"Digital inclusion" is a strategic partnership project proposal in the field of adult education, promoted by Association INFOMAMENTIS EUROPA (Italy); in collaboration with GODESK (Italy); RIVNESCO (Cyprus); KIR-COM (Turkey); PHOENIXKM BVBA (Belgium); YSBF (Estonia). The main purpose of the project is to improve, through the exchange of best practices, staff expertise of the organizations involved in adult education, in the field of digital literacy, especially for some target groups of people who are most disadvantaged in the labor market and more exposed to social exclusion, such as immigrants and the unemployed. The partners involved in “Digital Inclusion”, while operating in geographically and culturally in different contexts, daily they have to face common challenges regarding technological, economic and migration changes, that are transforming both our society, and the labour market, which requires new skills and continuous knowledge updates. The organizations involved in adult education must take account of these changes and work in synergy with foreign partners; in order to discover and develop new methods and strategies, able to involve in greater amounts and more effectively disadvantaged adults in lifelong learning. The partners are agree that a social inclusion should start from an intensive adult learning pathway that includes cultural, sensitivity and digital literacy. The integrated and innovative approaches, in order to support employability and social inclusion, will be : discovered thanks to the exchange of good practices; tested and learned by the staff of the participants' organizations thanks to the project meeting and mainly during the Joint Staff Training Event; transferred to anyone dealing with an adult learning fostering the development of social, civic, intercultural competences, thanks to Open Educational Resources made available in English and in all partners' National Languages. The project will have an added value if carried out at transnational level, because the exchange of practices is effective only if coming from different contexts, approaches and cultural awareness. The partners have identified as participants in the project: 1) direct beneficiaries(participants from partners' organizations)professional manager; teacher/trainer for adults; other staff nin various way involved in dissemination activities. 2) Indirect beneficiaries, including persons as following: - trainers and teachers working in the field of adult education; - workers, executives, administrators or politicians who are in organizations (public and private) involved in combating social exclusion policies / actions; - workers, executives, administrators or politicians who are in organizations (public and private) involved in migrants and refugees integration - professionals working in support to migrants and unemployed - social workers, psychologists and HR managers; - representatives of ONG and Civic organizations involved in various way in adult education - vocational schools and universities. From the project are expected: - tangible results: good practice examples, research report, web and digital tools (e.g. project's website; blog; facebook page), new methodologies and approaches; trainings trainings resulting by joint staff training event, newsletters, leaflets. - not tangible results; such as considerable increase in term of knowledge, skill and expertise of organizations involved, their staff and stakeholder, on main project’s issues (active citizenship, methodological approaches for adult learning, not-formal method in adult education and training; social communication methodology for the integration, digital education and community building). The partners planned to have 5 Transnational Project Meetings, coinciding with “MILESTONES” of the project, and one Joint Staff Training Event, aimed to train the adult educators and gives the opportunity to increase the impact of the project. The Joint Staff Training Event will have a multidisciplinary approach and the really-intensive work-sessions where the staff is going to be able to transmit the knowledge and assess the learning pathway for the educators; in long term it will have an effect on the exploitation of the project results over the project lifetime. The Joint Staff Training Event will involve two persons of the staff of each organization, but its benefits will be directed to the local communities of each member of the partnership, since the outcomes will be shared with the vast network of stakeholders that each partner has at local / national level. The project will have impacts at the local, national and European level, in terms of enhancing the expertise of staff involved, as well as in term of increase the know-how of a large adult educators network, because the products and the expected results may be used by all those who work for the adult education and digital literacy of the unemployed and migrants.
The Digital Inclusion project has achieved its goal of fostering a positive exchange of good practices between organizations working in the field of adult education, coming from the following countries: - Italy (INFORMAMENTIS EUROPA AND GODESK) - UK (KBM Consultants) - Cyprus (RIVENSCO) - Turkey (KIR-COM)-Estonia (YSBF) The Project has succeeded, through the activities carried out, in improving the skills of the personnel of the organizations involved, in the field of digital literacy and social inclusion, in particular for some target groups of people who are more disadvantaged in the labor market and more exposed to social exclusion, as immigrants and the unemployed.The partners, in fact, while operating in geographically and culturally different contexts, face daily challenges regarding technological, economic and migratory changes, which are transforming both our society and the labor market. Such changes require an effort to understand the reality from a multicultural point of view, new skills and continuous knowledge updates even for those working in adult education. The international partnership work, enriched by the different experiences and backgrounds of those who work there, has allowed the staff of the organizations involved to discover and develop new methods and strategies, able to involve disadvantaged adults in greater quantities and with more effective methods Lifelong learning.At the base of the partnership there was the common awareness that social inclusion should start from the involvement of adults in lifelong learning paths, to improve their culture, to combat the phenomena of racism and intolerance, to improve their life prospects and work and to combat computer illiteracy and the digital divide. Thanks to the research and analysis activities carried out for the project, the organizations involved were able to know: - the economic and social situations of the partner countries; - policies to combat poverty and support integration; - initiatives in favor of computer / digital literacy for adults; - integrated and innovative approaches, in order to support employability and social inclusion, - the good practices tested in the various countries for adult education, in particular for the acquisition / strengthening of social, civic and intercultural competences. The staff of the partners involved also benefited from the activities of the JSTE, which, on the one hand consolidated the new skills, knowledge and skills acquired by the staff who worked on the project, and on the other supported the extension of the benefits of Digital Inclusion to the local communities of each member of the partnership, since the results of the JSTE have been used in the usual activities and shared with the vast network of stakeholders that each partner has at local / national level. The beneficiaries of the Digital Inclusion project were 1) direct beneficiaries, which are the organizations involved and their staff working in adult education 2 )indirect beneficiaries, the stakeholders at local / national level such as: - trainers and teachers working in the field of adult education; - workers, - managers, - administrators or politicians who are part of organizations (public and private) involved in the fight against social exclusion policies / actions; - workers, managers, administrators or politicians who are part of organizations (public and private) involved in the integration of migrants and refugees professionals who work in support of migrants and the unemployed; - social workers, psychologists and human resources managers; - NGO representatives involved in various ways in adult education, vocational schools and universities. The project has produced 1) tangible results: preliminary research, collection of good practices, web and digital tools (project website; blog; facebook page), newsletters, brochures, educational activities for adults carried out by the various partners with the use of new methodologies and approach 2) non-tangible results: a significant increase in the knowledge, skills and competences of the organizations involved, their staff and stakeholders, on the main project issues (innovative approaches to adult learning, non-formal method of adult education and training; digital education and community building).