Educational pathways of applicants for academic continuing education – The treasure within and its contribution to bridge the gap from „ECVET“ to „ECTS“

The equal appreciation of vocational training and higher education leads to university admissions for professionals without classical academic educational qualifications. For this purpose the applicants have to go through a process of validation and formal recog-nition of their prior learnings. However, the format of this approach remains largely unclear; this is not surprising, as it is up to universities how the authorization procedures for these types of admissions are carried out. In this paper, the approach for the validation of the proficiency level 6 in EQF of the Danube University Krems forms the basis for the analysis of the previously acquired qualifications. We aim at providing an example for recognition and validation process of prior learnings, formal and non-formal gained through professional life in addition to educational qualifications.