The aim of the ECORL -Economy Co-Responsibility Learning- project is to provide an innovative and concrete response to adults’ needs concerning the knowledge, understanding and use of economics and finance. The process of globalization and the recent economic crisis have plunged the traditional system of managing and investing citizens’ savings into deep crisis. Individuals are faced with an economic downturn without being equipped for it and without the basic knowledge to be able to deal with it. We believe that social inclusion also depends on the economic education of citizens: not knowing the rules of the economic systems and not having access to information is one of the main causes of the impoverishment of people in Western societies. A recent survey conducted by the Università Popolare di Firenze revealed that almost 90% of the adult participants know little or nothing about economic systems, they are fairly familiar with the forms and traditional tools of economics and finance, but they know little about the new forms and tools of the social economy. 70% use the Internet to keep abreast of economic issues. More and more adults are asking to be kept up-to-date about the economic and financial systems and forms of sustainability of a responsible economy. This necessity becomes a primary need in a time of economic crisis where the demand arises for new skills that equip citizens to deal with the basic issues of saving, investment, business creation etc., so they can better defend themselves against the crisis and consciously pull through it. The ECORL project is targeted at adult learners students, employees, unemployed and retirees who wish to stay informed about new economic issues. In a perspective of global interrelations, the project unfolds with a comparison of the economic systems of other countries: Croatia, Albania, Lithuania, Spain and Italy. These countries differ in Human Development Indicator and Gross Domestic Product and represent different economic growth patterns. Moreover, in these countries there is an insufficient level of adult economic literacy with respect to market changes and new non-traditional forms of economy such as social business, cooperation, the sharing economy, micro-credit, and the social economy. During 2 years, the project aims to provide adults with new basic skills in the field of economics and finance as key areas to tackle and overcome the current crisis in a responsible manner through: - a comparison between the different national social economy systems; - the testing of 10 training courses, 2 each country, put together by experts and “prosumers” (producers and consumers of knowledge, goods and services) in collaboration with adult learners; - the use of a collaborative learner-centered methodology on the topic of the social economy; - the creation of 50 OERs, 10 each country, as a result of the collaborative courses; - the mobility of 40 adult participants, in order to learn the good practices of other countries; the learners will have the opportunity to know the best practices of the European YUNUS Social Business, the Center founded by Muhammed Yunus, international historical forerunner of the “social” approach to the economy. - the dissemination of results at schools, businesses, universities and associations through video and digital resourses; - the creation of a European network of adult economic literacy sharing the new forms of economy and the best practices of each country. The ECORL project will have an important impact on the formation of direct and indirect participants, their lifestyles and choices of critical consumption. For this reason, the results of the project will be useful not only in the adult education sector, but also in the training of professionals and in higher and university education as the topics addressed are wide ranging and transectorial.
The aim of the ECORL -Economy Co-Responsibility Learning- project is to provide an innovative and concrete response to adults’ needs concerning the knowledge, understanding and use of economics and finance. The process of globalization and the recent economic crisis have plunged the traditional system of managing and investing citizens’ savings into deep crisis. Individuals are faced with an economic downturn without being equipped for it and without the basic knowledge to be able to deal with it. We believe that social inclusion also depends on the economic education of citizens: not knowing the rules of the economic systems and not having access to information is one of the main causes of the impoverishment of people in Western societies. More and more adults are asking to be kept up-to-date about the economic and financial systems and forms of sustainability of a responsible economy. This necessity becomes a primary need in a time of economic crisis where the demand arises for new skills that equip citizens to deal with the basic issues of saving, investment, business creation etc., so they can better defend themselves against the crisis and consciously pull through it. The ECORL project and results are targeted at adult learners, students, employees, unemployed and retirees who wish to stay informed about new economic issues. During 2 years, the project provided adults with new basic skills in the field of economics and finance as key areas to tackle and overcome the current crisis in a responsible manner through: - a comparative study on Social Economy within an international perspective, investigating forms of new economy in Western, European, and emerging economies; - an Interactive Platform, as Repository of News, documents, products, online courses, deepenings, Glossary and FAQs, International weekly news on Sharing Economy; - the testing of 10 Pilot Training Courses, in a blended modality, 2 editions in each Partner country: Albania, Croatia, Italy, Lithuania and Spain. The Training Courses involved 120 adult learners as direct beneficiaries, 50 teachers and experts, 100 Organisations - the Consortium’s Network of Social Enterprises, Associations, Public and Private Sector engaged on the issues of the Sustainable Economy; - the use of the collaborative learner-centered methodology and the creation of the Guidelines on Adult Collaborative Learning; -the Guideline on the Economic Literacy for adult learners; - the setting up of 54 Open Educational Resources, within 4 topics: Social Economy, Ethical Bank, Sharing Economy, Sustainable Lifestyle. The OERs are Open and free, simple to use, designed for adult learners, with Video, Deepenings, WebReferences, Further Reading digital materials and Exercise; - the online survey, in order to test the adult economic competences; - the online match with the economic competences and the OERs content; - the mobility of 40 adults in Tirana, in order to: know the methodology of the Balkan YUNUS Social Business-the Center founded by Muhammed Yunus, international historical forerunner of the “social” approach to the economy; visit the main examples of Social Enterprises in Albania; share the national good practices on Sharing Economy in an International context. - the dissemination of results at schools, social enterprises, universities and associations during the 7 Multiplier Events; - the creation of a weekly News Letter as international network on Sharing Economy within the Ecorl platform, that had more than 130.000 views after 24 months of online activity. Thanks to the Università Popolare di Firenze, UPF-Italy, the Federación Española de Universidades Populares,FEUP-Spain, the Open University di Pula, POU-Croatia, the Eu Trade-Lithuania, the Yunus Social Business Balkans-Albania and the Università Telematica Uninettuno-Italy, the ECORL project had an important impact 1) on production of new digital materials on Social Economy, with the OERs, the online platform and the international weekly News, and 2) on the training of direct and indirect participants, their lifestyles and choices of critical consumption. For these reasons, the results of the project are useful not only in the adult education sector, but also in the training of professionals and in higher and university education as the topics addressed are wide ranging and transectorial. All results are available, open and free, on the Ecorl platform for other 5 years after the project lifetime end.