LLLP's Annual Theme 2026 is here! Reimagining validation and recognition: give value to all learners, learning and competences

The Lifelong Learning Platform (LLLP) addresses forward-looking issues in the field of education and training on an annual basis. This year’s theme will be explored during different events and meetings at the crossroads between the Cypriot and Irish Presidencies of the Council of the EU, while ensuring that the 2026 Annual Theme provides a new vision for one of the salient issues in education and training, which has been slightly overlooked in recent years:

Reimagining validation and recognition: give value to all learners, learning and competences

In 2012, the European Commission and Member States agreed on the Council Recommendation on the Validation of Non-Formal and Informal Learning. This was a momentous decision which put the spotlight on validation and recognition so as to boost people’s inclusion in various learning pathways. Fast forward fourteen years, and the ambitions have not manifested into reality. The 2022 Evaluation of the Upskilling Pathways Council Recommendation has shown that 12 EU Member States have not advanced on this topic, while 8 others have advanced only slowly. Only 7 EU Member States have developed robust validation systems, where validation provisions are available in all three main sectors (education and training; labour market; and third sector). One of the main issues with validation is the general lack of awareness and uptake among adults (European Commission, 2023). Individuals are often made aware of validation and recognition provisions thanks to guidance, however, as noted in the 2023 EC Evaluation report on Upskilling pathways CR implementation, not all guidance services are inclusive and accessible to the groups of learners that need it most.

As the new post-2024 EU agenda has started to be implemented, many challenges in the field of education and training are linked with skills mismatches, skills gaps, siloed and rigid learning pathways and people in need of reskilling and upskilling. Education and the labour market are not yet very inclusive if we account for the numbers of early school leaving/drop out, NEETS in youth population, and workers at risk in transition times, there are reasons for concerns that the EU policies are not achieving their aims. Qualifications and diplomas remain the standard for valuing of learning within formal education and in the society and the economy, whereas the learning and competences acquired in non-formal or informal learning environments are still undervalued - if not - invisible. This is not in line with the ideal of an inclusive society and inclusive education and training systems. Many individuals who early on faced adverse experiences in the formal education system continue to suffer throughout their life from many sorts of exclusions, in the labour market but not only. They are deprived of self-confidence/self-worth and learning to learn skills and they are the social groups whose rate of participation in lifelong learning is the lowest. To this end, a series of new initiatives in 2026 provides the opportunity to reflect on what kind of validation and recognition systems Europe needs. The upcoming Skills Portability Initiative, the Proposal for a Council Recommendation on Human Capital as well as the continuation of the Advisory Groups for Europass, ESCO, and EQF open up new policy discussions to reflect on how validation and recognition can be better done.

Given the new political impetus, the Lifelong Learning Platform is dedicating its focus in 2026 to validation and recognition of learning as an Annual Theme. As Cedefop indicates that half of the population of the EU is in need of upskilling and reskilling, this will also put new pressures on the systems and professionals for validation and recognition. Access to data on validation users remains scarce and fragmentary in EU Member States (Cedefop, 2023). Beyond awareness, the length and complexity of the process remain strong barriers for uptake.

This paper will consider what accounts for validation and recognition, demystifying the processes, but also exploring approaches across a wide spectrum of stakeholders (within formal education, within non-formal and informal learning, within the workplace, etc.).