14.12.2020

Progressing towards an upskilled and reskilled Europe: The UP-AEPRO policy recommendations

After an enriching two-year journey that gathered more than 200 practitioners all over Europe, the partners of the project Upskilling Pathways for Adult Education Professionals (UP-AEPRO) are ready to launch the UP-AEPRO policy recommendations. The recommendations are part of an advocacy toolkit which will support policymakers, organisations and providers working adult education to implement the Upskilling Pathways initiative (UP) in their countries.

Throughout the whole project, the consortium addressed the constant need and interest of adult education trainers and staff to learn more about European developments in adult education and other countries’ systems and innovation. Particular attention was paid to the Upskilling Pathways initiative launched in 2018 by the European Commission. In 2019, the project consortium organised an online course aimed at deepening the knowledge and fostering the discussion about the initiative. In addition, the consortium organised a series of peer learning webinars in spring 2020.

“It has been an amazing course that has definitely reshaped our attitudes towards adult education”, a participant stated at the end of the Innovate, learn, share, act! online course.

“It was a very interesting and meaningful process. Sharing experiences is about knowing more and growing together,” declared a colleague after attending the peer learning webinars.

The project partners observed that enthusiasm about this project has not decreased in the last two years as a number of the UP-AEPRO course participants attended the final project conference. The event was held online on the 20th of November 2020 and was defined “an unforgettable experience” by one of the more than 70 participants.

Progressing towards the national implementation of the Upskilling Pathways initiative

After collecting successful policies, inspiring practices and insightful opinions on the Upskilling Pathways implementation from all over Europe, the project consortium compiled a document that will highlight the learning points of the UP-AEPRO project. The UP-AEPRO advocacy toolkit consists of a set of good practices and recommendations that could be used to achieve progress in the implementation of the Upskilling Pathways initiative, both at practice and policy levels.

The collection of good practices on each step of the Upskilling Pathways initiative, as well as on its guiding principles, will support AE professionals and policymakers to get inspired from other countries in Europe to make the Upskilling Pathways initiative a reality.
Policy recommendations will help policymakers working in adult education to identify the fundamental steps to improve policies and practices on upskilling and reskilling in their countries. They include direct quotations about the concrete experience of the UP-AEPRO project participants.

A condensed version of the policy recommendations is now available as an infographic How to make Upskilling Pathways a reality?

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Upskilling Pathways in AEPRO -project has addressesed the need and interest of adult education (AE) trainers and staff to learn more about European developments in adult education and other countries’ systems and innovation. In particular, the project has contributed to deepening the knowledge and fostering the discussion about the Upskilling Pathways initiative.

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EAEA'S 2026 annual theme is closely linked to current EU priorities, especially the Democracy Package - including the Civil Society Strategy and the Democracy Shield initiative. At a time of rising Euroscepticism and threats to democratic values, adult education has the power to strengthen democracy by promoting civic engagement, critical thinking and participation.

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