Central to the project is the question of how to reach those remote from education – i.e., people who for whatever reason have had little or no formal adult education - to improve their participation in further education and to design and provide low-threshold learning opportunities. Studies show that only about 10% of the low-qualified participate in further education – among graduates of universities, the participation quote is four times as high. Education experts agree that being remote from education is not due solely to the individuals themselves. Often the institutions, too, are distant from the target audience. This is why experts suggest outreach educational counselling as well as further alternative approaches to increase participation in further education. Our project ON THE MOVE has its foundations in European Policies and in recent research done within the PIAAC programme. The goal of the Europe 2020 strategy is smart, sustainable and inclusive growth. Lifelong learning and the development of skills are important factors in this strategy. The European Agenda for Adult Learning (EAAL) is directly linked to this and therefore puts emphasis on the necessity for increased participation in adult learning. Whilst participation rates vary considerably amongst EU countries, the rates for low-skilled adults are generally low. Aims The goals of this project are identifying, testing, developing (further) and disseminating successful approaches improving the integration and support of the educationally remote. With this project, staff in counselling and educational institutions in Europe will learn about alternative approaches (predominantly of the outreach kind) bringing educationally remote and low-qualified people to further education and will implement these in their countries. This project will increase the chances of the educationally remote to find (better) work, as this is directly correlated with the level of qualification. Outcomes - Research from all project partners on suitable best practice examples in Europe for reaching educationally remote people. This also includes previously conducted European projects, whose results we will disseminate further. - Assessment matrix which we will use to evaluate the identified counselling projects and develop new approaches. - Website including an Open Educational Resource with at least 30 projects of outreach counselling from different european countries. The site will be available in all partner languages. - A professional publication (ebook and print) which will contain 30 descriptions of the identified best practice examples. Like the website, this will offer didactic instructions which will enable the implementation of outreach educational counselling and other alternative approaches to reaching the educationally remote at other institutions, too. - 6 Video interviews in which we will interview skilled personell from best practice projects and accompany them at their work: how do they reach people, how do they counsel them, what are the topics etc.? - In our main product, the best practice publication, we will also include recommendations for the use of "easy language" better reaching the target groups needs. - For internal use we will produce and regularly update a dissemination and a quality plan, draft a project management handbook and a project agreement. Activities During the investigation phase, each partner will form an assessment group consisting of 5 people active in the area of further education/adult education, which will evaluate the project examples that were researched in the first (research) phase using the assessment matrix and make recommendations for (further) development. The members of this group can be counsellors, trainers, managers, or political decision-makers. The groups will be put together in such a way so as to ensure the necessary specialist expertise to evaluate the projects as well as guaranteeing a widespread dissemination from the start. Towards the end of the project, each partner will organise a public event and invite educational institutions, representatives of charities, those active in adult and further education, representatives of umbrella organisations (e.g. the Volkshochschulverband (Adult Education Association) in Germany), political decision-makers, representatives of the press, and everyone who is interested in the subject. Each event should reach at least 30 people resulting in 200+ participants. During this event, the best practice approaches that were identified and developed will be presented and the publication will be distributed. In addition we will deliver the project publication to at least 150 university libraries and lecturers across Europe.
Central to the project was the question of how to reach those remote from education – i.e., people who for whatever reason have had little or no formal adult education - to improve their participation in further education and to design and provide low-threshold learning opportunities. Studies show that only about 10% of the low-qualified participate in further education – among graduates of universities, the participation quote is four times as high. Education experts agree that being remote from education is not due solely to the individuals themselves. Often the institutions, too, are distant from the target audience. This is why experts suggest outreach educational guidance/counselling as well as further alternative approaches to increase participation in further education. Our project ON THE MOVE had its foundations in European Policies like the Europe 2020 strategy with its goals of smart, sustainable and inclusive growth. Lifelong learning and the development of skills are important factors in this strategy. Aims/Objectives The goals of this project has been to identifying and disseminating successful approaches improving the integration and support of the educationally remote. With this project, staff in guidance/counselling and educational institutions in Europe learned about alternative approaches (predominantly of the outreach kind) bringing educationally remote and low-qualified people to further education and will implement these in their countries. This project and its results increase the chances of the educationally remote to find (better) work, as this is directly correlated with the level of qualification. Results/Outcomes and impact - Research from all project partners on suitable best practice examples in Europe for reaching educationally remote people. This also includes previously conducted European projects, whose results we will disseminate further. - Assessment matrix which was used to evaluate the identified guidance/counselling or education projects. - Website including an Open Educational Resource with 32 projects of low threshold learning possibilities and outreach approaches from different European countries. The site is available in all partner languages except Swedish. - A professional publication which contains 32 descriptions of the identified best practice examples. The portraits include hints which enable the implementation of low-threshold learning possibilities and outreach educational guidance or other alternative approaches to reaching the educationally remote at other institutions, too. - 6 Videos in which we give an insight in selected best practice projects. - In our main product, the best practice publication, we also included general recommendations for the implementation of the outreach approach and the use of "easy language". - For internal use we produced and regularly updated a dissemination and a quality plan, draft a project management handbook and a project agreement. The dissemination and implementation of our identified best practice examples in outreach educational guidance and low-threshold learning opportunities increase the possibility for more organisations and professionals to adopt these strategies in their services and therefore our target groups - those remote from education - profit from better access to learning opportunities and guidance/counselling. Activities Desk research in 19 European countries to identify appropriate projects + assessment groups consisting of approx. 5 people active in the area of further education, who contributed to the evaluation of the project examples using an assessment matrix. Selection of 32 best practice projects from more than 100 identified projects. Writing portraits and collecting all projects in a professional publication. Towards the end of the project, each partner organised a public event and invited educational institutions, representatives of charities, those active in adult and further education, representatives of umbrella organisations, political decision-makers, representatives of the press, and everyone who is interested in the subject. Each event reached at least 30 people resulting in 200+ participants. During these events, the best practice approaches that were identified and developed were presented and the publication was distributed. Participating organisations: team training (coordinator), Germany: provider of adult education and social work, mainly for unemployed Vytautas Magnus University, Lithuania Stichting De Regenboog Groep, The Netherlands: NGO committed to people with social problems Superact, United Kingdom: Community Interest Company with key areas in community development, health & wellbeing and employability & skills development Promidea, Italy: Social Cooperative of services for people at risk of marginalization Norrköpings stadsmuseum, Sweden: historical museum run by the municipality of Norrköping BFI Tirol Bildungs GmbH, Austria: vocational training institute