In 2012, the unemployment rate for low-qualified adults was 16.8%, compared to 8.6% for the medium-skilled and 5.6% for the high-skilled group. Lifelong learning is still considered one of the main ways to stay in the labour market or to find a new job but many adults - elderly workers (range: 50-65 years), who lost or are about to lose their work are low skilled; they come from a low profile job and they are unused to attend training courses. They are not attracted to the educational system and although in some cases they are "forced" by some active policies (in Italy for example for people with unemployment insurance) to attend training courses, they leave the courses early because they can not follow them, they get bored, they don’t see the utility. These are elements which make the re–employability of these people difficult. In this perspective, we consider that in adult-elderly people education new learning approaches play a strategic role. The objectives identified are: to find the most appropriate and efficient methodology for people target of the project; the improvement of adult education methods, overcoming the eventual digital divide in an IT based participatory approach; the enhancement of adult learning effectiveness by removing the impact of negative factors into adult learning groups; to attract adult people to training systems in order to reduce the level of low qualification; to improve a type of training more appropriate to respond to the current labour market challenges (expulsion from the labour market, new jobs, new skills to be re- employed); to produce practical tools for supporting and facilitating adult learning when an active/ participatory strategy is adopted. The Consortium is formed by 5 partners from 5 different EU countries (2 Universities for the methodological research and 3 educational institutions for the experimentation) with diverse/complementary skills and expertise related issues needed to implement the EScAlADE project. The main activities that will be undertaken are: -Research about the most efficient training methodology for low qualified adult/elderly people expelled from the labour market or people about to lose their work. Special focus on participatory learning and web learning communities will be the basis of adult learning experiments in order to build the theoretical foundations for tools development. Definition of a multimedia guide and course contents: proposals, recommendations, tools to carry out efficient courses directed to people target of the project. These contents will be organised by means of an interactive software programme. -Trainers’ training session: to explain the hypotheses about the effectiveness of the active/participatory learning methodologies, the contents of the experimental course and how they must carry it out. -Experimental course -Refinement of the guide and of the course on the basis of the analysis results It is expected: - that the participating educational institutions will benefit through using the new learning methodology and the experimented course as a role-model and incubator in the organizations - to produce tools to help trainers in their daily job to manage the participants (adult/elderly people) and to carry out efficient training courses directed to them - 5 European countries aligned in the use of an efficient methodology to attract adult/elderly low qualified people to attend training courses - to have a significant impact at level of wider society of related stakeholders (temporary agencies, adult education institutions, national and international institutes for professional training, employment services), including policy-makers to stimulate the re-employment policies starting by a redefinition of the methodologies used to involve the adult/elderly people in the process of re-thinking themselves in a new labour market contest. Providers of grants, for example, can address beneficiaries, through eligible activities listed in the call for proposals, to adopt in their training projects for adult people the methodologies experimented in EScAlADE project. The experiment could be used as a starting point by those who are interested in continuing and refining the Consortium’s work and the project outcomes can be used by all actors involved in adult-elderly education everywhere in Europe and could be also enriched and updated once the project is finished. The multimedia guide in fact, is a product open to receive new materials and new data.
Current changes on national labor markets are embedded in a worldwide process that encompasses global changes at social and cultural levels. Indeed, the recent progress in technology are affected the labor world causing global effects that are deeply changing our society. Accordingly, lifelong learning is fundamental not only to growth and jobs but also to social inclusion. This implies, for institutions, to adopt appropriate governance tools and, for all stakeholders, to build a coherent cultural proposal - including appropriate methodologies - facilitating mobility between the different paths and the viability of acquired skills, in life, in education systems and in work and in the labor market. International and national surveys - elaborated by single Member States - exhort to do more to adjust adult qualifications, to increase the proportion of adults engaged in study and training activities and the level of their skills. To enhance adult participation to the different educational opportunities, a further challenge has to be faced by assuming coherent strategical choices: the digital divide between the young and the older population that risks to keep a relevant part of the active population far from the social and economic participatory circuits. In the current fluid labor market, internal mobility from a job to another, as well as the access, is strictly dependent on the adaptability of the knowledges and the skills owned by the individual as also on its capacity to learn how to learn in the long-life. So, a strong action is needed not only to improve a more effective educational offer targeted to lower qualified persons, especially to those expelled from the labour market or at risk to lose their jobs, but also to bring out the educational demand, by providing to individuals flexible tools that allow them to control what they know / can do, stimulating continuous self-reflection processes that help them to self-evaluate and to record what they learn. ICT applied within a participatory/active learning methodology can usefully break the barriers of adult participation into training activities, recovering motivation and effectiveness of learning. The main objective was to elaborate methods, strategies and materials useful to improve the teaching and learning among adults (especially over 50 low-qualified).This macro objective entailed these other objectives: - to find an appropriate learning methodology for the project’s target group considering the opportunity offered by new technologies and to produce practical tools for supporting adult learning when the participatory strategy is adopted - to improve learners’ skills responding to the current labour market challenges. - to enhance adult learning effectiveness. To give them a strategy to learn to learn - to attract adult people to training system in order to reduce the level of low qualification 45 : type LIST : content 2007 5 partners with complementary skills and expertise: Rezekne University (LV): pedagogical and social issues, ICT, educational program validation and evaluation; participating learning INBIE (PL): developing MOOCs programs and e-learning activities; Entrepreneurship and planning of new products and services; research and innovation in education. Training institutes (IAL IT; IPF SP; KANEP GR): training of trainers, lifelong learning activities, developing e-learning tools, training activities of adults, social and unemployment interest researches, employment policies, management of training projects. Main activities:Scientific research about participative methodology and its application in an ICT environment; training course about ICT skills and skills to find a new job; multimedia guide for anyone working in education and training. It explains the online participative methodology, how to design training courses adopting this methodology especially with adult low qualified people and the training course contents. Trainers’ training session: to explain them the participatory learning methodologies, the training course and how they can carry it out. 5 training courses with the online participative methodology, low qualified over 50 participants developed in the Countries partners. Impact results by research activity: articles published and presented at International conferences. Impact results by training courses: nobody left the training courses. We trained around 100 people. The main results were the self esteem of the participants and more skills in learn to learn. The multimedia guide received a good evaluation by experts. At trainers level: improved skills to face problems in adult teaching-learning, especially for low qualified adult people unused to attend training courses. Long term benefits: decision makers showed the willingness to take into account the results of the project in order to launch call for proposals ad hoc to improve innovative methodology and a type of training useful for a weak target of people. The educati