Validation of Acquired Experience, or VAE, allows you to transform your experience into a certification, registered with the National Directory of Professional Certifications (RNCP). In particular, it is a way to gain recognition for skills acquired through your experience, and sometimes in a different way than by producing higher education degrees.
Focus on the evaluation of the acquired experience
What interest rates?
When you leave school, it’s often hard to know what the reality of the world of work, and especially the position obtained. Chances are certain missions are new to you, that we weren’t trained for in school, but you learn by doing, or you change positions, missions or even sectors during your career. You develop professionally and your experience is sometimes more educational than school.
So it can be interesting that it is skills gained through experience can officially appear on your CV, turning them into a certificate or diploma.
Who’s worried?
It should have been by the end of 2022at least 1 year of full-time work experience (at least 1607 hours in total) in connection with the prepared certificate request VAE.
With the news reformit is not it is no longer necessary to have minimum experience. With the reform, the only condition is toyou have experience that has enabled you to acquire skills related to the required certification.
The goal? Make the process easy for candidatesand expand the number of potential candidates.
It’s yours whether the activity is paid or notis it oa non-professional activity As volunteering or volunteeringyou can turn this knowledge and experience into certificates.
VAE financing
To get a VAE, you must compile a file and pass an interview with a jury. As with any exam, you need to prepare these steps. It is possible to benefit from a preparation support.
Before the reform, it was necessary to finance this support, especially thanks to professional development account (CPF), your employer’s allowance or OPCO.
From now on, this support is 100% financed by the state, who supports it. With the arrival of the reform, there is also support reinforcedespecially thanks to the platform: France VAE.
The goal is centralize support, information and procedures. Specifically, this platform allows candidates to learn more about VAE – especially regarding the offered diplomas and certificates – benefit from personalized supportand D’easy to carry out all procedures, on the line. The platform therefore offers about 200 certificates in various fields, such as health, health and social, mass distribution, sports and even metallurgy.
Getting a VAE: Steps
Submit the feasibility file
The first step and not the least important: create a feasibility file. The main purpose of this first administrative file is to check the conditions before starting the process. To apply for VAE, this file must contain:
- Selected degree;
- Presentation of your professional experience and activities related to the requested degree;
- A summary of your training journey.
Once submitted, this file will be reviewed by DAVA (Academic Assessment System) or an authorized national education authority. In particular, the organization will study your record and your career path so that the chosen degrees really match your experience, your knowledge and skills.
Goal? Ensure consistency and feasibility of requests so we can build personalized support and a personalized journey with you.
One week after submitting the file, you will receive a notice of admissibility or inadmissibility.
Create a validation file
Once the feasibility file has been validated, you need to prepare yours validation file. This file is used for describe your trip in detail, your skills AND the context in which you acquired themas well as coherence of your project. Therefore, it should be noted:
- The work context in which you acquired these skills;
- Description of the activities carried out;
- List of used tools;
- Updating your responsibilities.
Validation interview
This interview is not an exam – which was more the case before the reform – but aims to develop and complete the information you entered in your validation file. Goal? By meeting the jury, you have the opportunity to accurately present your background and the missions you perform.
After this exchange, 3 decisions are possible:
The jury decides to certify your VAE if it considers that your experiences and developed skills correspond to the skills required by the certification. Therefore, it gives you a diploma and a certificate of skills as proof that you have obtained a degree.
If the jury judges that the required knowledge does not fully correspond to your experiences, but that the project is nevertheless coherent, it only partially confirms the VAE, that is, only certain experiences. The goal? It allows you to specify certain elements that will be subject to further evaluation. Then certain dimensions of the certification can already be obtained. In this case, you will receive a confirmation stating the confirmed achievements.
Finally, the third scenario is validation rejection. When the jury judges that your experience and related skills are insufficient or not related to the acquired knowledge required by the certificate, it rejects your application. You will then be able to rework your files to renew your claim at a later date.
In short, the evaluation of acquired experience allows obtaining a certificate that corresponds to the skills acquired in business with experience. After submitting the feasibility file, you will need to create a more detailed validation file before discussing your career, achievements and missions with the jury.