Capability in non-institutional education: Features of acknowledgment and certification

Abstract

During the past few years a majority of the European Union’s members of highlighted the fundamental importance of lifelong learning and informal as well as non-formal learning in relation with capabilities (experiential learning). Furthermore, all these types of learning take place without and in addition to learning produced in formal education and training system. This widely-shared interest gave rise to an increasingly high number of political and practical educational initiatives, thus determining a transition from an
exclusive experimental stage to that of actual policy implementation. This paper examines the identification, characterisation and acknowledgement of informal learning and capability: it is therefore possible to propose eventual guidelines for the achievement of practical and shared European solutions.