Today, people all over Europe experience multiples life transitions. They suffer more stress on the job caused by time compression and increased occupational pressures, by accelerating digitalization as well as increasing demands in the area of occupational mobility. A mayor outcome of this ever-changing reality is the dramatic rise of symptoms such as mental illness and addiction, emotional and social incompetence as well as the rise of fundamentalist tendencies (e.g. in politics or religious faiths). The objective of this exchange project is to promote the idea that future adult education must focus mainly on prevention by enhancement in psychosocial life skills. Enhancement in psychosocial life skills deals mainly with the following skills, as described by the WHO: self-perception, affective empathy, creative thinking, critical thinking, decision-making ability, problem-solving ability, ability to effectively communicate and form interpersonal relationships, coping strategies and finally stress management. This project will be run by the active managers and study directors of six different institutions for Adult Education, located in five different countries. In some of the five transnational project meetings, colleagues from continuing educational facilities and institutions specializing in psychosocial health, in particular prevention and methods and techniques of adult education, will present and discuss their knowledge, experience and prognoses/strategies. To conclude the project, a final conference will be organized, to which colleagues will be invited from continuing educational facilities within the German-speaking world, who deal specifically with the practical and conceptual conveyance of life skills. We will also present and discuss the project’s outcomes. Through transnational project meetings, video conferences and a professional exchange via a communication platform, we will study the background contexts of illnesses due to psychological stress as well as the terminology related to enhanced psychosocial education. We will compare ideas on best practice examples as well as systemize and evaluate approved programs for enhancement of psychosocial life skills, focusing on target groups, program formats, offerings, didactic concepts, regional specifications and general effects, thereby creating the foundations for further development. In this exchange project, the participating organizations will acquire basic knowledge within the field of basic psychosocial education, emphasizing the significance of this challenge for continuing education in Europa in the near future. The project results, published both in German and English, will lay the groundwork for developing new and innovative, target-group-oriented formats and offering for conveyance of psychosocial life skills. The project outcomes represent a solid basis upon which new educational formats and offerings for supporting personal development can be conceived; if reasonable and beneficial to the process, in a media-assisted form. Adult educational institutions thereby gain new target groups, which allows them to subject-specific and pedagogically train lecturers, teaching assistants, full- and part-time employees (i.e. education managers, trainers or lecturers), in order to guarantee the quality of their basic psychosocial educational offerings and programs.
The basic principle of the project “Enhancement in psychosocial life skills” was to describe our contemporary living situation. Among other things, the project found that the increase in decision options for human beings, along with their greater disorientation, pressure to self-improve and the increasingly rapid pace of living conditions go hand-in-hand with a growing alienation from the (social, natural, psychiatric and spiritual) world. Life transitions are increasing and interpersonal relationships are becoming more fragile. Human beings are facing the challenge of steering themselves, designing how they live with one another constructively and in a way that fosters solidarity. Consequently, mental stress is increasing and diagnoses of illnesses of a psychological nature are on the rise. Many people are seeking refuge in addictions or fundamentalism in an attempt to escape this pressure and to regain control over their lives. The Corona pandemic, which started during the course of the project, has placed the stress faced by human beings and their abilities to overcome this as well as their limitations in even greater focus. An ideal image of a psychosocial, strong personality was developed that had its foundations in this analysis. Attitudes and abilities were assigned to the basic cornerstones of thinking and feeling, wanting and acting. An assumption was made here that they strengthen the resilience of human beings and their mental health. This is not only important for individuals but also politically and socially relevant, in light of the financial effects of the increase in mental illnesses. Psychosocial life skills enhancement is a preventative approach for strengthening living proficiency. It promotes the self-regulating ability of human beings in social contexts, supports their self-responsibility and offers possibilities for acquiring a personal orientation system. It strives at support of the (psychological) health of people as well as the extension of equal (health) opportunities and the strengthening of social participation. Psychosocial life skills enhancement is based on the trinity of education, consultation and supervision. It opens up “learning and feedback spaces”, “zones of encounter” and “workshops of success and failure”. It works in a resource-oriented manner, involves the target groups and takes into account forms of self-controlled informal learning. Much attention is paid to the question of knowledge transfer. Alongside this theoretical basis, new formats were firstly devised, conducted and evaluated. Secondly strategies and tools were developed that ensure the quality of offers of psychosocial life skills enhancement and safeguard this. In this way a quality framework and a description of successful learning arose. Furthermore tools were developed for describing the target group, evaluation etc. During a concluding conference, the results and experience of the Erasmus+ project were presented to and discussed with the wider public. Within this framework, there was evidence of great interest and much positive feedback was received about the project results. In addition, a wide range of suggestions were made about developing the project further and consolidating enhancement based on feedback.