Wednesday, 31 October 2012

Non-Formal Education (NFE)
as part of our holistic approach to lifelong & lifewide learning 

Last week the European Youth Forum organised the NFE week, a series of events dedicated to the Non-Formal Education, including the last meeting of our NFE Working Group that has done an excellent work in promoting the issue of NFE, including the important question of Quality Assurance in NFE (more on this here).

The NFE Week is an interactive space for youth organisations and stakeholders to establish dialogue and learn from each other on the latest developments on recognition policy and practices in NFE, while enhancing their advocacy work in this field. It started in 2006 under the name of NFE Dialogues, and has now grown into the NFE Week, focusing on specific topics. This year the theme of the NFE Week was "A push for recognition of NFE" and covered three different elements through each day: 

1. recognition of NFE policy and practices, 
2. quality assurance in NFE, as a key tool for recognition of NFE (both within organisations, but also by society)
3. impact of NFE on young people's employability (launch of a research study commissioned by the Youth Forum → read more about this here)

During my opening speech of this year's NFE week edition at the key stakeholders meeting last Wednesday in the United Nations House in Brussels, hosted by UNESCO, I stressed why the Youth Forum has focused so much on the question of recognition of NFE.

First of all education is among the main priorities of the Forum, especially in terms of a holistic approach that covers both formal and non-formal education as well as informal learning. However, for the past two years the focus was slightly more on the NFE part due to the specific advocacy needs and trends in youth policy development at European level. 

As a platform representing almost 100 national youth councils and international youth organisations in Europe, the Youth Forum strives to raise awareness and make visible the role and impact of youth organisations as one of the main providers of non-formal education.

Through their educational programmes, youth organisations contribute to the holistic development of young people throughout life; therefore, it touches upon all dimensions of young people, from their development both as an individual as well as an active member of society, to their inclusion in social and professional life. The recognition of their role as NFE providers and of the benefits of NFE for the individual (the young person) as well as for society as a whole is crucial to ensuring such holistic development of young people.

The Forum has for long advocated for the recognition of non-formal education, and has significantly contributed to further developments of recognition policy and practices in the youth field. This work was done together with other stakeholders in the field, such as the Youth Partnership (through the Forum's participation in the Expert Group on Recognition), the European Commission (as members of the Youthpass Advisory Group) and UNESCO & UN for global cooperation. Also partnerships with civil society organisations like EUCIS-LLL, which we officially signed in April this year, have helped us reinforce lifelong learning policies at European level.

However, it is important to stress that working towards recognition of NFE doesn't imply that we are working against formal education. My understanding, which is also reflected in the numerous YFJ polices, has always been that these two things our complementary. NFE as methodology is very much part of the youth organisations DNA while the outcomes of non-formal and informal learning processes are reflected in gaining a set of skills that complement the knowledge acquired through formal education. 

In the coming years we need to ensure this complementary approach is reflected also in our advocacy and through our new strategic priority "Empowered Member Organisations" explore ways of better coordination and task division between formal education stakeholders, NFE policy stakeholders and the direct of role of Youth Forum where an added value is identified.