• Micro-credentials and Individual Learning Accounts, Registers

Micro-credentials and Individual Learning Accounts represent supporting measures that can enable a wider part of citizens and, in particular, workers exercise their rights: the legal subjective right of adults to education and training and to paid educational and training leave.

The results of the AES 2022 Survey show how over 90% of adult learners in Europe only participate in short-term activities. About half of these participate in non-formal activities for an average of 84 hours per year per person, and probably not certified. For the other half the average is 144 hours. The Survey also shows how the inability to bear the costs (28.7%) and Because Training conflicted with work schedule/was organized at inconvenient time (39.6%) constitute two obstacles to access for large segments of the population.

In many countries, all over the world, there are experiences of adoption of both of these two policy measures by States and social partners. Their implementation may constitute a step forward, or a missed opportunity.

The numerous ongoing experiences show that this is a challenging path. The quality of the results depends on the political choices made in the construction of the two devices. The effectiveness of Individual Learning Accounts seems to depend on the limits placed on the real freedom of choice of adults (margins of freedom in choosing providers, types of offers, costs and time). At the same time, the effectiveness of microcredentials seems to depend on the choices made by the legislator regarding factors such as: the existence of a short-term, high-quality training offer that goes beyond the various "walled gardens" (in institutions for training, in professions, in the workplace); the quality of suppliers is still little linked to the learning outcomes achieved by participants and more to formal accreditation systems; the boundaries placed on the usability of microcredentials.

Public policies have a limited impact if they do not adopt an open approach to the challenge posed by the growing accountability of private providers, whose offer of microcredentials also greatly exceeds that of the public system. This raises the problem of dialogue between public and private systems of accreditation and certification of learning outcomes. Furthermore, if the objective is the development of adult learning outcomes, how can we balance the need to guarantee the existence of a quality offer with its actual products: the learning outcomes actually achieved by adults?

And again, to what extent can the adoption of microcredentials be integrated into the different levels of formal education? And finally, how can we protect the non-formal and informal system from a “credentialist” drift that reduces the margins of innovation of open and free educational processes?

The meeting in Florence has the aim to identify how micro-credentials combined with Individual Learning Accounts represent innovative elements (different approaches) compared to current training and funding systems and how they can become an effective  demand-side incentive for individuals and employers, establishing the way for a more inclusive and adaptable ALE ecosystem and to verify the possibility to

a. Identify topics and challenges to develop further initiatives on ILAs, micro- credentials and related supporting actions (such as registries, credentials tools and quality assurance systems), at transnational level, with a focus on implementation and piloting actions, also building on current experiences such as the RALExILA project (https://ralexila.eu/);

b. Call for a review issue dedicated specifically to IlAs and Micro-credentials, as added value from existing studies;

c. Opportunity for the development of a transnational capacity building and training program on quality assurance for ALE/non-formal education and related micro-credentials, focusing on internal and external QA processes.