The DEWBLAM partnership aimed at facilitating access to qualifications for employed adult learners with a focus upon the validation of prior and experiential learning. Activities centred round the development of a common European model (platform) for work-based learning programmes at higher education level and a series of work-based learning guidelines, produced in multiple language versions. The common European platform defines the principles, features and procedures of a European approach to work-based learning, based upon a reflection on often-differing local, national, cultural and institutional contexts across the partner countries, on the concepts underlying experiential learning and its integration into formal learning pathways and on the pilot experiences of project partners. The guidelines describe the academic, social and organisational requirements for the design and implementation of work-based learning programmes. In addition to the creation of an “outer circle” network for DEWBLAM, a key result for the project was a publication outlining the social and educational challenges of work based learning in European higher education and training.