Draft Resolution No 617 /XII

It recommends the Government for the valorisation and recognition of non-formal education

EXHIBITION OF REASONS

Framework

The debate and the call for recognition of non-formal education as a way to address

life-long learning, have been driven by organisations not-

government, social movements, animators in educational socio-context ( youth

workers) and by experts in education and pedagogy.

It is justly associated with associativism, with particular relevance to youth associativism, who

gives the opportunity to young people to participate and actively contribute to the

building a more inclusive, fairer, more supportive society, and guarding in

si the values of democracy and civic intervention. It is in the associativism that thousands of

young people have the opportunity to develop skills that will be useful to them throughout

all your life. The associativism, in its most varied dimensions, promotes the acquisition

from a wide range of skills such as those of organisation, project management, de

teamwork and leadership, strategic planning, conflict resolution,

initiative, trust, discipline and responsibility. These competences are acquired from

parallels and complementary to the formal system of teaching.

However, not always that work, nor the skills acquired, in its crushing

majority realized through volunteerism, are recognized, want politics, or

socially.

At a time when the unemployment rate in Portugal reached the value of 16.5% and the rate

of youth unemployment is situated in the 38.3%, it is widely propaled the need every time

larger of each person investing in their training and experience outside of formal education. The

called interpersonal competences ( soft skills ) are effectively valued by the

labour market. In fact, the associative experience is a riptive source in the

acquisition of those skills, potentiating individual gains with regard to the

employability, the development of personality and the creation of conditions for the

effective integration into active life.

Unemployment hits record values, the country watches a new wave of emigration and runaway

from brains to abroad, youth emancipation is increasingly tardy, and the return

to the house of parents is increasingly a reality. Facts that harm not only the indices

concerning employment, but which also have a consequence in civic, social participation and

election of people, who come as mirage dreams, personal achievement, trust

and happiness through the establishment of a life plan.

On the other hand, the school and university universe still does not coalesces with the

performance of any social or associative role that extravasates the reality of classes,

of the works and examinations. The idea of development of other skills does not

finds any kind of respald in the relationship with the obligations and goals they have of

be complied with by the students. In the same sense, the entry into the labour market does not

can be seen as the point at which education-non-formal or associativism leave from

have an essential role in the construction of the individual as a citizen. The associativism and the

recognition of the skills acquired through non-formal education should be

promoted throughout their life.

Best Practices

The platforms of youth organizations, such as the National Youth Council and the

National Federation of Juvenile Associations have, over the years, been advocing and

pugnate for the effective recognition of Non-Formal Education.

At the European level, the European Youth Forum has carried out a broad work of

study and defence of the importance of Education. In 2008, the publication " The sunshine report

on non-formal education " [ Report on nonfornal education ] collated experiences and

good practices in what it touches on non-formal education, pointing out good practices for your

recognition: In Belgium, with the Youth Diploma (Diploma in Youth)- where the

youth organisations are recognised as educational agents, and may issue

official diplomas for young volunteers in associations, and who had good results in

level of the increase in the employability of young people. In Austria, with special conditions in the

assignment and deadlines for extension of the scholarships, as well as the conversion of

associative work in ECTS for the leaders of the academic associations, having as

great more was worth the recognition of those structures for the deepening of the

democracy in the system of higher education.

Most recently, the European Youth Forum published the " Study on the impact of

Non-Formal Education in youth organizations on young people's employability "

[ Study on the impact of non-formal education on youth organizations on the

employability of young people ] which came to demonstrate that the labour market values the

skills acquired through associativism and non-formal education, but that

there are no mechanisms that allow to present those skills in a full way to the

employers in the application phase to a job posting.

International recognition of Non-Formal Education

The work of European and international instances in conceptualization and

recognition of non-formal education systems has been prolific. The Education does not-

formal has been recognized as a form of complement and response to the challenges of the

hodiernal society to which formal education, by itself is unable to respond. It Was

exactly in this sense that, already in December 1999 , the Parliamentary Assembly of the

Council of Europe recommended to the Governments of the Member States that

recognized non-formal education as a de facto partner in the process of

life-long learning and making it accessible to all.

The White Paper of the European Commission "A new boost to European youth" from 2001

came also to point the way to the need for community monitoring of the

education and lifelong training, recognizing that there is a space of growth

education outside of school or university.

The Recommendation 2003 (8) of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe came

point out pathways for the recognition of non-formal education, specifically

through the call to Member States to reaffirm that the education not-

formal today constitutes a fundamental dimension of the process of

lifelong learning and that they worked for the development of

effective standards for recognition of non-formal education as a part

essential of general and vocational education training.

The Member States were still called a actively encourage experiments

non-formal. education innovators, supporting the effective dissemination of documentation

relevant about good practices, training methods and application results

of that, as well as taking advantage of the potential of non-formal education while half

complement of integration of young people in society by supporting the increment of their

participate in o, and yet, to integrate non-formal education as a standout element

in national youth policies, allocating the necessary resources to the

implementation and recognition of non-formal education, learning programmes and

respective results.

The European Union has specifically recognised the topic in the Resolution 2006 / C168 of the

Council [Resolution of the Council and the Representatives of the Governments of the States-

Members, meeting in the Council, on the recognition of the value of learning not

formal and informal in the field of European youth] : Among several recommendations,

stands out for the invitation to Member States to recognize and support, within the framework of

respective skills, the specific input provided by youth organizations and

other nongovernmental organizations for the provision of non-formal learning and

informal.

This recommendation also finds expression in the New Framework for Cooperation in

matter of youth (2010-2018) [Council Resolution of November 27, 2009

on a renewed framework for European cooperation in the field of youth], which

predicts that, as a complement to formal education, must be fostered and recognized to

non-formal learning of young people, and better links should be developed between teaching

formal and non-formal learning.

The UNESCO has recently put into gear a system of validation of competences and

of the non-formal education schemes carried out by the organizations of the Society

Civil, and the OECD (through two recent studies, Non-formal and informal

learning: outcomes, policies and practices , from 2010 and Better skills, better jobs, better lives. The

strategic approach to skills policies , from 2012) it has also recognized the value of the

skills acquired outside the school as a source of knowledge and capabilities that the

formal education system does not yet provide.

The above mentioned documents indicate a trend that already goes back to the inception of the

first decade of the twenty-first century, and it is both within the Council of Europe, and within the

European Union, which has seen the biggest development of the framework of the

Non-Formal Education, specifically through the Youth Programs in Action and

Grundtvig-Education throughout Life.

Thus, under the applicable constitutional and regimental provisions, the Deputies of the

Parliamentary group of the Socialist Party, present the following Resolution Project :

The Assembly of the Republic resolves, in accordance with point (b) of Art. 156 of the Constitution

of the Portuguese Republic, recommend to the Government:

1-Que atue in the sense of the effective recognition of non-formal education and the

life-long learning by providing for the possibility of certification of the

skills acquired through active participation in the associative movement

of volunteer cariz.

2-May consider European good practices in the direction of promoting the

formal recognition of juvenile associations as educational agents, in a manner

to which associative work is integrated into the curriculum valorisation.

3-How to carry out a national strategy of promoting citizenship, of the

associativism and volunteerism that makes it possible to achieve due conciliation between the

associative work and school and professional life.

4-What to value in this context the fact that Portugal, in the framework of the network of cities

educators, have one of the most dynamic and most engaged territorial networks in

spreading education for citizenship, as a route to the implementation of projects

concretes directed at all audiences, with special emphasis on young people

Portuguese.

Palace of Saint Benedict, February 14, 2013,

The Deputies,