Guidance for Low-skilled Adults towards Skills Assessment and Validation Erasmus Project

Project Title

Guidance for Low-skilled Adults towards Skills Assessment and Validation

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for adult education

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2020

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Recognition (non-formal and informal learning/credits); New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses; Key Competences (incl. mathematics and literacy) – basic skills

Project Summary

In a society in which individuals change jobs more and more often, and the pace of innovation and new technologies keeps increasing, individuals need to be prepared for repeated transitions and adaptation to change. All learning might become relevant at some stage in one’s life, with non-formal and informal learning becoming as important as formal education in maintaining an adequate level of skills.
The Council resolution on lifelong guidance encourages Member States to consider ways of ‘enabling people to benefit from support in obtaining validation and recognition on the labour market of their formal, non-formal and informal learning outcomes, in order to safeguard their employment and maintain their employability, in particular during the second part of their careers’ (Council, 2008, p. 6).
EU countries have already some form of guidance services for adult learners or specific policy strategies that focus on educational guidance and orientation. However, the existing services or the structures on which these services rely, are not suitable to reach the adults mostly in need of education. Furthermore, existing services are often focusing on short term employment and less on identifying educational pathways that lead to more sustainable employment and social inclusion. Due to a lack of commonly arranged procedures in the system of identifying and validating non-formal and informal knowledge, it is extremely difficult for professionals in adult education and guidance to direct adults to further education and training programs.

The main aim of the project is to develop Methodology for assessment and validation of ICT, numeracy and language skill for adult education and guidance services practitioners complied th Implementation Guidelines that will provide concrete measures and common principles for basic skills assessment and validation. In the project we will include low-skilled adults in the process of screening, assessment and validation of their basic skills. After the procedure they will receive an individual’s skills record, which will include the counsellor’s opinion of achieved level of skills in coherence with EQF, and recommendations for further education and training programs (eg. strong areas, weak areas, recommendations for the future)

There are many tools for identifying and evaluating non-formally acquired adult knowledge that may be extremely good across EU, but counsellors are not familiar with them because there is no common EU repository where these tools would be collected and available for professionals in guidance services to use them EU-wide. Moreover the professionals in adult education and guidance services do not have enough knowledge or commonly agreed and accepted instructions on how to assess non-formal learning, or how to interpret the results of different tools for identifying skills and finally how to record the findings. To this aim we are going to establish EU-wide Online repository of different tools for assessment and validation of ICT, numeracy and language skill. The repository will also have a chat room that will enable practitioners to exchange knowledge and experience.

PROJECT MAIN OBJECTIVES:
– to support the setting up of and access to upskilling pathways for adults through skills identification and validation
– to extend competences of professionals in adult education and guidance through improvement of their teaching and guidance methods and tools

In the project we are addressing two main TARGET GROUPS:
– adult education and guidance services practitioners
– low-skilled adults

PROJECT ACTIVITIES that lead to development of above mentioned outputs are:
Administrative activities:
Activity 1: Project management and coordination,
Activity 2: Dissemination and sustainability actions
Activity 3: Project evaluation and quality assurance
Implementation activities:
Activity 4: IO1: Establishment of EU-wide Online repository of different tools for assessment and validation of ICT, numeracy and language skill – lead CIK Trebnje
Activity 5: IO2: Methodology for assessment and validation of ICT, mathematic and language skill for adult education and guidance services practitioners – lead UVA
Activity 6: IO3: Implementation guidelines for adult education and guidance services practitioners – lead SLP
Activity 7: IO4: Recommendation for mainstreaming of Methodology into EU Adult Education System and Guidance Services – lead EAEA

PROJECT IMPACT:
The Methodology for assessment and validation of basic skills and implementation guidelines will support the adult education and guidance practitioners to assist and guide low-skilled adults to maximize development of their literacy, mathematic, digital, and also social skills and thus their competition in the labour market and quality of life will be improved. They will be directly involved in skills assessment and validation process and thus will have a better overview to their skills and a set plan towards skills development.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 229287 Eur

Project Coordinator

CENTER ZA IZOBRAZEVANJE IN KULTURO TREBNJE JAVNI ZAVOD & Country: SI

Project Partners

• ANDRAGOSKI CENTER REPUBLIKE SLOVENIJE
• UNIVERSIDAD DE VALLADOLID
• Scotland’s Learning Partnership
• EUROPEAN ASSOCIATION FOR THE EDUCATION OF ADULTS