Report - Salto

Bridges for Recognition | Good Practice workshops - Overview and highlights
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workshops
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A significant part of the programme of Bridges was used to share good practice in Recognition
from across the whole of Europe. In all there were 16 workshops and delegates were able attend
four. Some examples were of well established work and others were “work in progress”. Some
were country specific and others were Pan-European.
The target groups for recognition include young people looking for jobs; disadvantaged young
people and those from minority groups; youth workers and youth leaders and youth trainers.
Most, if not all of the examples shown were voluntary schemes in that there was no compulsion
to participate. In one case there was a right by law to have non-formal learning validated. Whilst
the idea of recognition was universally seen as a personal outcome, the process could be carried
out individually or in a group setting.
Support for learners was seen as fundamental to the process of recognition and was discussed
many times – whether the role was that of tutor, facilitator, mentor, counsellor, or assessor. The
concept of peer support –learners working with each other and providing feedback - was also
mentioned in at least one case.
A common theme was the opportunity to integrate with and compliment the recognition
processes of the formal education sector. There was an obvious commitment to the holistic
development of young people and so the connections between formal, non-formal and informal
education were highlighted in several workshops.
The benefits of recognition were varied: Employability was cited in several cases as the main
motivating factor, whilst for others there was the desire to help young people develop a positive
vision of their lives. For youth workers, recognition processes provided and opportunity to
describe and assess the work they and their young people were doing; for some, recognition
was merely a tool of communication, enabling others to see the value of their work. At least
one example had grown out of the desire to properly evaluate the benefits of a particular type
of project.