adult
Professional Learning for Adults on the Move
The MOVE-ON project aims at designing, developing and validating new vocational education possibilities ready to be offered in short episodes (max 10 minutes each) during 'non-place' events with the goal to increase the overall volume of participation of adults in vocational education.
Adult learners' re-entry into the learning environment, in many instances, requires a leap of courage, and yet their learning success is integral to the health of communities and the economy. These learners, whether busy parents, young adults or seniors who would like to stay professionally active, will only be able to (re-)enter or stay in the workforce if they become life-long learners.
Learning on-the-move holds a promise for providing opportunities for adults to stay in-line with their career, personal and educational goals, to keep pace with professional and societal changes and with the new formal requirements in the modern labour market.
Mobile Devices penetration has exceeded 100% in many European countries. At the same time, device manufacturers have raised the bar with the introduction and success of sophisticated portable devices like iPhone, iPad, Blackberry, Google Nexus, tablets, etc. who have already demonstrated good potentials for mobile learning (e.g. ITunesU). At the same time, these modern learning tools which have the potential to alter the educational experience seem to be entirely separated from pedagogy since they simply do not fit with existing pedagogies. This gap from modern learning tools to state-of-the-art pedagogy should be bridged.
From the societal point of view, as society becomes increasingly hectic and knowledge-based, adult employees of all levels are obliged to adopt more vocational education activities to renew, update or certify knowledge and skills in order to remain competitive in the workplace and to accommodate to an increasingly technological environment. On top of that, as documented by the 'New Skills for New Jobs' priority (launched in 2008 by the European Commission): Skills upgrading is critically important for Europe's short-term recovery from the crisis and longer term growth and productivity, for its jobs and its capacity to adapt to change, for equity, gender equality and social cohesion. It is also stated: Too little is done to increase and adapt the skills of an ageing workforce.
Having identified these facts (technological, pedagogical and societal), the main challenge of the MOVE-ON project is to increase the overall volume of participation of adult professionals in learning and vocational education by focusing on the possibilities offered by the portable devices widely adopted lately as the new access medium to learning. MOVE-ON’s expectation is to motivate, enable and support busy adult professionals in learning on-the-move or at 'non-places'.
More specifically MOVE-ON aims at:
- Designing, developing and valorizing a novel mLearning pedagogical approach based on the recent developments in pedagogy which move away from the transmissive, behavioral models and more toward the constructivist models (learning from experience) while place the active learner at the heart of activities.
- Developing and valorizing an innovative and attractive all inclusive mlearning system that will support acquisition of knowledge while on-the-move or at the 'non-place' and offer self-directed personal development in new contexts.
- Targeting adult professionals from all over Europe, users of mobile & other portable devices (tablets) with multimedia reproduction capabilities, who lack free-time and are conscious about their educational needs.
- Designing and developing learning material (courses) that cover a selection of subjects and skills that according to studies demonstrate growing demand from employers across all levels of employees. This material will be easily adaptable for different portable devices and organized into smaller learning units (max. 10 min duration) that fit the transient context of mobile use and the MOVE-ON pedagogy.
- Offering a multilingual service where the system itself and the educational material will be available in several languages (initially all of the partners’ languages expandable to other languages later).
Feedback from pilot testing will provide insight into the appropriate educational approaches that suit the mobile context and motivate mobile users to engage with the MOVE-ON service.
2012 Adult Learners’ Week nominations open
Nominations are now open for the 2012 Adult Learners' Week Awards. People can nominate someone they teach, a colleague, a relative or a friend and give them the recognition they deserve for their outstanding learning achievements.
Every year, NIACE receives around 1,500 nominations from colleges, workplaces and other adult education providers.
Adult Learners' Week (12 - 18 May 2012) Awards identify people who have used learning to help them transform their lives, often beyond what they ever thought was possible. Awards are also given to innovative projects that give adults the opportunity to learn and improve their lives and the lives of their families and communities.
Neil Scales, OBE, Chief Executive and Director General of Merseytravel, said:
"Merseytravel is passionate about learning, because we know that it has so many diverse benefits for the individuals and for the organisation as a whole. When people learn new skills they also gain confidence, improve their job prospects, develop new insights into the world around them and can take great pride in their achievement. Other people around them become motivated by this example, and so one person's success can inspire many others to follow a similar path. This is one of the reasons Merseytravel is always keen to nominate learners for awards - their success is a beacon to others both inside and outside the organisation."
John Curry, Course Leader, BSc Computing, City of Bath College, said:
"As a lecturer I often feel humbled by the sheer determination of some students to strive to achieve. To these individuals, each setback is merely another challenge to be overcome. I nominated such an outstanding student, Fran Bunce, in 2011. The short video clip of her story in her own words has been used hundreds of times as part of the recruitment process for our computing course and we believe it has helped inspire some non-traditional learners to make that leap of faith and enter higher education."
David Hughes, NIACE Chief Executive, said:
"The nominations we receive each and every year tell the many and varied stories of adults who have the motivation, desire and dedication to improve their lives through learning. Whether that's for a new job or career, to help their children or grandchildren with their schoolwork or simply to learn more about something they're interested in."
"The Adult Learners' Week Awards celebrate the remarkable achievements of adults, giving them the recognition they deserve. And, in turn, the winners become inspirational role models, encouraging many more people to take up learning. So, if you know an outstanding adult learner, nominate them for an Adult Learners' Week Award."
All awards categories are open to learners living in England only.
The closing date for nominations is 5pm, Friday 27 January 2012.
Financial management in EU projects
FinMan - Financial management in EU projects is a two-years project on the Financial Management of EU projects co-financed by the European Commission through the LLP Grundtvig Multilateral Projects.
FinMan aims at developing an efficient and effective financial guide for the management of the entire cycle of a EU project in lifelong learning.
- IF you are involved in EU projects,
- IF you are not familiar with the financial management of such projects,
- IF you have difficulties with the planning of a project budget, internal financial reporting systems and the general reporting of project expenses, either as coordinator or as project partner,
FinMan will provide support to you ensuring training materials relevant to your needs and simplify dealing with the financial and administrative rules that complicate project delivery and reporting.
Contact person
Michela Calabrese (project manager)
m.calabrese@tkformazione.it
www.fin-man.eu
The aim of the project is to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the project management of LLOs (Lifelong Learning Organizations), providing administrators and financial staff with skills needed to successfully implement those projects.
Objectives
- Creating a common framework for EU financial management in LLOs
- Designing and delivering of a training course related to the EU administrative and financial management
- Elaboration of a Financial Guide
- Improving the exchange of materials, ideas and knowledge and collecting the exiting financial guidelines and documents in a common “Financial Guide”
- Fostering good practices at EU level on administration and financial topics.
Outcomes
- Financial Guide translated in all partners languages
- Grundtvig In-Service Training Course
- Website translated in all partners languages
- Dissemination materials in all partners languages
- Six Local seminars
- Final Conference.
Contacts
COORDINATOR
(for general inquires regarding the project)
TK FORMAZIONE SRL - Italy
Viale Gramsci n.73, 50121 Firenze
Tel. 0039 055 2466005 fax. 0039 055 2260696
www.tkformazione.it
Contact person
Michela Calabrese (project manager)
m.calabrese@tkformazione.it
ICT Use in L2 Education for Adult Migrants - A qualitative study in the Netherlands and Sweden
This report presents the findings of a comparative study on ICT use for L2 acquisition by adult migrants in the Netherlands and Sweden. For both countries, it provides information on their policy context and the requirements regarding L2 knowledge by adult migrants, on the ICT provision for L2 education and a qualitative snapshot of the role of ICTs for L2 education for adult migrants according to some key informants in both countries. Moreover, it supplies 5 case studies (3 for the Netherlands, 2 for Sweden), where the impact of ICTs for L2 acquisition has been investigated through ethnographic research, highlighting driving factors and barriers for the integration of selected ICT tools in the L2 provision for adult migrants.
Country reports on the Action Plan on Adult Learning
The Action Plan on Adult Learning "It is always a good time to learn" (2008-2010) provided for the first time a set of common priorities to be encouraged in the adult learning sector, introduced the sector to the Open Method of Coordination and thus initiated intensified European cooperation between its diverse actors.
Those country report have been carried out, on behalf of the European Commission, by GHK in cooperation with Research voor Beleid. on the basis of country-experts' analysis of existing national literature and the Confintea IV-report and were used as background reports in the Final Conference on Adult Learning Action Plan in Budapest, 7-9 March 2011.
Links
DAIN Project. An Introduction
UNESCO launches Global partnership for Girls and Women’s Education
World political and corporate leaders today launched a major new Global Partnership for Girls’ and Women’s Education during a High-Level Forum held at UNESCO Headquarters. UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova welcomed the participants to the Forum which aimed to galvanize support from the private and public sectors to make quality education available for girls and women everywhere.
Globally, some 39 million girls of lower secondary age are currently not enrolled in either primary or secondary education, while two thirds of the world’s 796 million illiterate adults are women. Only about one third of countries have achieved gender parity at secondary level.
The Global Partnership for Girls’ and Women’s education will focus mainly on secondary education and adult literacy, especially in Africa and Asia.
Mediile de învăţare personale pentru a depăşi graniţele cunoaşterii între sistemele de activitate la începutul vârstei adulte
Acest parcurs teoretic începe o dată cu definirea perioadei de început a vârstei adulte, situată, în linii mari, între adolescenţă şi vârsta adultă, perioadă de-a lungul căreia indivizii se confruntă cu multe tipuri de tranziţii. Un aspect fundamental al unei astfel de perioade de tranziţie este reţeaua de relaţii personale şi în special conceptul de creare a unei punţi de legătură privind capitalul social format din reţele cu legături slabe. Sunt luate în discuţie şi studiile privind folosirea tehnologiilor web la începutul perioadei adulte pentru că rezultatele acestora arată importanta acestor unelte de lucru în menţinerea şi întărirea acestei punţi de legătură privind capitalul social. Concluziile care se desprind din acest parcurs teoretic pun accentul pe importanţa obiectelor Web 2.0 , în special SRS care le oferă indivizilor aflaţi la începutul vârstei adulte multe posibilităţi şi sprijin privind:
- menţinerea şi dezvoltarea capitalului lor social;
- construirea unei baze de cunoştinţe care i-ar putea ajuta în timpul tranziţiilor între diferitele sisteme de activităţi.


