SHAPE – Shared expertice in provision of adult education in 5 European countries Erasmus Project

Project Title

SHAPE – Shared expertice in provision of adult education in 5 European countries

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 vocational education and training

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2014

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: International cooperation, international relations, development cooperation; New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses; Quality Assurance

Project Summary

The global economic and social challenges in Europe are common and similar, reflecting into the needs of education and the education provision. The economic recession seems to continue, which means reductions in state funding for education, including the education provided for adults.
On the one hand there is a number of adults without any certificate or diploma needing education, on the other hand the educated people need to improve their skills – and in many cases it is necessary to study a totally new profession. To serve these two groups of adults is a matter of social and economic competitive ability.

In order to cope with these challenges in the target groups and in the overall society, the adult educators need to keep renewing their skills as well. It is not enough that they update the professional skills of the field in question, but they have to develop and fully understand the teaching skills needed for the new target groups, better understand the essential needs of working life to overcome the economical crisis, and to fully understand and internalize the meaning of entrepreneurship as a driving force of the economy.

The big question is how to provide high quality vocational adult education, that supports adults to achieve their goals in skills development and in achieving new qualifications needed in the labor market. The SHAPE –project systematically scrutinized adult education provision and training in five 5-day further training workshops from five thematic perspectives, surveyed the best practices developed and used in partner organizations within these themes, and took a step further by identifying possible next practices that partners can take home and put into practice.
Target groups were adult educators, management-level responsable for the adult education provision, staff responsible for quality assurance, development staff, and researchers.

The SHAPE furhter training workshop themes and partner countries were

– Slovenia: Professional development of adult education staff
– Denmark: Qualification labels for professional in higher education, implications to adult education sector
– Italy: Quality assurance in Adult Education provision
– France: Key competences and entrepreneurship
– Finland: Young adult’s and adults’ upskilling programmes. Competence-based vocational qualifications as a cost-effective way of providing vocational education for adults.

The project produced two artifacts – a video scribing of the outcomes of the project and an article “Shaping vocational adult education and training”. The article consists of an introduction to each theme, the state of the theme in question and best and next practices found during the project. The video scribing described the most valuable things learnt during the project and also good practices to recommend.

This project had a very innovative working method. The workshops were organized and prepared by each partner in turns. In each of the 5 thematic workshops, the organizing partner prepared an briefing paper on the chosen theme, gave the guidelines on the topic so that partners were able to prepare their own presentation and paper for the workshop.

The projects themes were crosscutting and relevant for all partners. As all partners were working for vocational adult education, the motivation to work for the project was very high.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 171861 Eur

Project Coordinator

Keski-Uudenmaan koulutuskuntayhtymä & Country: FI

Project Partners

• ANDRAGOSKI CENTER REPUBLIKE SLOVENIJE
• GIP FORMATION CONTINUE
• ISTITUTO FORMAZIONE OPERATORI AZIENDALI
• Tietgen