Prospects and challenges: work-integrated learning as a key component of validation in higher education

Quality of education is defined by Unesco (2015) as one of the Sustainable Development Goals for 2030, with the mission statement to promote lifelong learning opportunities for all citizens. This postulation encompasses the concept and practices of lifelong learning as the organising principle for educational reforms. Despite the variation across possible definitions and interpretations of lifelong and life-wide learning, and their entwinement with another key concept, continuous learning, it is incontestable that higher education institutions (HEIs) face unprecedented challenges, if they do not implement practices where acquired competences have an equal weight regardless of their context and origin. We need to promote educational change that aligns with the drastic societal change of the last decades. From the viewpoint of education providers, the sustainable development goal on quality education entails huge challenges, and therefore the change needs to be fostered and monitored with engagement, by acknowledging the shared agency of “[...] individuals, education and training institutions, and regulating governments” (Boeren, 2019, p. 277)