The project “LEARNING HELPING: INCLUSIVE ADULT EDUCATION THROUGH VIRTUAL VOLUNTEERING” was born from the needs detected in the field of adult education, especially of migrants and refugees, who have greater barriers to their learning compared to students from other educational sectors. After carrying out an analysis of these needs, we detected that if these adults wanted to become volunteers, they needed a specific methodology, which we designed as part of an innovative training that matches the official learning curriculum for adults, offering the users these formal contents but in an appealing way, through a digital volunteering that motivates them to learn while promoting the inclusion of other students and theirs. In order to achieve this, we gathered an intersectoral and complementary partnership comprised by expert entities in the creation of educational materials like REDTREE (Spain) and ELEN (France/Europe), the programming expert entity SMALLCODES (Italy), adult education centers of the GRETA DU VELAY network (France), and three volunteer entities for adults, migrants, and refugees such as AJMV (Spain), GENERAZIONE ZERO (Italy), and LESVOS SOLIDARITY (Greece), which allowed us to achieve a significant and direct impact on the target groups. During the 30 months of work carried out by the partner entities, a wide range of activities were carried out, including 5 Transnational Meetings (one virtual, two in Spain, one in Greece, and one in Italy), activities for the selection and training of the participants, for the development of monitoring, evaluation, and dissemination plans, many virtual coordination, evaluation, and monitoring meetings, activities for the development of results and the creation of materials, activities for the dissemination through social networks and websites, meetings to showcase the results, pilot tests, participation in the International Congress of Education and new learning technologies “EDULEARN”, and two highly impactful Multiplier Events (in Greece and Spain) with more than 240 participants in total. These activities yielded the ambitious results of the project, among which the Intellectual Output O1 “LEARNING BY DOING, LEARNING HELPING: METHODOLOGICAL GUIDE FOR COLLABORATIVE AND INCLUSIVE LEARNING BASED ON DIGITAL VOLUNTEERING” stands out, which explains our innovative digital volunteering methodology for the inclusion and training of adults with barriers based on basic competences training itineraries through “LEARNING BY DOING” carried out in digital volunteering in learning pairs. This generates learning based on the “PEER TUTORING” methodology, in which two students with similar educational levels but very different life experiences (for example, a migrant adult and one born in Europe) are learn by helping each other while enhancing their inclusion to overcome their obstacles. In addition to the Intellectual Output, 4 high-quality tangible results were also created alongside it: the R1 “VIRTUAL VOLUNTEERING LAB (VVL)”, a digital environment to implement the methodology in O1; the R2 “DIGITAL BADGE ‘LEARNING BY DOING’”, which certifies the competences of the VVL (R1); the R3 “ADVISORY SERVICE FOR ADULT EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS TEACHERS”, which provides anything necessary to implement O1’s learning methodology; and the R4 “PROJECT’S WEBSITE”, where all the results are hosted (www.learninghelping.eu). After having carried out the activities, the results of the project, and its implementation, we can say that we have managed to achieve the ambitious objectives of the project, highly relevant in the field of adult education and which match the objectives of the Erasmus+ Programme: promoting the development of social, civic and intercultural competences, online safety, digital well-being, and tackling discrimination against adults; promoting the inclusion of refugees by increasing their training and through solidarity networks based on learning processes in pairs; we combined personal and social development in an innovative adult training process and enhanced digital skills with the “learning by doing” methodology and digital volunteering; we validated the formal and non-formal training of users, thus boosting their employability; and our intersectoral network was strengthened. Thanks to all of this, we can state that the project achieved a significant impact on adult training that directly translates into an advance towards a more inclusive society with an increased awareness on the barriers of refugees and migrants.
Very relevant objectives in the field of adult education were achieved in this project, all of them being in line with the objectives of the Erasmus+ Programme: ‒ It has promoted the development of social, civic, and intercultural competences, online safety, digital well-being, and addressed discrimination against adults. ‒ The full inclusion of refugees was promoted by training them for their integration and the creation of solidarity networks based on peer learning processes. ‒ An innovative adult training process was generated, combining the personal and social development of the participants. ‒ Adults were trained in digital skills through a methodology based on “learning by doing” and digital volunteering. ‒ The formal and non-formal training carried out to improve the employability of adults was validated and certified. ‒ It contributed to the growth and strengthening of our intersectoral network in the field of adult training and inclusive education. In this way, thanks to the development of the many activities and the results of the project, it was possible to achieve all its original objectives.
Adult learners face barriers that hinder their learning compared to students from other educational stages. They are usually subject to greater burdens, physical, biological, and functional impairments, psychosocial effects (social or occupational exclusion), and functional differences at the cognitive level. In addition, in times of crisis, such as that derived from COVID-19, these suffer the most, not only in the field of health, but in all other areas of their lives, especially in education. Migrant and refugee adults also have specific needs, so a participatory process of diagnosis and a specific analysis was carried out, deepening their specific needs to achieve the adequacy of the contents and processes their characteristics, expectations, values, interests, and needs, as well as motivate them in their studies. Therefore, this project has addressed these needs by providing them with innovative tools to turn education into a mechanism capable of providing them with significant improvements in all areas of their lives, especially by offering them opportunities to promote their motivation, socialization, and inclusion.