European enterprises give high priority to assessing skills and competences, seeing this as crucial for recruitment and human resource management. Based on a survey of 400 enterprises, 20 in-depth case studies and interviews with human resource experts in 10 countries, this report analyses the main purposes of competence assessment, the standards and methods applied, the employee groups targeted and the way results are documented and used. The study shows that competence assessment practices predominantly target executives and technical specialists, to a lesser extent other employees. Company size influences the way assessments are carried out, the larger the company, the more formalised approaches are. Outcomes of assessments are mainly used for internal company purposes; at this stage, therefore, validation in enterprises supports those seeking alternative employment or further learning only to a limited extent. Methodology is provided in an annex. A bibliography is included.[This report is the result of a team effort and brings together contributions of all those involved in the study on validation in enterprises. Jens Bjornavold (Cedefop senior expert) initiated and coordinated the study and drafted parts of this report (such as Chapter 9). Isabelle Le Mouillour (former Cedefop expert) contributed to coordination of the project during its initial stage. Ernesto Villalba (Cedefop expert) peer reviewed the publication and provided valuable comments. In the Austrian Institute for SME Research (KMU Forschung Austria), Thomas Oberholzner and Christina Enichlmair, carried out the research and drafted the main part of the report (*). Yvonne Noutsia and Joanne Basiakou (Cedefop) provided technical support in preparing this publication. This work was carried out under Cedefop's service contract No 2010-0144/AO/ECVL/JB-ILEMO/Validation-in-Enterprises.]