The Educational Research Institute is conducting the project " Microcredentials - piloting a new solution to support lifelong learning ", financed by European Funds for Social Development (FERS).
Project objectives
The main and overarching objective of the project is to test the usefulness of microcredentials for developing skills in accordance with the idea of lifelong learning and to design the process of their issuance and collection. The solutions developed are a response to the Recommendation of the Council of the European Union of 22 June 2022 on a European approach to microcredentials, which recommends to Member States, among other things:
- to enable the acquisition and updating of knowledge, skills and social competences that ensure success in a changing labour market;
- to support the preparation of microcredential providers to increase the quality, transparency, accessibility and flexibility of educational offerings to ensure that individual learning and career paths can be taken.
Among other things, the project will develop and test solutions for designing, describing (e.g., with the use of learning outcomes) and awarding microcredentials in accordance with the principles ensuring their credibility in the labour market. The first described microcredentials will be for ICT skills. No later than around month 12 of the project, another category of microcredentials will be identified, covering a different type of skill set. During the project, microcredentials will be issued in digital form, using the Odznaka+ microcredential application.
The experience gained during project implementation will allow the tool to be adapted as much as possible to the needs of its users (microcredential issuers and holders) and to make it widely available to support the practice of lifelong learning. Planned activities in this regard will be conducted in cooperation with representatives of interested communities, including training firms, recruitment agencies, industry organisations, enterprises, and higher education institutions.
If the usefulness of microcredentials is confirmed, the developed standards and solutions will be able to be used on a wider scale, among others, to strengthen the motivation of adults to improve their skills and acquire new ones, increase the effectiveness of recruitment and planning the career paths of employees, develop more flexible forms of education better in line with the needs of both employers and employees who are simultaneously engaged in professional, family and social life, as well as promote the assessment (validation) and confirmation of competences acquired outside formal education (e.g., in the process of performing professional tasks, independent learning).
Project tasks
The project is divided into 4 main parts corresponding to its basic tasks:
- Development of standards and solutions for designing, describing, issuing and ensuring the credibility of microcredentials,
- Pilot implementation of digital microcredentials of skills and achievements,
- Development of its usability as well as ensuring the availability of the Odznaka+ application as a tool to support the use of microcredentials,
- Promotion of microcredentials as a flexible tool for up-skilling and re-skilling in the context of lifelong learning (especially for adults), and taking steps to integrate this solution into practice and policy.
Target groups
The project is aimed primarily at groups working to develop skills in the area of ICT, including:
- formal education institutions, especially higher education institutions, offering adults non-formal education and opportunities for validating competences acquired through informal learning
- institutions outside of formal education that support adult learning, in particular:
- employers, looking for employees with specific skills
- training companies
- recruitment agencies
- industry and sector skills councils
- employees
- young people entering the labour market, e.g., students in their final year of study, trainees
We wish to inform you about the ability to report to the Managing Authority or Intermediate Body on suspected non-compliance of the Project or activities of the Beneficiary with the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities drawn up in New York on December 13, 2006 (Journal of Laws of 2012, item 1169, as amended), hereinafter referred to as "CRPD". Information, notifications or complaints regarding the occurrence of the non-compliance of FERS projects with the provisions of CRPD may be submitted by individuals (project participants or their plenipotentiaries and representatives), institutions participating in the implementation of European Union funds, public parties (associations, foundations) by means of (in each of the following cases, the notification shall be considered as submitted in writing):
- traditional mail - in the form of a letter to the following ministries: Ministry of Funds and Regional Policy, ul. Wspólna 2/4, 00-926 Warsaw,
- the ePUAP electronic mailbox [elektroniczna skrzynka nadawcza] of the Ministry of Funds and Regional Policy.
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The value of the Project is PLN 22 910 771.76, including the amount of the European Funds contribution of PLN 21 765 233.17
Date of signing the agreement: 29.09.2023
Funding from the State Budget: PLN 1 145 538.59
