Key Message 4: Valuing Learning

The previous year, regulations under the Employment and Training Services Act of 1974 were promulgated by Parliament to set up the Malta Professional and Vocational Qualifications Regulations operated by a Council. The objectives as set out in these new regulations were: (a) to establish and maintain a framework for the development, recognition and award of professional and vocational qualifications based on standards of knowledge, skill or competence, (b) to promote and facilitate lifelong learning access, transfer and progression; and (c) to foster the recognition abroad of professional and vocational certificates awarded in Malta under these regulations.

Stakeholder opinions and recommendations:

1. The Accreditation of Prior and Experiential Learning (APEL) is a challenge for countries that have traditionally associated accreditation with formal learning, like our own. In most instances there is a basic problem in recognising the value and relevance of both non-formal and informal learning, never mind conceiving ways of evaluating it. This does not mean that there is currently no recognition of the value of non-formal learning but that the non-formal learning that is recognised for the purpose of certification falls predominantly within the ambience of formal courses as part of the pedagogy developed within them. No commonly recognised instruments for evaluating non-formal learning have been otherwise developed outside these formal frameworks in the Maltese context. This is even more the case with reference to the experiential learning that falls under the heading of informal learning, and which concerns the learning environment itself.
2. It is felt that the notions both of non-formal and informal learning need to be developed further if they are to be made more amenable to instruments of evaluation. Non-formal learning could, for instance, include learning which is not formally under the direction of 'teachers' or formal institutions, and it could include different forms of self-directed learning such as study, research, and travel since informal learning environments are both social and physical spaces, both organised and casual.
3. It is also felt that the emphasis of the EU Memorandum on the 'much higher demand for recognised learning than ever before' as a response both to the demand for qualified labour by employers and to the competition for jobs among individuals is restrictive. Indeed, the whole tenor of the section could send out the wrong message to governments, institutions, and individuals that what is valued most is vocational competencies for the purposes of the economy and the job market. While the great importance of such learning is appreciated, it was felt that learning for other than vocational purposes should also be highlighted in the memorandum especially since the memorandum itself speaks of 'promoting active citizenship' as 'equally important'.
   The point is not an academic one. It corresponds to a very real concern among educators expressed in the light of evidence of declining investment in non-vocational adult learning in Europe in general. This tendency is accompanied by that of packaging such learning as a consumer product to be left in the hands of the leisure industry and to the initiative and discretion of the individual. The net result is the growing number of marginalised people of different categories such as the elderly, single parents, school dropouts and others. These have little or no access to IT, have had a very poor initial education, a poor understanding of the importance of personal investment in learning, and of the importance of lifelong learning not merely as a tool for economic competitiveness but of personal and social survival in today's fast changing world. At one stage adult vocational education was a largely ignored field, given little value and priority.
   It is important not to swing the pendulum too far in the other direction by marginalising other personal and social learning needs. The danger here is that what is not quantifiable or measurable in some way that leads to certification is being slowly ignored or, at best, marginalised. In short, a balance must be kept between the personal and social and the industrial and vocational aspects of lifelong learning.
4. There is agreement across the board in Malta that something needs to be done to create innovative and appropriate assessment practices to credit other kinds of learning than those covered by formal tests, examinations and other assignments. It is also generally recognised that methods of assessment tend to condition the pedagogy or style of teaching and learning, and that introducing dynamic and innovative styles of teaching and learning depends on changes in the culture of assessment. The new National Curriculum (1999) prescribes the need to balance the predominant system of summative assessment in schools by exploring different forms of formative assessment. The recognition is growing in industry that successful policies of human resource development for their employees require new approaches to the assessment of skills and potential. There is also the growing recognition that the complexities of the labour market will require common forms of recognition of valuable learning and assessment of it. If these concerns are common to other member states and aspirants to membership then they should be made a priority area, and the Commission could set the ball rolling by creating a conference on the subject. The conference would come out with a framework for common action and a proposal for the setting up of a network to facilitate information and the sharing of valued practices and experiences. What needs to be developed afterwards is a much-needed pan-European tool and framework for the evaluation of skills, knowledge and competencies that are learnt non-formally and informally. Nonetheless, a balance will have to be sought between the pan-European framework and national responsibilities.
5. Malta is still at the point of entry into the different assessment and recognition instruments developed so far and is, therefore, still at the stage of advancing its knowledge in their use. It is obviously a good thing that these various instruments have been developed to ensure common standards and to enable mobility. But the danger here, as it is perceived locally, is that of fragmentation where the instruments are proliferating but not within a coherent assessment framework. We do not know sufficiently how these instruments have worked hitherto, but it is obvious that their evaluation as instruments in use is necessary before one can speak of their extension. We have no research at our disposal on this; on how the instruments themselves have been evaluated so far. This may be due to our rawness in the field. It may effectively exist already but has not yet come to our attention. In this sense we feel that there needs to be a more successful dissemination of research in this area, ideally with some coordinating trans-national agency which would put its research findings and expertise at the service of Member States and possibly carry out audits, where requested, to ensure comparability of standards.
   It is felt that the implementation of the Malta Professional and Vocational Qualifications Regulations is a pre-requisite to involvement at the broader level of the European Forum. It is felt that the Forum's work is positive especially at the level of permitting an exchange of information on good practices for assessing and recognising competencies. It could nevertheless be improved with a well run and efficient networking system.
6. Partnership between the social partners, enterprises and professional associations is of the first importance in these fields. In Malta, it is sought through the composition of the Malta Professional and Vocational Qualifications Awards Council (MPVQAC) that ensures statutory representation of all social partners. The life of the Council has as yet been short but its immediate task has been to set up occupational standards of competencies - the need for them had been noted since 1952 when the Industrial Training Act was passed - and to create the appropriate certification for these standards even in the light of Malta's pending accession to the European Union. At this stage it is still premature to assess the success of the enterprise but the initial indications are good although the principle that industry needs to take ownership of industrial training, and the concept of industrial enterprises as learning organisations is still just beginning to take hold.
7. Apart from this partnership, however, more needs to be done to develop the culture of self-directed learning both at the level of industry, the vocational level, and at the level of life in general through personal and social development. This culture needs first to be developed in the schools but it needs to be sustained by the negotiation of individual learning accounts between the partners. These concepts of individual learning accounts, learning organisations, and of the learning society (one that embraces a civic culture of learning) need to be explored more in trans-national fora.