For the purposes of professional mobility and upgrading, the recognition and certification of skills and expertise acquired over a person's entire working lifetime becomes a fulcrum in today's globalised labour market.

Recognition of previous learning is a common objective within the national systems of all European countries. In particular, in the UK the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority has set out guidelines for the recognition of learning that has occurred within the reference framework of qualifications and curricula.

The "RPLO - Recognition of Prior Learning  Outcomes" project, co-funded by the Commissione Europea through the "Leonardo da Vinci - Transfer of Innovation" action as part of the Lifelong Learning Programme, aims to steer the application of these guidelines to the professional roles around which the training sector revolves, using the English "Lifelong Learning" standards to develop tools, methods and support materials that are user-friendly and which can be applied to the target sector in the partner countries (UK, IT, NL, S, CH) as well. The idea, therefore, is to recognise and accredit skills and expertise acquired in the workplace by instructors.

And in Italy, especially at regional level, there is great attention being paid to the possibility of creating systems of recognition and certification of skills and expertise acquired in the field, which ensures greater mobility and employability of persons in the labour market. In this regard, the RPLO project is attracting particular interest to the recognition and accreditation of skills and expertise acquired in the field by instructors who operate in Ongoing and Permanent Training.