec.europa.eu).

Alison Crabb

Head of Unit, Skills and Qualifications

DG Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion

European Commission

Rue de Spa, 3

Office 4/009

B-1000 Brussels

Direct tel.: +32 2 295 9223

For any questions and obtain a template : EMPL-E2-VALIDATION-FESTIVAL@ec.europa.eu

European Commission

Directorate-General for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion
Unit E.2 – Skills and Qualifications

SPA 3/04

B-1049 Brussels-Belgium