The FamCompass project, funded by the European Commission in the Lifelong Learning Program Grundtvig I, develops an instrument, the Family Competences Portfolio, to validate 'family competences', competences men and woman have acquired in the informal settings of family life, in their roles as educators, homemakers and care workers. We believe that a solid and objective recognition of these competences will be of growing importance in an ageing society. The results of our project and a demo of the tool will be presented during a concluding conference in Brussels on Friday 23rd October. The Committee of Regions of the European Parliament is our host. The main goal of this meeting is to convince both representatives of the educational system and of the labor market of the importance of the acknowledgment of family related learning and to motivate them to use the FamCompass to assess and validate these competences.