New College Lanarkshire (NCL) is due to kick off their brand new Erasmus+ project VALMOPRIS: Validation and Motivation for (in)formal Learning in Prison – (2015-1-UK01-KA204-013882).

The project, developed together between Kirsten Sams at NCL and EPEA Project Officer Paul Talbot, will measure the effect of validating informal competence development on prisoners’ motivation to engage in further learning. Training prison educators across 8 countries to create and deliver informal learning opportunities and to provide systematic validation of learning outcomes, the project will explore the role of and impact of informal learning validation in prison, as well as examining the process of setting up and implementing activities for informal competence development in this context.

VALMOPRIS draws upon the tools and techniques developed through the LEVEL5 validation system which has previously been piloted across diverse educational settings, including in prison-based vocational training (see www.reveal-eu.org).  More information will be available after the Kick-Off Meeting in Glasgow, Scotland, in October 2015.