VA2EL

Valuing Education and Experience for Local Councillors in Europe (VA2EL)

In all European countries, new powers and competence have been delegated to local authorities (towns, departments, regions) and their elected managers, the local councillors, in various fields (social, economic, cultural and environmental). The professional environment of such local leaders has become more and more complex. Local councillors are demanding that their experience should be taken into account to be more efficient for their elective work but also when they have to come back to the labour market. A European portfolio for voluntary managers, meant to identify skills and competences to be used on the labour market, has been chosen for the transfer of innovation as their profile is very similar to those of local councillors. The VA2EL project proposes a concrete tool and method: an e-portfolio meant to identify the main activities, skills and competences, training to be proposed and action plan on the basis of needs expressed by local councillors. This e-portfolio takes into account the different status of local councillors in Europe and the tasks they have to fulfil in the local authorities of the different countries; the administrative context is a main issue for the delegation of competences. Since specialised skills and competences in technical and administrative matter in entertainment and management, local councillors are required to fulfil their tasks in their daily work and often discover that they have to improve their skills and competences.