Per Andersson, Professor of Education in the Department of behavioural sciences and learning at Linköping University, Sweden, and Pär Sellberg, Senior Advisor at the Swedish national Agency for Higher Vocational Education, will give their view on how quality indicators can support the development of VPL arrangements, both on a national and a local level.

In the Nordic quality model the individual is in the center, a fact that users have found very helpful. The Nordic Model can be seen as a structured way to assess the current situation in validation at an institutional level and to identify areas of development. Per Andersson will present findings from the interactive research presented from a sample of three colleges situated in Denmark, Finland and Sweden.

We are now passing the point when Member states should have arrangements for the validation of non-formal and informal learning in place. Pär Sellberg will explain how Road Map 2018 gives valuable hints on how to promote functionality in national arrangements and how it provides opportunity to benchmark the development. Road Map 2018 is recommended to use in a formative manner and some comparisons between the development in the Nordic countries will be made.

A monitoring tool and a set of indicators (Road Map 2018) has been created in cooperation and used to illustrate the validation process from mapping and assessment of prior competences all the way to how these results can benefit the individual and society. The Road Map highlights the central aspects that must be covered to facilitate a functional and smooth validation system. It can be used nationally as a development tool and for comparison among the countries. The Nordic region is in the process of benchmarking during autumn 2018. Strong focus is also put on quality development. A recent research project on the Nordic quality model points out strategically important parts and phases in the validation process from a quality assurance perspective. The researchers can see that the model's broad approach has been useful in identifying the further development areas of all participating educational institutions, regardless of country or organization. The factors presented in the Nordic quality model strengthen this framework by encouraging the actors to discuss standardization, reliability and measurement in validation. And this way promote the system development.