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.