Supporting the development of a Validation of Prior Learning mechanism in Mauritania

The identifying and analysis the obstacles to operationalizing the renewed technical and vocational training policies carried out in 2016 in Mauritania, with the support of the IIEP-Pôle de Dakar through its Platform of Expertise in Vocational Training (Pefop), had clearly revealed the problems posed by the lack of a functional system for the Validation of Prior Learning (VPL). In the current situation, the overwhelming majority of workers in both formal and informal sectors, who have acquired skills outside the formal training pathways, do not have the recognition they need to develop individually or improve their professional activity.

In order to meet this challenge, IIEP-Pôle de Dakar and the Ministry of Employment, Vocational Training and Information and Communication Technologies launched an activity to design and develop a VPL system in July 2017. Initiated within the framework of Pefop's support to Mauritania, this support mission required the mobilization of an international consultant to work with public and private actors from the agropastoral economic sectors of the Gorgol region, the construction sector in Nouakchott and fisheries in Nouadhibou in this regard.

Following a meeting with the Minister of Employment, Vocational Training and Information and Communication Technologies in July 2017, the support mission consulted a wide range of public and private actors and from the central services concerned to gather their perceptions of VPL. By comparing the results of these discussions with the results of a comparative analysis of VPL (or RPL) schemes at the international level, it was possible to adopt a consensus definition of VPL adopted by Mauritanian stakeholders.

On the basis of proposals developed as part of the support mission, Mauritanian public and private actors held a two-day workshop in September to detail and validate the VPL system they wished to set up. They defined the priority target groups, the conditions of access to the system, the steps to be followed, the actors involved and their roles and responsibilities, the avenues and methods of financing and the experiments to be carried out. 

Discover the details of the mechanism designed by Mauritanian actors in the report of the support mission published in the "Pefop Working Document" series by clicking on this link. (report available in French)