Your skills recognised in every European country

Sist oppdatert Tirsdag, 24/08/2021

Whether it's through a job, studies, volunteering or other activities abroad; you pick up important skills and qualifications that help you in the future. What does the EU do to ensure that these are recognised in other European countries?

Recognition of your academic degree or diploma

You might want to get your studies recognised in another country, maybe because you will be going on an exchange or because you want to work or study somewhere else. To make this easier, the EU has developed two credit systems that show the relative levels of credits obtained in different EU countries: ECTS for higher education and ECVET for vocational education and training.

Apart from the credit systems, there is also the European Qualifications Framework (EQF) which shows how different national qualifications frameworks and systems compare. This helps you to work out the level of qualifications in other European countries, by linking each national level to one of eight EQF reference levels.

Those are “translation tools”, there is no automatic EU-wide recognition of academic diplomas. You will need to go through a national procedure to get your academic degree or diploma recognised in another EU country. It can be for labour purposes (e.g. entry level in an administration) or if you want to pursue further studies in a different country (check this list). 

To do so, contact the ENIC/NARIC centre in the country where you would like your diplomas assessed for "comparability". This could be your home country if you return home after your studies, or another EU country if you move there for work or further study.

Recognition of non-formal and informal learning

Getting your skills validated isn't always easy. After completing formal education, such as a bachelor’s degree at university, you receive a diploma to prove you obtained certain qualifications and skills. But what if you did a voluntary project? No doubt you picked up skills that will be useful for the rest of your life, but this might not be spelt out on a piece of paper.

To facilitate recognition of non-formal and informal learning processes (such as those involved when you do voluntary work), countries in the EU are asked to have arrangements for this kind of validation in place from 2018. A European Inventory gives an overview of good validation practices already in place.

The EU has created a free online tool for you to create a Curriculum Vitae that is used across Europe, the Europass CV. According to Europass, volunteering activities can be described in the “Work Experience” section of your CV and the competences acquired under the “Personal Skills” section. 

Besides, the Europass CV can be complemented by a Europass-Mobility annex. This document has to be filled in by the institution that sent you abroad. Check the website to see how to make the best of this tool or contact your national Europass contact point.