Interactive Pool of tools for enhancing basic skills and key competences of adults Erasmus Project

Project Title

Interactive Pool of tools for enhancing basic skills and key competences of adults

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 2016

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Key Competences (incl. mathematics and literacy) – basic skills; Access for disadvantaged; ICT – new technologies – digital competences

Project Summary

The project’s idea came from analysis of the situation in the area of proficiency in basic skills of adult people. The OECD’s Survey of Adult Skills (2013/14) supported by the Commission’s DG Education and Culture highlighted that 20% of the EU working age population had low literacy and low numeracy skills and 25% of adults lacked the skills to effectively use ICT. These numbers meant direct consequences for Europe 2020 strategy, both at overall level and for individual countries and showed the need for strengthening the skills dimension of Europe 2020.

In view of this situation, the main objective of the project was to increase level of proficiency in basic skills among low educated adults from Romania, Poland, Germany, Spain and Italy through realizing the following operational goals: gathering, analysing and categorising existing OER tools and good practices supporting education of low skilled adults, developing Interactive Pool (on-line database) of tools allowing for categorisation and assessment of existing tools and addition of new tools, developing Guide to IPool providing step by step instructions of using the Pool and disseminating the outcomes in order to assure their exploitation also in other EU countries and other fields of education.

The partnership consisted of 6 organisations, all providing training for adult people and in particular with experience in work with low-skilled adults. Among partners, there were: the coordinator, CDA, non-governmental and regional coverage Association providing support in the region by organising consultancy and educational activities (among others), two Polish organisations: Danmar Computers working in vocational and adult education field providing training and developing IT solutions for educational purposes, and CK Edukator, adult education provider having experience with educating target groups especially through EFS initiatives, large scale German adult education provider, VHS Cham, having a leading role in defining education for adults and being the member of the Bavarian Adult Education Association, Spanish Confederation of Education and Training Centers (CECE) having over 40 years of experience in adult education and more than 2000 education and training centres among its members and Italian association ACLI supporting citizens, especially those that are threatened with marginalization and risk of social exclusion.

The main undertaken activities in the project included work on the main results, meaning that the activities included gathering, analysing and categorising existing OER tools and good practices, works on development of the Interactive Pool together with its testing and releasing the final version and developing the Guide to Interactive Pool providing step by step instructions of using the Pool. Important part of activities included quality assurance and dissemination of the outcomes in order to assure their exploitation also in other EU countries and other fields of education.

The results of the project include tangible results which are the state of art report, IPool database and the Guide, as well as many dissemination materials (website, social channels, leaflets, newsletters) and working materials including plans and very important intangible results. Those are: improved basic skills and competencies of adult people, especially those adults that have low skills, better awareness and orientation of target groups in existing tools and knowledge about using these tools, better educational offer of organisations offering training to adults as well as new networks of cooperation that the partners reached thanks to the project development. The impact of the project exceeded the expectations. It can be seen in partners’ organizations, their staff and learners, low-skilled adults and adult education providers, operators in the field of adult education. The most important is that all who participated in activities or at least heard about its results, have better awareness about lifelong learning, higher knowledge about existence of various tools and opportunities to learn which help to develop own skills and gather new competences. The usage of the Interactive Pool itself helps in increasing ICT skills but using the tools that are gathered in the database allows for increasing the competencies in many areas, depending on the choice of a tool.

Project was addressed to low-skilled adults and it is expected that the benefits in the form of better skills will have long-term character in their lives. However, a significant group benefiting indirectly were adult education centres, schools for adults, third age universities, associations which support enhancing basic skills. These organisations will benefit from using the IPool as additional educational tool. As the database is self-expandable (it can be expanded by users by adding new tools), it is expected that it will be used by the organisations for longer time bringing them benefits.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 169776 Eur

Project Coordinator

ASOCIATIA CENTRUL DE DEZVOLTARE ARAD & Country: RO

Project Partners

• A.C.L.I. SEDE PROVINCIALE DI FIRENZE
• VOLKSHOCHSCHULE IM LANDKREIS CHAM EV
• DANMAR COMPUTERS SP ZOO
• Centrum Ksztalcenia Edukator Sp. z o.o.
• CONFEDERACION ESPANOLA DE CENTROS DE ENSENANZA ASOCIACION C.E.C.E.