The TRANSVAL-EU (Validation of transversal skills across Europe) project addresses the complex issue of validation of transversal skills. On one hand, employers place an increasing importance on transversal skills. On the other hand, transversal skills are only an implicit part of the existing validation and guidance processes.

There is a need to make the validation processes of transversal skills acquired in non-formal and informal settings explicit and to embed the lessons learned in validation and guidance policies. 

TRANSVAL-EU proposes to experiment innovative approaches for the validation of transversal skills acquired through non-formal and informal learning (VNFIL) in five pilot countries – Austria, Italy, Lithuania, Poland and Belgium. 

TRANSVAL-EU will address the insufficient knowledge and awareness of counsellors and practitioners on innovative VNFIL methods and transversal competences. The project will build capacity of practitioners and counsellors, as well as, when relevant, of other stakeholders on innovative VNFIL and transversal competences; and strengthen cross-sector cooperation between practitioners, policy-makers and other stakeholders in order to build coherent VNFIL systems.

TRANSVAL-EU intends to be one of the largest European policy experiments on VNFIL. The project has 16 partners from 7 countries.

The project partners will develop and test:

• a research base of good practices;
• a set of training toolkits and programmes;
• standardised competence profiles for validation/guidance practitioners with a specific focus on transversal skills.

The project started on February 28, 2021, it will last 30 months and is funded by Erasmus+ KA3 Policy Reform – Policy Experimentations.