1. 1 Hana Čiháková (hana.cihakova@nuov.cz) THE CZECH REPUBLIC SITUATION IN CZECH RPL

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3. 3 PARALLEL CONCEPTION OF INITIAL GENERAL EDUCATION AND VET AT THE ISCED 3 LEVEL IN THE CR no remarkable problems with illiteracy or functional illiteracy of the adults everybody enters the life with initial VET qualification and the basis for LLL individuals ’ continuing education and learning thus runs, to remarkable extent, in all suitable forms

4. 4 WHY RPL IN THE CR ? has not been primarily caused by situation on the labour market, which is considerably deregulated, but by too rigid circumstances in the field of education - deregulated labour market only 5% unemployed at the moment - only 5% unemployed at the moment + training programmes offered by schools mostly focus on initial education and training + the certificates from continuing training offered by enterprises and private training organisations are not generally recognised socially (de facto) and mostly have no national-level formal validity (de iure) + there is a shortage of short modular programmes which makes it difficult to complement and enhance qualifications according to specific individual needs

5. 5 DEVELOPING OF THE AREA OF LLL IN THE CR 1. based on Act No 561/2004 Coll., School Act: a certificate of single examination as a part of the respective final examination, 2. based on the Act No 179/2006 Coll., on the Recognition of Further Education Results STEPS: creation of the national qualifications framework creation of the system of identification and validation of prior learning

6. 6 ACT NO 179/2006 COLL., ON THE RECOGNITION OF FURTHER EDUCATION RESULTS The act was approved in March 2006, came into force in August 2007; should motivate the adult population to further education; should expand the possibilities of individuals to gain new qualifications and improve their position on the labour market; should improve the reaction of the education system to the needs of the labour market.

7. 7 NATIONAL QUALIFICATIONS FRAMEWORK It is established in terms of legislation by a law (No. 179/2006 Coll.) Its main components are complete and partial qualifications described by qualification and assessment standards; It will be a common system framework for initial and further education and for the recognition of prior learning; It is connected up with the newly created National Occupations Framework and will be a bridge between the worlds of work and education, It will contain qualifications (qualification standards) divided (grouped) into eight qualification levels.

8. 8 ACT NO 179/2006 COLL. REGULATES THE NATIONAL QUALIFICATIONS FRAMEWORK NATIONAL REGISTER OF QUALIFICATIONS: publicly accessible register of complete or partial qualifications acknowledged, distinguished and recognised in the CR (will be maintained and published by NUOV) COMPLETE QUALIFICATION AND PARTIAL QUALIFICATION: CQ = professional Q of a natural person to duly perform all work activities pertaining to a relevant profession; PQ = professional Q of a natural person to duly perform a certain work activity or a set of work activities in a relevant profession or in two or more professions respectively, in the scope defined in a QS

9. 9 TARGET GROUP OF THE RPL IN THE CR unemployed and people at risk of unemployment with low or without any vocational qualification people with a qualification which is not demanded on the labour market people who effort to acquire qualification for the branch or field in which they already have their own business or perform services

10. 10 RPL AS PER THE ACT NO. 179/2006 COLL. To have vocational KSC for performing an occupational activity that can be carried out separately as a job To pass exam in compliance with a qualification and assessment standard of the respective partial qualification To acquire a certificate of a partial qualification To have certificates of several partial qualifications, that putting together enable to perform an occupation as a whole To submit certificates of partial qualifications stipulated for an adequate complete qualification and to pass examination stipulated for acquiring the complete qualification To acquire apprenticeship certificate, Maturita certificate etc.

11. 11 RPL AS PER THE ACT NO 179/2006 COLL. AUTHORISATION = A. of a natural person or a legal entity to verify applicants’ attainment of professional qualifications specified in QS for partial qualifications for which the authorisation in question has been granted AUTHORISED PERSON = a person or a legal entity who has been authorised AUTHORISING BODY = central administration body competent to make decisions on granting, extending or withdrawing the authorisation

12. 12 PROJECT UNIV Implementation of the system of RPL for the level ISCED 3C in network of VET schools which provide educational service for adults (www.univ.nuov.cz)www.univ.nuov.cz Pilot testing of the qualification and assessment standards in VET schools in 6 regions of the CR Guiding throughout the RPL process (the role of counsellor) Educating of the authorising persons (assessors) and counsellors Candidates did not pay any fee for the examination within the project

13. 13 COUNSELLOR to guide the client through the whole procedure of recognition and motivate him/her to achieve the best possible result to help the client to identify his/her prior learning to the widest possible extent and to participate in their formulation to assist the client to obtain relevant documents to prove that he/she possesses the required competences to suggest to the client suitable options for further education

14. 14 Authorised person does not know anything about the client  It is necessary to identify and verify every competence from the AS THAT IS WHY THE COUNSELLOR SHALL: - explore and record the client’s job and study career, - identify his/her competences (what are his/her abilities in terms of KSC), - assist him/her in creating the portfolio, ie. providing “proofs” (references, products, etc.). THAT IS WHY THE AUTHORISED PERSON SHALL USE: - examination, - demonstration in real or simulated work situations, - client´s self-evaluation. Specifications of RPL

15. 15 EDUCATION OF COUNSELLORS AND ASSESSORS Three-day educational course for counsellors and assessors. It is a six-module course, where modules are concerned with life-long learning and the process of prior learning recognition, with counselling and guidance of the client in the process of recognition of prior learning and with assessment of prior learning. Counsellors and assessors must be prepared and able to communicate with broad spectrum of clients with a different social background and from different environments; they must be able to adapt their communication to clients from different socioeconomic environments.

16. 16 Client acquires KSC within the non-formal and informal learning He/she needs the certificate of PQ The place where it is possible to acquire the certificate (UNIV) Guiding about RPL He/she decides to join to the RPL process

17. 17 COUNSELLOR – development of the portfolio; he guides client through the whole recognition process and at its end he carries out assessing and motivational interview with him AUTHORISED PERSON – recognition/refusal of proofs gathered in client’s portfolio + verification of all other competences according to the assessment standard COUNSELLOR motivates the client and advises him/her what should be the needed subsequent FE - for obtaining the aspired partial qualification (PQ) - for obtaining other related PQs – eventually the respective CQ

18. 18 PILOT TESTING 66 schools were involved in the UNIV project 94 teachers/trainers and social partners passed an educational course 24 partial qualifications were pilot tested 146 candidates passed examination for PQ (144 successfully) 32 candidates received all PQ which are necessary for acquiring of CQ 204 certificates of PQ were issued

19. 19 POINTS OF INTEREST How to motivate candidates to entry the procedure? Is counselling absolutely necessary part of whole process? Is correct to simplify the RPL process only to performing examination? How to assure quality assurance mechanisms? Which should be the roles of stakeholders at regional or local level (regional council, municipality, other social partners or providers of education)? How to involve them to the RPL process? Is it necessary for everything to be regulated on the national level by the law and NQF? How to assure accessibility of the RPL system for everyone? How old should be candidates entering the RPL process? Should candidate pay the fee for the examination (= RPL process)? Which problems could be find in implementation of the RPL system to higher qualification level?

20. 20 THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION www.nuov.cz Hana.cihakova@nuov.cz