The Action for Future project combines the efforts of 5 partners, representing different regions of Europe – Central (Germany and Austria), Eastern (Bulgaria), Northern (Norway) and Southern (Italy). The starting point of our joint effort is supporting adult trainers in the delivery of training to young adults in risk through design thinking methodology for civic engagement and participation. By equipping adult trainers with the adequate design thinking manual (IO1) and resource book (IO2) we aim at increasing the quality of training provided to disadvantaged young adults, so that they can successfully engage in community development initiatives. In that sense, our proposal is in direct link with one of the adult specific priorities of Erasmus+ programme for 2020, which emphasises on “extending and developing the competences of educators and other personnel in effective teaching of low-qualified adults”. The end-users of our project consortium are disadvantaged young adults, who face different obstacles towards achieving desired personal and professional development like low economic status, low qualification, unemployment, isolation due to minority and/or refugee background, mental and physical disabilities. Engaging them in meaningful civic engagement and participation initiatives, will contribute to their higher level of self-esteem, autonomy and motivation to learning development. This will influence their overall education achievements and ensure the learning outcomes from adult education will be sustained and upgraded in long term perspective, which is a guarantee for their success in life. In this perspective our project is in line with Social Inclusion and Civic Engagement and Participation horizontal priorities of Erasmus+. Our innovation proposed focuses on enriching the regular adult education processes, regardless of the thematic focus (key competences training, employment training, entrepreneurship training, etc.) with a design thinking methodology, which will allow engaging learners in a community focused learning process, based on active civic engagement and participation activities. *Tangible results (outputs)* 1. IO1 – Adult Trainers’ Design Thinking Manual, electronic document available in all partner languages and English. 2. IO2 – Adult Trainers’ Design Thinking Resource Book in all partner languages and English. 4. 40 adult trainers integrate IO1 and IO2 in their daily work (piloting: 15 and exploitation:25). 5. 180 young adult learners in risk are engaged in adult education courses based on IO1 and IO2 (piloting: 75 and exploitation:105). 6. 1200 adult trainers and other stakeholders reached through dissemination activities (5 multiplier events, 48 online publications, 20 thematic presentations at external events, ongoing information provision). *Intangible results (outcomes)* 1. Improved professional competences of adult trainers in partner organisations and beyond to embed design thinking in regular adult education courses; 2. Improved motivation for learning and development of young adult learners in risk; 3. Improved civic and participation competences of young adult learners in risk; 4. Improved awareness of adult education communities in partner countries and beyond in the area of empowerment training provision. The main impact dimensions envisaged can be summarised as follows. The overall quality of adult training provision in our organisations will improve. The motivation of adult trainers will be increased. The employability prospects for young adults in risk will improve as a results of acquired high learning achievements and motivation. Local communities will benefit from the increase in the number of active and community conscious citizens.
The project was primarily about expanding the skills of trainers in the field of adult education in order to be able to respond better to the challenges of working with disadvantaged young people. The central methodological approach was design thinking. Furthermore, it was a question of developing concrete materials for training courses with which the social integration of young, disadvantaged people can be improved and the participation and commitment of young, disadvantaged people can be promoted.
All partners involved work in different contexts with disadvantaged young people and observed that it is often not possible to activate them. At the same time, the Fridays for Future movement, which was moving the public at that time, showed that there are many young people who are committed to shaping the future with tenacity, creativity and courage. This movement was in a contrast to the young people we experienced in our training, coaching and open counselling. We asked ourselves what we can change about our work to support young people to take action for their future. We knew that we could only achieve change through more young people's participation and decided to try the Design Thinking approach. Design thinking is now standard in the industry and is used to develop tailor-made products. In the USA in particular, there are also approaches to applying design thinking in the educational and social sectors in order to develop educational measures with the participation of the respective target group in such a way that they are really suitable for them. There are only a few examples of this in Europe.