How to validate soft skills for today’s global labour market place

Professional life and career development is increasingly determined by continuous learning to adapt to rapidly changing demands. In the service sector, personal, social and organisational competences (SPOC) are especially necessary; thus becoming competitive factors at the job level. The European project VITA utilises a unique and innovative validation system (LEVEL5) for these competences to provide evidence of human potentials for learners, educational professionals and employers.
VITA Final Conference in Dublin - Honoured by the presence of the Minister of State for Training and Skills Ciarán Cannon T.D.

The VITA system is aimed to assess and evidence competence developments by means of the LEVEL5 system which is specifically designed to assess and visualize personal, social and organizational competences acquired in non- and informal learning settings. VITA has been realised within then European countries. The final conference in Dublin was held in a historic place with a long tradition of studying and learning, the Dublin City University.

The Minister addressed the audience with a very inspiring speech, in which he also underlined the importance of improving continuously competences and skills:




Ciarán Cannon T.D., Minister of State for Training and Skills

“Today’s conference is the culmination of two years’ work which has been exploring the validation of social, personal and organisational competences across a range of education sectors in ten European countries. These soft skills, as they are often referred to, can be difficult to measure but are a very important aspect of today’s global labour market place. Such skills may not be learned in a formal setting but are often acquired in informal settings through day-to-day interactions – at school, at home, in the workplace or through active citizenship in your local community. These skills have become a competitive factor in the labour market and through this project VITA aims to build a standardised method of measuring these soft skills.” 


One of the additional highlights of the VITA final conference was the award ceremony in which the award winners were given the VITA prize for innovative project ideas.

Winners of the VITA Award and the VITA project partners

If you want to learn more about the VITA project please visit: www.vita-eu.org or contact our project manager Bozica Ilijic, b.ilijic@dieberater.com

European Proof of Voluntary Work

Volunteering does not only benefit others, but also benefits the volunteer as an individual. Within volunteering settings various social skills are being developed, but these are hard to document on paper.

The RIVER system, which was developed in the EU Grundtvig project of the same name, is an assessment and evaluation method for recognising the development of competences that are gained during volunteering activities. The RIVER methodology is now available as a management tool for institutions and networks that organise volunteer activities. For a better understanding of the method, a brochure as well as a manual and training materials have been developed and are free for download.

Whether and to what extent competencies are further developed through volunteering, can be evaluated by using different RIVER methods - from the self-assessment, to tandem evaluation or a focus group. The RIVER methodology is based on LEVEL5, which is an approach and instrument to document and visualise competence development.

The approach is supported by a software to create a meaningful evidencing document (certificate) including a 3D visualisation of the development of the volunteer.
You want to use the RIVER methodology for your organisation? Follow these links and learn more about RIVER and its application:

RIVER Brochure

RIVER Manual

RIVER Training