Education and lifelong learning can ensure the wellbeing of people in different circumstances and with different needs. The EAEA GRUNDTVIG AWARD 2019 participant, project “Learn to manage finances by ourselves” in Belarus, explored the opportunities of teaching visually impaired people a range of ICT skills for them to become more independent, experience learning in a safe and friendly atmosphere, and realize the value of constant self-development. Besides that, the project had an essential impact on the image of disabled people in Belarussian society. In the interview, Mikhail Antonenko, the head of the Centre of Successful People in Minsk, briefly talks about the project and its outcomes.

Is it ever too late to play games? Definitely not, especially if games lead to personal, professional and social development. The creators of “World of Communities” game, a participant of GRUNDTVIG AWARD 2019 on Life Skills, believe that through real-life modelling and communication with others individuals can increase their job-, community- and personality-related skills. According to Nataliia Harasivka, the project manager, between 10 and 15 game engagements lead to successful results. Read more in our interview with Nataliia.

How to prepare young people for the job market of the future? How to teach young adults about the world that is still evolving? A GRUNDTVIG  AWARD 2019 participant, project Future Time Traveller, addressed the questions through a creative state-of-the-art learning approach and offered learners an opportunity to imagine the future and what world of work will look like. Gergana Rakovska from Business Foundation for Education tells more about the fascinating work that the project partners have done.

It is true that leadership styles define the working atmosphere and essentially influence the well-being of employees. Therefore, it is crucial for leaders of today to hold such personal and interpersonal skills that would ensure openness and understanding, encourage initiative and creativity, provide people with a sense of safety and belonging. The project SeitenWechsel, a participant of GRUNDTVIG AWARD 2019 on LifeSkills, applied an unconventional approach to training managers and other staff for them to become more responsive leaders. Read our interview with Renata Kubova, the programme manager, in which she tells more about the training.

Even though the percentage of adults in education is growing every year, there is still a big group of people out of learning. As shown by statistics, normally the ones who are left out of education are the ones that need it the most – low-educated individuals, for whom education has become unobtainable not only due to their social and economic status but also due to inner barriers of fear and shame, and thus lack of motivation. The GRUNDTWIG AWARD 2019 participant, project LearnersMot, strives to help low-educated adults develop their primary motivation to get involved in learning through the use of ICT tools and modern teaching methods. In the following interview, Ana Herranz from Edensol, Spain, told us more about the project.

The world of work is changing and people of working age are facing challenges of adapting to new requirements. A GRUNDTVIG AWARD 2019 participant, collaborative project ICARO (Innovative Curriculum on Soft Skills for Adult Learners), set a goal to address the issue of long-term unemployment and developed a wide range of useful teaching and learning tools and supporting materials. The project demonstrates an example of successful cooperation that resulted in extensive work which made reaching out to various target groups possible.  In the following interview, Alicia Gaban from EfVET, one of the project partners, describes the ideas behind the project, its impact and best practices.

In June EAEA and its members celebrated the winners of GRUNDTVIG AWARD 2019 in Copenhagen. The winner of the European category, project OpenITup, addresses a very topical and hot issue of today’s’ job market: unemployment. The project promotes the idea of entrepreneurial thinking and self-employment as a solution to the high demand for jobs and low job market capacity. The project partners found a way to teach entrepreneurial skills through a humanistic approach, making learning comfortable, convenient and personally relevant to different categories of people, including both educators and adult learners. In this interview, the partners of the project give more insight into its agenda and what it has achieved so far.

In 2019 EAEA GRUNDVIG AWARD was celebrating the development of life skills in non-formal adult education. The applications we received demonstrate brilliant examples of how non-formal education can motivate adults to participate in learning, support their personal growth and well-being, and boost positive self-beliefs, changing lives of individuals and impacting society. Today we will talk about the winners of the national projects category, the project “Street University”, coordinated by Unieda, an association of popular universities in Italy, an innovative approach in breaking walls between adult learners and education.

The online course on policy and practices for Upskilling Pathways has reached about 100 people so far and engaged them in interesting discussions about the various aspects of the initiative in their countries. Two out of four modules were successfully completed before the summer, the others will be carried out in the autumn. Interested participants are still very on time to join as the content is all available online.

We need to be more flexible and creative in our learning provision, if we want to increase participation in adult education. Fun might be the key, as well as a holistic approach to learning, said our speakers at the Annual Conference in Copenhagen.