The VAE or Validation des Acquis de l'Expérience is a procedure that allows any French educational institution to grant degrees partly or completely based on work experience. A portfolio of the applicant's achievements and work experience is presented to a committee at the educational institution. The committee will then decide if the documents presented in the portfolio show work that merits partial credit towards a particular degree.
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History
A French law passed August 23, 1985, authorized people with work experience to ask for diploma equivalence. This law was mostly for vocational degrees. This significant change came with the Loi de Modernisation Sociale (Law of Social Modernization) dated January 17, 2002, that specifically authorizes Universities and other "établissements d'Enseignemernt supérieurs" (Institutions of Higher Education) to grant the standard degrees (BTS, DEUG, Licence, Maîtrise, DES, DESS, Master, Mastaire, Doctorat, etc.) based only on the work experience of the candidate. The required minimum of work experience was lowered from five to three years.
Legal background
The VAE is now included in the French Code of Education (code l' Education de la République Française) at Partie législative, Troisième partie, Livre VI, Titre Ier, Chapitre III, Section 2, Art. L613-3 à L613-6.
It is important to note that (Art L- 613-4) states: "The validation produces the same effects as the knowledge or aptitude testing process that it replaces." The degrees and diplomas obtained through the VAE process are exactly the same and any mention of the VAE is prohibited in order to fight possible unlawful discrimination.
The VAE decision is made on file after an interview (electronic or physical) by a VAE Jury made of Professors belonging to the University.
Recognition
At the beginning French professors and universities were reluctant to apply the VAE. However the VAE is the Law of the land and all universities must apply it if asked. In 2005, 21 379 people applied for the VAE. 61% of them were women and 59% received a full degree. Among them, 10% get an equivalent or superior degree to the bachelor's degree.
More than 1250 Bachelor's or higher degree were granted through the VAE in 2005 in France (+50%).
According to the government website, the VAE is, in France, in full expansion and totally accepted. Internationally, all of the countries that ratified Convention on the Recognition of Qualifications concerning Higher Education in the European Region recognize it.
In the US, credentials evaluators, universities, federal and state governments also recognize the VAE degrees with the notable exception of the state of Oregon.
Non-French speaking students
The VAE that allows international students to attend French universities works like the European Erasmus Programme Erasmus Programme and the Bologna declaration on harmonization of European degrees Bologna declaration on harmonization of European degrees. In 2004 The école supérieure Robert de Sorbon® http://www.sorbon.fr started the VAE in foreign languages (English, Spanish Italian & russian) and was followed by several other universities. Indeed,the documents provided to the committee at the university must be in a language that the committee members can read and understand.