VISKI Visible Skills: Challenge-based learning tool to visualise skills and competences for life-long learning.

The promotion of key competences that should be acquired in the context of lifelong learning, especially “entrepreneurship”, creativity and digital skills, was already mentioned in the Lisbon Strategy as an important means to become the most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economy in the world. It was recognised that, on the one hand, companies in a digitised, globalised competition need employees who have these skills. On the other hand, young people and future employees need these skills in order to be able to actively shape their own professional career and to develop their employability.

These have become even more important due to the Covid-19 crisis. Since these key competences and transversal skills are acquired primarily in the context of informal and non-formal learning, for example as a side effect of action-oriented methods in formal education, the EU has initiated numerous measures since 2000 to promote this. Building on these EU initiatives, the VISKI project will develop a portal that allows learners to get involved with their own projects, either from non-formal or informal settings, and to present the skills acquired through it, such as creativity and time management.

The VISKI portal measures and visualises the transversal competences and combines the benefits of the authentic way of a portfolio with the benefits of third party reports to validate non-formal learning (CEDEFOP). VisibleSkills sheds the light on what skills a person has, rather than what certificate he listed in his/her CV. This approach puts the learner to the centre of the learning process and combines it with social learning approaches and peer assessment and expert feedback.

This VISKI project fills the gap for easier recognition and validation of non-formal learning not only nationally, but across borders, as the ViSki portal makes skills visible through project sites and an figurative presentation of skills and competences. The visualisation and validation of non-formal and informal learning experiences through VISKI essentially contribute to the achievement of the ambitious goal that the EU set itself in the Lisbon Strategy in 2000 namely, to become the most dynamic knowledge-based economic area.