The project BADGES has aimed at valorising the huge lifelong learning potential of European cultural and natural heritage sites.Nowadays the concept of lifelong learning is strictly connected with the validation of non-formal and informal learning and the relevance of recognizing the entire scope of knowledge and experience held by an individual, irrespective of the learning context is widely remarked. Despite the growing interest and the European institutions’ strong commitment to promote validation systems in different learning situations, there are contexts, such as the heritage and cultural sites, where concrete experiences of competence validation are rather few and scattered.BADGES developed a fully fledged methodology to support both cultural and natural heritage sites in offering learning enhancement experiences to their visitors, and the opportunity to have the new knowledge and skills acquired during the learning experience recognised and validated.BADGES developed:•a methodological frame for competence based informal and non-formal learning in cultural and natural heritage•a CPD Programme for cultural and natural heritage staff capacity for developing and organizing validated informal and non-formal learning at their sites•a European system for issuing electronic badges as a certificate for competence development•and eventually created a community of interest around this topic and support the creation of a ‘badging culture’ as part of an approach to personal and professional development and to employabilityThe main target groups of the project are:-Professionals working in museums, other heritage or cultural organisations, natural parks, archaeological sites that will be able to issue the badges linked to their mission.-People visiting cultural sites, nature parks, historical sites, etc. that can be invited to make the most of the experience by getting a badge.The project started with a research on:•Good practices in European cultural and natural heritage sites•Heritage professionals’ needs in terms of educational methodologies•Successful examples of electronic badges usageThe results of this study laid the basis for setting up the core components of the BADGES methodology.An inventory of relevant competences was identified, relating to transferable social, personal and organisational competences (SPOC) that may be acquired in the specific learning contexts and also field competences connected to the cultural and natural heritage topics. The description of the competences followed the LEVEL5 validation system, a well proven methodology to validate social and personal competences acquired in informal and non-formal learning. For each competence, a framework will be set up along the dimensions of knowledge, skills and attitudes. A validation system was set up considering the stages: Identification, Assessment and Documentation of competences and their Certification with Badges.The Badges issuing system is based on an open learning space (the LEVEL5 learning suite) consisting of different OER components Mahara (e-Portfolio and Moodle as open source Learning Management System. The system is connected to the LEVEL5 software which issues certificates as qualified badges since it is build on a specific taxonomy.The BADGES approach creates a transferrable learning system that connects the competence framework with individual learning pathways in heritage contexts.All the components of the BADGES methodology were transferred to a group of recruited professionals working in the field of cultural and natural heritage that will be invited to attend a European short-term course. After the course the participants designed and offered a competence based learning pathway to the visitors of their heritage sites. Though this activity was not funded anymore the application of the BADGES methodology in real-life cases gave important feedbacks to fine tune the products developed.The project main outputs were wrapped up in the BADGES Toolkit which is freely available. In order to maximise the impact of the project the partners put in place a structured valorisation strategy which is based on the coupling with the REVEAL network to ensure the continuity of the activities, the exploitation of the BADGES products. The valorization strategy includes the mission of the BADGES community, descriptions of the products and services and the network strategy and organisation. This way the qualified badging system and the whole CPD approach shall be valorised for cultural and natural heritage institutions throughout Europe in promoting the learning experience among their visitors.During numerous national and European events the project was highly recognized by heritage professionals and was widely disseminated to the European Community of professionals working at cultural heritage sites and those stakeholders who consider cultural heritage education as an enrichment of their adult education.

"Within the framework of the “KA2 - exchange of good practices” the project wanted to identify, analyse and synthesise success models of work-based learning starting from good practices and innovations from each partner. The partners were involved in WBL at various level (apprenticeship, general work-placements, dual system, on-the-job training..), some have a long experience and some others have a long experience in training young people but are new to the dual system. For this reason, the idea was to compare success factors, exchange lesson learnt and learn from each other to create a model to train students as workers with technical skills with soft skills. The focus was meant to be also on the role of the trainer/mentor in companies. Starting from well established experiences the project wanted to underline their characteristics and transfer or/and adapt them to the different national contests, keeping in mind the different legislation too. The project lasted 36 months and involved organizations from Italy, Spain, Portugal, Germany, Belgium, United Kingdom and Bulgaria. After an initial preparation phase the partners met in Italy, Germany and Portugal to focus on the following topics: • differences between vocational training to train for professional/technical skills worker and vocational training to train for the soft skills; • vocational training and models for WBL; • vocational training between tradition (Italy, Spain, Portugal) and innovation (Germany, Belgium, Bulgaria); • the role of trainers as coaches or mentors or educators; • the role of the companies and the company mentors.For each organization there was a project manager, an educator/coordinator and 3 or more trainers involved in WBL according to different features (apprenticeship, work-placement, internship, dual learning). Each organization has also involved their most trusted companies, available for interviews and meetings. Starting from the mapping of their best practices, the organizations shared them through a common framework and, where possibile, through visits on the field. Taking into account the critical points and the needs of the learners a learning activity has been organized in the second half of the project. The main need was that of the ""soft skills"": their transferability from the trainers to the students and their evaluation. The LEARNING ACTIVITY, which was the main result of our project, involved 28 participants: in 5 online working days and many more at a distance the partners used tools to reflect on their process and methodologies for WBL. Using as a base the ""7 principles"" of Needs Base Working in the Belgian model and with interactive methodologies, the partners explored the different features of the WBL process and learnt from each other sharing their working methodologies, tools and also acquiring a new awarenss which proved quite effective."

REVEAL - Reconstructing an Environment for continuing professional development and Validation for Educators in Adult LearningThe REVEAL project was based on a series of successful projects in the field of VINFL and will be carried out by a consortium of partners with a long experience in European project collaboration from DE, GR, IT, BE, SK, LT, IE and NL working in Adult Education and bring in substantial expertise to support the implementation of VINFL as cross- sectorial approach.The project aimed primarily on the professionalisation in Adult Education, a sector which is rather heterogeneous in structure and joint approaches and which lacks a truly European approach to Continuing Professional Development (CPD) of educational staff working therein.The ERASMUS+ Key Activity 1 is certainly the flagship of European funding for CPD in European mobility and the amounts for staff mobility have been substantially increasing over the last years, with an ever rising tendency in future.However, as the REVEAL project found out in its stocktaking phase (IO1), there is a lack of clarity among the AE sector where to find high quality CPD offers on the one hand and how a high quality CPD should look like, since European validation systems and instruments have not really been implemented in the KA1 system and in CPD for Adult Education in general yet. KA1 courses ought to be a source of professionalization on the European level but there in the past there was no central platform where professionals could find high quality Continuing Professional Development courses and course providers can advertise and organise their courses and learning offers according to professional and European standards.As the REVEAL project found out in its first IO, most of the professional stakeholders such as grant owners, course providers and also staff in the National agencies and at the European Commission are concerned about this fact and would want a tool which tackles this challenge.There is also a lack of a comprehensive, high quality CPD approach including learning and teaching materials for the professionalization of adult educators. Until 2018 there was also no systemic approach based on a sound competence taxonomy that interconnects Continuing Professional Development for Adult Educators to the EQF system – which hampers a systemic approach to a true European validation of professionals in adult education in these EU-funded courses.REVEAL combined existing approaches of frameworks for professional competences for adult educators and compiled a CPD system which relates to an ECVET based qualification. The core output of the project is the REVEAL Implementation strategy for the Professionalization of Educational personnel in Adult Education (O6).It compiles a fully-fledged European qualification for educational professionals for Competence Oriented Learning and Validation (COL&V), which was designed, developed and piloted with a group of 22 professionals in blended learning methodology (O5). The COL&V learning programme was delivered in blended learning including the REVEAL learning suite – a rich open, web-based CPD environment consisting of OER learning technologies, namely mahara e-portfolio, Moodle LMS (also as mobile app device with a badging mechanism and the LEVEL5 validation software, all combined with seamless transfer between the systems.The a combined learning and validation environment (O3+O4) was developed on the basis of a sound technical ECVET specification (O2).The specification is grounded on a research survey (O1) that addressed KA1 course providers, KA1 educational institutes, KA1 learners (professionals), their requirements and experiences on competence development and validation.REVEAL learning technology partners also developed the PROVIDE platform (O4), which is an attractive showroom for KA1 CPD offers, sending organizations and individuals as participants of European KA1 mobility.The PROVIDE platform is a place where professionals find high quality Continuing Professional Development (CPD) courses and course providers can advertise and organise their courses and learning offers according to professional and European standards.REVEAL created for the first time a system that allows the European educational community (sending organisations, course providers and the learners):-to communicate and manage their European development plans online-to match sending organisations and course providers along quality criteria-to integrate validation of competences and competence developments-to set up personal qualification profiles for each individual learner and to connect these to EUROPASS, ECVET and LEVEL5 instruments.Therefore, the REVAL project will strongly contribute to the professionalization of educational personnel in adult education and will ensure a quality check for KA1 courses based on European standards.