Courses: 2016

Course structure: “Adult Learning in the 21st Century”

17th of March – July 2016 (with tasks over the summer)

The course is structured according to EAEA‘s recent publication “Manifesto for Adult Learning in the 21st Century“. It sets objectives for creating a Learning Europe: a Europe that is able to tackle the future positively and with all necessary skills, knowledge and competences.The Manifesto is targeted at European, national and regional policy makers to learn about the benefits of adult learning. It can also be useful for European education providers in advocacy work. Download your copy!

NB! The latest and more detailed timetable is available at the AE-PRO learning platform!

REGISTER HERE FOR THE TRAINING!

0. European policies

Introduction

  • Lead: European Association for the Education of Adults (EAEA), Belgium
  • Online lecture: 17th of March, 11:00 CET – Duration: 1h
  • Hosts: Gina Ebner, EAEA Secretary General and Tania Berman, EAEA Policy Officer and AE-PRO project coordinator
  • Description: This webinar will introduce the participants to the course. It will explain its overall concept including the manifesto, the various sessions, the group work “adult education in my country”, the portfolio and the certificates. The project leaders will answer participant’s questions.  
  • Assignment: Go through the project website and test the learning platform to anticipate potential questions; read the portfolio document; create small international teams for the group work; prepare the group assignment “adult education in my country”
  • Overall duration: 4 hours

Advocacy

  • Lead: European Association for the Education of Adults (EAEA), Belgium
  • Online lecture: This session does not include a webinar, but the reading assignments are conducted between 21st and 27th of March.
  • Hosts: Gina Ebner, EAEA Secretary General and Tania Berman, EAEA Policy Officer and AE-PRO project coordinator
  • Description: This session is a reading session. Participants will read the publications recommended and reflect on their own advocacy processes on their local, regional or national level.
  • Assignment: Read the publications from the ARALE project (esp. publication summarizing recommendations) and from the BeLL project; group reflection online before the webinar on “Networking” the following week
  • Overall duration: 4 hours

Networking

  • Lead: European Association for the Education of Adults (EAEA), Belgium
  • Online lecture: 31st of March, 11:00 CET – Duration: 2h. After an introduction to the topic of networking, the EPALE platform will be presented to the participants. Group work to discuss networking (as in the assignment) will follow, before a Q&A session.
  • Hosts: Gina Ebner, EAEA Secretary General and Tania Berman, EAEA Policy Officer and AE-PRO project coordinator
  • Guest: Géraldine Libreau, EPALE coordinator at the European Commission
  • Description: Participants will be introduced to EPALE, the online platform for professionals in adult learning hosted by the European Commission
  • Assignment: Reflect on how to network in Europe and which tools to use; visit the EPALE platform; group reflection on possible ways and means to do advocacy at the local, regional and national level ; reflection on what is currently being done by the participants and what messages to get across
  • Overall duration: 4 hours

Closing session + feedback

  • Lead: European Association for the Education of Adults (EAEA), Belgium
  • Online lecture: the week that starts 30th June
  • Hosts: Gina Ebner, EAEA Secretary General and Tania Berman, EAEA Policy Officer and AE-PRO project coordinator
  • Description: Participants will be invited to give their feedback on the course to the course organisers
  • Assignment : Fill in the evaluation form
  • Overall duration: 2 hours

1. Citizenship, democracy and participation

Active citizenship and community involvement – In practice

  • Lead: Kerigma, Portugal
  • Online lecture: 7th of April, 11:00 CET – Duration: 1,5 h
  • Guest: EAPN Portugal (tbc)
  • Description: This session gives participants the opportunity to reflect on active citizenship and its role in democracies. The webinar will focus on the  concept of community involvement by introducing the European Anti-Poverty Network Portugal (EAPN). This network is supporting the most disadvantaged families in the process of training for citizenship, particularly as regards the prevention of intergenerational reproduction of poverty and social exclusion and to encourage the construction of life projects.
  • Assignment: Personal reflection on one’s own involvement in terms of active citizenship; group discussions, reflection on one’s individual pathway linked to active citizenship and democracy for the portfolio
  • Overall duration: 3 hours 

Democracy and participation

  • Lead: Kerigma, Portugal
  • Online lecture: 14th of April, 11:00 CET – Duration: 50 min
  • Description: This session gives participants the opportunity to reflect on democracy and participation, based on their own experiences. The planned intervention aims to focus on the portfolio advantadges and possibilities and to support the participants in its development.
  • Assignment: Reflection on what have been my life/ pathway in what concerns democracy and participation. / Reading the portfolio guide prior to the session.
  • Overall duration: 3 hours

2. Life skills for Individuals

The Stories About Life Skills

  • Lead: Adult Education Society, Serbia
  • Online lecture: 21st of April, 11:00 CET – Duration: 1,5 h
  • Hosts: Nikola Koruga, Project Manager, Adult Education Society, Belgrade and Maja Maksimović, Assistant Professor and Researcher, Department for Pedagogy and Andragogy, Faculty of Philosophy – University of Belgrade
  • Guest: Antonia Batzoglou,The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, University of London
  • Description: This session aims to familiarise participants with the concept of life skills and to raise awareness on the diversity of life skills and their importance for personal, but also for career development. In this session we will use art based methods to elicit personal stories – we will invite participants to share photos, stories, etc. The online and offline tasks will give them the opportunity to learn more about learning paths in different cultural environments and reflect on personal experiences. The online webinar will focus on the benefits of using drama and movement in working with elderly.
  • Assignment: reflect and write about personal learning path related to the development of life skills for the portfolio and share it with peers.
  • Overall duration: 3 hours

The life skills in global perspective

  • Lead: ICAE, Uruguay
  • Online lecture: 28th of April, 11:00 CET – Duration: 1,5 h
  • Host: Maria Graciela Cuervo, policy officer, ICAE
  • Description: The session aims to familiarising participants with concept of life skills in global perspective. The session “The life skills in global perspectives” will consist of live webinar and forum discussions. During the live session the participants could be familiar with concept of life skills, practical explanations in the documents, UNESCO’s concept of life skills and skill for work. The participants will discussed and reflect on different examples of world initiatives dedicated to the life skills.
  • Assignment: Reading tasks and open discussions with experts from ICAE.
  • Overall duration: 3 hours

3. Social cohesion, equity and equality

How to use adult education for social cohesion, equity and equality

  • Lead: Adult Education Society, Serbia
  • Online lecture: 5 May, 11:00 CET – Duration: 1,5 h
  • Hosts: Maja Maksimović, Assistant Professor and Researcher, Department for Pedagogy and Andragogy, Faculty of Philosophy – University of Belgrade and Nikola Koruga, Project Manager at Adult Education Society, Belgrade
  • Description: This session aims to raise participant’s awareness on the role of adult education concerning social cohesion, equity and equality. The online and offline tasks will give participants the opportunity to learn more about problems in their local communities and discuss possible solutions trough adult education.
  • Assignment: Exploration of the main challenges in their country regarding social cohesion and suggestions for adult education initiatives written in the portfolio.
  • Overall duration: 3 hours

Gender, nationalism and adult education: feminist perspective

  • Lead: Adult Education Society, Serbia
  • Online lecture: 12 May, 11:00 CET – Duration: 1,5 h
  • Hosts: Maja Maksimović, Assistant Professor and Researcher, Department for Pedagogy and Andragogy, Faculty of Philosophy, University of Belgrade and Nikola Koruga, Project Manager at Adult Education Society, Belgrade
  • Guest: activists who work in the area of gender equality
  • Description: This session aims to explore the how to use adult education to work on issues such as nationalism and gender inequality. The activities will include a live webinar, reading tasks and gender analysis of newspaper articles. The participants will learn how to critically read everyday texts in order to identify discrimination and inequalities, but also they will find out more about adult education initiatives related to gender issues.
  • Assignment: Reading tasks and gender analysis of newspaper articles.
  • Overall duration: 3 hours

4. Employment and digitalisation

Skills for Employment

  • Lead: Learning & Work Institute, UK
  • Online lecture: 17 May, 11:00 CET – Duration: 1,5 h
  • Host: Kevin Campbell-Wright, Project Officer at Learning & Work Institute
  • Description: This session looks at how the skills needed for work now and in the future impact on adult learning and the role work based learning and employer/provider partnerships play in boosting learner engagement.
  • Assignment: Assignment: You will be asked to digest some short research summaries, participate in a one hour expert webinar and then write (or produce in other media) a short reflective assignment on one of the following topics: Skills for Employment; Learning with Employers; Sustainable Skills.
  • Overall duration: 3 hours

5. Migration and demographic changes

“Teaching the masses – Rising to a challenge” – Second Language Acquisition

  • Lead: Landesverband Saarland, Germany
  • Host: Karsten Schneider, Director Landesverband Saarland
  • Guest: Celia Sokolowski, Project Manager of ich-will-deutsch-lernen.de, Deutscher Volkshochschul-Verband (DVV)
  • Online lecture: 30th of May 2016, 11:00 CET – duration: 1, 5h
  • Description: From the view point of adult education, language skills and their acquisition are among the most important tasks in adult education. The current refugee situation has led to a new dimension in the German adult education sector. “German as a second language” has become a government sponsored programme for refugees, who are now allowed to learn the language in all adult education centers. This session describes the real challenges for German adult education centers. How to include the high amount of participants in the language programmes? How to satisfy the expectations of the learners?
  • Assignment:
    • Self-study: Watching Webinars of VHS Landesverband Saarland and NIACE from 2015
    • Self-experience: Enroll and start first lesson of ich-will-deutsch-lernen.de
  • Overall duration: 3 hours

Intercultural Dialogue: “We need to talk – Integration beyond language skills”

  • Lead: Landesverband Saarland, Germany
  • Host: Gina Ebner, Secretary General of EAEA, Belgium
  • Guest: tbc 
  • Online lecture: 9th of June, 16:15 – 17:00 – live from the German Adult Education Conference (“Deutscher Volkshochschultag”) in Berlin
  • Description: This session will focus on examples of enhancing intercultural dialogue and on the integration process. Knowledge of the language involves more than language skills; intercultural skills are also important for people with different ethnic backgrounds to live together in harmony. The definition and aspects of intercultural dialogue beyond language skills are the focus of this session.
  • Assignment:
    • Self-study: Definition of intercultural competences and finding one practical example online
    • Watch the videoblog with refugees and the interview
    • Watch the interview
  • Overall duration: 2 hours

6. Sustainability

The Sustainable Development Goals and adult education for sustainable development

Tools and practice – adult education for sustainability

  • Lead: RIO/FOLAC, Sweden
  • Online lecture: This session does not include a webinar. A facilitator will be available online for text-chat during the session as an opportunity to reflect, ask questions – specific hours to be announced. The week of the 20th of June is reserved for this session.
  • Description: In this session we look at tools and models to use pedagogically in education for sustainable development, for example the doughnut economy, ecological footprints and planetary boundaries. We highlight experiences from training of adult educators in the nordic countries – and invite all participating to create a sketched project plan for running an acitivity of education for sustainable development, in one’s local context.
  • Learning outcomes:
    • Awareness of possible tools and models to use in adult education for sustainable development, for example the doughnut economy, ecological footprints and planetary boundaries.
    • Deepened understanding of how sustainability could be integrated or developed as part of participant’s own practice in working within the field of adult education and life long learning.
  • Overall duration: 4 hours

Register here by 10th of March 2016!