The model of competences in the European perspective

The model and the organization of to-day’s society supports a kind of learning which follows the individual along his whole life. Thanks to the diffusion and the application of new technologies in daily life, the individual has the chance and the opportunities to acquire new competences or to enlarge and strengthen the ones already mastered. Even the formation of the young feels the effect of this new organization of our society. Young people’s formation is no longer necessarily and strictly linked to school courses: by the side of structured formation, there are lots of informal formation opportunities. They allow the acquisition of the most various knowledge and competences ranging from basic to professional competences and which surely permit the implementation and the strengthening of transverse competences. With regard to competences, they are meant as follows:

By basic competences we mean those commonly acknowledged and which grant a new right of citizenship both in society and in the working market; they are real and true requisites “to get a job and for professional improvement” (the ability to read, write and count in a complex and global society, computer science, a foreign language and so on). Most of these competences can be acquired in traditional school paths.

By professional competences we mean those linked to operative aims and operative techniques. They belong to activities to specific functions or working processes.

Transverse competences are those characteristics and those individual operating manners involved when a subject acts to face the environmental requests. These competences are essential to have a professional behaviour able to transform a pure knowledge into an effective working performance (ability to do – know how). They are, therefore, competences developed in actual situations in well defined contexts and circumstances. (diagnosis, communication, problem solving activities and so on…). In the acquisition of these competences a determining role is played by conditions and circumstances external to the common school courses.

The knowledge defined as formal formation is acquired in the traditional instruction system: its goals, its knowledge and the competences to be transmitted are easy to be identified. On a different level we are when we refer to informal learning; it is acquired in contexts which are external to the traditional system: its contents are mingled one into the other, their outline is not so sharp and, as a consequence, they are more difficult to individuate and evaluate. The latest studies, considerations and remarks referring to the formation of the young, the ascertainment of the increasing phenomenon of their leaving and entering the institutional routes, clearly highlights the importance of informal learning in the development of competences. The need to make visible and accurate this part of formation is really strong. During the last ten years most of the States members of European Union have become aware of the importance had by that kind of learning occurring outside and in addition to the official instructions and formation channels. These states have carried out a great deal of political and practical initiatives and are changing from an experimental phase into an effective status. We are only at the initial phase of the development of socially shared models which could, eventually be institutionalised. At he moment the initiatives are considering a reference target consisting mostly of adult people, workers and unemployed looking for a job. School aged boys haven’t been the target of such an area of interest yet.

An outlook on Europe

A lot of experiences referring to adult people can be found in Europe. These experiences, aiming at taking the subject to a self awareness of one’s own competences, can be named as balance of competences, orienting, mentoring, coaching. To each experience corresponds a peculiar cultural system, very different from the others; as a matter of fact the institutional context where they are set is extremely varied and, therefore, these techniques and tools are not easy to be exported and adopted elsewhere. A recent Cedefop research called “ Making Learning Visible” detects five groups of countries representing five different approaches to the identification, evaluation and acknowledgement of those competences attained outside the formal learning. According to this research, although each group has a singular role in the choices, in the methodological and institutional approach adopted, geographic proximity and institutional affinity cause these countries to share analogous paths.

1° group Germany Austria.

2° group Greece, Italy, Spain, Portugal

3° group Finland Norway Sweden and Denmark

4° group Great Britain Iceland and Netherlands

5° group France and Belgium

1° group: Germany, Austria – Dual Approach

These two countries are marked by a strong integration between instruction and formation and have they have been showing a sort of reluctance to embrace this new trend. Nevertheless there are various experimentation and a growing attention to these issues.

2° group: Greece, Italy, Spain, Portugal – Mediterranean approach

In these countries the informal learning is relevant. A favourable attitude towards the research of systems to acknowledge non-official learning can be found. The various interventions did not allow to introduce either institutional evaluation and acknowledgement practice or an acknowledgement system concerning informal credits in the plan of studies.

3° group Finland, Norway, Sweden and Denmark – Nordic approach

It is not a real and true Nordic model. These countries have different formative choices and operates according to programs which can be even different at a certain extent. These choices did not prevent these four countries from strengthening the link between instruction and official formation on one side and the learning outside the school. This relation could be realized thanks to legislative and institutional initiative introduced since 1994-1995.

4° group Great Britain, Iceland and Netherlands – NVA approach

These countries firmly believe that the learning occurring outside school courses represents a valid and important method to the acquisition of competences. Object of discussion is the modality by which realizing this system. No doubt the British model is a reference point for a wide number of member states. A wide review of standard was developed thanks to the observation of the intensity of working behaviour of thousands of managers, technicians and workers. These standards define a competent professional performance in a defined context or productive environment. These standards do not refer to levels, but simply point out if the performance satisfy the minimum requirements. At the moment there is a yearly updated database numbering more than 5000 units covering almost the all of the productive environments and areas.

5° group France and Belgium – Diplomas and certificates

France is surely one of the most advanced countries with reference to identification and acknowledgement of informal learning. Under the influence of the French experience Belgium, although less active, has recently taken some initiatives. The first French action date back to 1985, when balance of competences was introduces. It is a tool used at the entrance, during and at the getting out from any formative process. It is used in critical and urgent phases such as re-conversion and professional mobility, nevertheless it sets itself as a tool to elaborate a proper and individual personal project at medium term according to the motto “evaluate to evolve”. The second French initiative was to open the system of instruction and national professional formation to competences acquired outside institutional paths. Since 1992 it is possible to attain pass certificates (professional attitude certificates) based on the evaluation of what was learned in the preceding periods and till now not officially acknowledged. The third initiative was supported by the Chamber of Commerce and by the French industries. It purpose was creating evaluation standards and procedures independently from the official instruction and formative system. It considers as a reference the European normative EN 45013 concerning the certification of personnel.

BUSSOLA project in the European context

In the light of such review it is important to understand which functions need to be fulfilled in order to identify, evaluate and acknowledge non official learning; it should be realized not only for adults in difficult situation, but also for young people in formation. National and European data consider the school drop-out phenomenon both as abandonment and as repetition. It has roots in contexts which consider the school experience as something separate from their daily life. The separation determines uneasiness and represents one of the most commonly denied school problem among young people aging between 14 and 18. European decisional structures should urgently focus on the problem of the young orienting and should determine a model of balance of competences taking into account also everything acquired outside the traditional routes of institutional formation. This is the goal of our work: setting 14-18 aged young at the centre of the attention. We will highly consider his patrimony of competences acquired inside and outside school routes; his need to develop and create his own project to valorise them. The individual should follow a professional and personal development which may not suffer from discontinuity of learning and useless overlapping of interventions. The repetition of the same path already followed is extremely and inevitably generates lack of motivation, boredom, no interest towards learning. Visibility and transparency of any kind of competence allow to build a model which may support the analysis of one’s own real ability and may define one’s own development plan. We should delineate a system able at orienting and at helping to orient oneself. This system should start from the knowledge and evaluation one’s own patrimony of competences. These competences will be considered independently from the where and when they take place and from the used learning methods which vary from region to region, from situation to situation and above all from individual to individual. The achievement of these goals will allow to intervene both on the learning processes to be improved and contextualized and to create an acknowledgment system of credits aimed at the certification.