Delivering Validation Existing practices and methods in the United Kingdom The WEA is committed to equality of opportunity and inclusive learning

General comments on the UK perspective Increased dominance of the Skills agenda which values accreditation over validation Reduction in the number of state-funded providers of informal and non-formal learning Employers (via Local Enterprise Partnerships) have greater say over all funding for post- compulsory education

Recognising and Recording Progress and Achievement in non-accredited learning (RARPA) A staged process designed to: Focus on and promote the needs and interests of learners Allow for negotiation of the content and outcomes of learning programmes Encourage learners to reflect on and recognise their own progress and achievement

RARPA Promote and support informed learner self- assessment, peer assessment and dialogue about learning between students and tutors Enables the achievement of planned learning objectives and learning outcomes not specified at the outset to be recognised and valued

The FIVE stages of RARPA 1.Aims appropriate to an individual learner of groups of learners 2.Initial assessment to establish the learner’s starting point 3.Identification of appropriately challenging learning objectives 4.Recognition and recording of progress and achievement during the programme (formative assessment) 5.End of programme learner self-assessment, tutor summative assessment, review of overall progress and achievement

About the WEA The largest voluntary sector provider of adult education in the UK In 2011/12 the WEA taught over 9,500 courses for 74,500 adult students from across England and Scotland

WEA in numbers Over 3000 volunteers including support workers and classroom assistants 2000 qualified tutors 9,500 courses or 227,235 hours of learning 60,000 members 420 core staff members

Links to the past The WEA’s business “is not to organise classes for whom it may be easiest to attract. It is to create a demand for education in individuals and bodies who at the moment may be unconscious of its importance to them, but who, if a tolerable society is to be created, must be won to believe in it.” R. H. Tawney Historian & President