March 2nd, 2018
After successfully piloting the European Qualifications Passport for Refugees in 2017, the Council of Europe has decided to scale up the project and is preparing the launch of a 3-year project for 2018-2020 under the Action Plan on Building Inclusive Societies.
The European Qualifications Passport for Refugees is a document which gives refugees an assessment of their education qualifications that cannot be fully documented. Through an evaluation of the available documentation and a structured interview with qualified credential evaluators, the European Qualifications Passport for Refugees maps and presents information on the refugee’s educational level, work experience and language proficiency. The goal is to provide substantiated information that can be relevant for employment or internships, qualification courses and admission to studies.
The 2017 pilot project, building on methodology developed in Norway by NOKUT, involved on-site evaluations of the qualifications of refugees in Greece. Coordinated by the Council of Europe, the pilot included the Greek Ministry of Education, UNHCR and European Network of Information Centres (ENICS) from Greece, Italy, Norway and the UK as partners. 92 refugees were interviewed, resulting in 73 European Qualifications Passport for Refugees being issued.
The new 3-year project will launch officially in the spring of 2018, with the Netherlands, Germany, France and Armenia also joining. The project will continue the on-site assessment sessions in Greece and include interview sessions in Italy and other countries. The project aims to expand the pool of trained evaluators and further explore the use of online interviews. It will also reach out to community partners such as higher education institution, local authorities and NGOs with a view to helping the refugees integrate into their host societies.
Stig Arne Skjerven, Director of Foreign Education in NOKUT (Norwegian Agency for Quality Assurance in Education), Oslo, Norway, and President ENIC-NARIC
Marina Malgina, Head of Section, Section for Recognition of Refugees’ Qualifications, (the Norwegian Agency for Quality Assurance in Education), Oslo, Norway.
The Academic Credentials Evaluation Institute, Inc. (ACEI), was founded in 1994 and is based in Los Angeles, CA, USA. ACEI provides a number of services that include evaluations of international academic credentials for U.S. educational equivalence, translation, verification, and professional training programs. ACEI is a Charter and Endorsed Member of the Association of International Credential Evaluators. For more information, visit www.acei-global.org.
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