© UNESCO
Portugal has developed one of the most advanced systems for Recognition, Validation and Accreditation (RVA) in the world, with support from the European Social Fund. The New Opportunities Initiative (NOI) is a national strategic plan to speed up the pace of secondary level achievement in the Portuguese population in order rapidly to catch up with European averages. In December 2005, with NOI, the Portuguese Government established a national priority to raise the qualification levels of the Portuguese population, in line with the renewed Lisbon Strategy and the European Agenda for economic growth and social cohesion.
In essence, the NOI is a vast public sponsored programme including Accreditation of Prior Learning (APL), Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) and adult education, targeted at the entire Portuguese low-skilled adult population (estimated at around 72% of the labour force finding itself below secondary studies, or circa 3.5 million adults according to the 2001 Population Census).
Five years after the announcement of the NOI, about 450 Centres for New Opportunities were put in place to operationalise the Initiative ‘on the ground.’ These NOC have registered a record 1.6 million enrolments and have topped the impressive figure of 430,000 certifications (equivalent to 9th and 12th grades).
The number of Centres for New Opportunities has recently been reduced to 200, and the relationship between certification by them and salary increase or employment among successful learners is being surveyed.
At a seminar on 28 March at Portugal’s National Agency for Qualification and Vocational Education, and with the participation of the Vice-minister of Education and the Vice-minister of the Economy and Employment, UIL’s Director Arne Carlsen made a presentation of UNESCO’s forthcoming Guidelines for the Recognition, Validation and Accreditation of the Outcomes of Non-formal and Informal Learning.
