The project titled "A teacher of Folk High School against the challenges of modern Europe" is intended for teachers of folk high schools. The overriding goal of this project is to prepare teachers in the field of methodology and didactics in the folk high schools and to develop a curriculum for adults with a low level of basic skills. It is assumed that thanks to the substantive support of teachers, better results of teaching adults of the presented group will be achieved. Through promotion of activities of folk high schools in Poland the level of participation in lifelong learning should also increase, which, as the European Commission studies show, is the biggest problem of Poles in the field of adult education. The project includes a course at one of the Danish folk high schools for teachers of similar institutions (25 teachers from three Polish and one German folk high schools) followed by a pilot course for 20 participants with low level of basic skills. The actions that will be implemented during the project will be as follows: - developing a curriculum for people with a low level of basic skills, - publication of a guide (concerning the methodology and didactics of work at folk high schools), - organization of a pilot course for people with a low level of basic skills, - organization of scientific conference on the methodology of work at folk high schools (including one day of workshops for folk high school teachers), - 4 international project meetings of project partners. It is assumed that both the curriculum developed and the implementation of the pilot course will contribute to the increase in popularity and usefulness of work with people with low basic skills, which over the years will have a positive impact on those people (their quality of life will improve and so will their general knowledge and basic skills). Considering the fact that folk high schools are institutions of non-formal adult education, we are convinced that thanks to the promotion of the project (and thus folk high schools), the interest in those types of educational institutions will increase and adults will be more likely to use their offer (as in Denmark or Germany, for example where there are over 100 such organisations in each of those countries).
Our goal was to search in the UL - an institution of non-formal adult education - for a solution to the high rate of adults with deficits in the area of so-called key competencies. Through the preparation of teachers working at UL, as well as the results developed (ready-made teaching materials) and the dissemination of these results, it was shown to other ULs that it is possible to raise the level of basic competencies in adults without explicitly naming these deficits. This makes it possible not to stigmatize adults, who are often not even aware of their own deficiencies.
The implementation of the project resulted from the social needs of the time, both in PL and the other partner countries. These needs were the low level of basic (key) skills among adults. As one of the solutions to this problem, the applicant and partner institutions saw the UL institution. So another need was to promote the idea of people's universities and their activities for the benefit of adults.