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Skills recognition and validation – complexity and tensions
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Advisor(s)
Abstract(s)
This article seeks to identify and examine the reasons for the complexity
and tensions underlying the skills recognition, accreditation and
certification scheme (SRAC) that has been in place in Portugal since 2001.
Empirical data were collected through semi-directive interviews with staff
in three Centros Novas Oportunidades [CNOs] [New Opportunity Centres]
(organisations delivering the SRAC process), and biographical interviews
with adults who have completed the scheme. The complex nature of the
assumptions associated with skills recognition and accreditation practices
and the tensions raised by their underlying paradox are important factors.
It is the particular features of the aspects that SRAC practices analyse and
assess, i.e. prior experiential learning, that generate this complex nature.
These practices are marked by a paradox that arises because these
processes, initially based on a humanist approach, are currently linked to
a very different ideology. This complexity and these tensions are reflected
in the way skills recognition and accreditation schemes are organised and
function, and are evident in the comments of staff in the CNOs studied,
who play a key role in managing such complexities and tensions.
Description
Keywords
Skills recognition Accreditation and certification Adult education and training Experientional learning Assessment Ethnomethodological perspective Portugal
Pedagogical Context
Citation
Cavaco, C. (2009). Skills recognition and validation – Complexity and tensions. European Journal of Vocational Training, 48, 116-132.