Last week I was in Munich for the kick off meeting of a new European project called ICOVET. ICOVET is looking at informal or non formal learning for socially disadvantaged young people. The aim is that through making competencies visible it may be possible to develop self confidence and esteem and to provide new opportunities in terms of accessing employment or formal learning.

Whilst the idea is simple there are many issues which need sorting out - for example -

• Soft validation or hard testing - methods and standards

• For whom - for learner or for prospective employers or training institutions

• Making competencies visable for formal training system or making visible to be used for more formal or informal personal learning

• How do we define disadvantaged young people

• What is non traditional learning - non intentional or informal learning?

One thing that we have to develop is a model of learning and knowledge which includes different types of competencies other than those gained in formal learning situations. For this we agreed to adopt the 'Starfish Model' - developed through previous projects - 'Tacit / Key' and 'Self Evaluation'. I am building a web site which will provide access to the work of these projects. In the meantime I am posting two papers - one by Karen Evans and Natasha Kersh from the Institute of Education in London on their work in the self evaluation project and a second - much older and somewhat academic paper on different types of knowledge which I wrote for a project on the training of teachers and trainers.

If you have any comments on these papers just use the Discussion link below this posting.

PaperECER-Self-evaluation.doc
FNLCH8-1.doc