At the moment, there are various trainings of trainers or educators that are focusing on developing different generic and specific skills, but facilitation skills are often taken for granted, and educators have to learn them, often instinctively, by practice. However, facilitation is an essential generic skill and it is hard to overestimate the importance of it in group (learning) process. Moreover, facilitation in an intercultural environment requires more competences and precautions. WHAT IS FACILITATION? Facilitation is a very specific skill that is widely used in all forms of education, group management process of organizing an educational flow. The definition of facilitate is "to make easy" or "ease a process." What a facilitator does is plan, guide and manage a group event to ensure that the group's objectives are met effectively, with clear thinking, good participation and full buy-in from everyone who is involved. It also refers to a wide range of skills: such as communication skills, ability to use diverse communication techniques such as tracking, summarising, asking powerful questions, mirroring etc. That is why we propose a capacity building activity “Facilitation roadmap” which will let participants explore and develop competences in facilitation and to find ways to structure the learning process in the effective way in order for adult learners to fully benefit from learning process. Objectives: -to uncover “facilitation” in diverse adult education realities -to learn about basics of intercultural facilitation and how it can serve social inclusion of adult learners from different backgrounds -to develop an essential facilitation competences such as: meaningful communication, ability to use diverse communication techniques in working with groups, ability to ask -powerful questions, ability to motivate and empower , ability to deal with ambiguity -ability to deal with ethical dilemmas, non-violent communication skill and non-judgemental approach ability to use different facilitation models and techniques -ability “speak common language” with learners, ability to transmit values through facilitation, ability to be inclusive in learning process ,ability to deal with misunderstandings and conflicts in the group -to discover diverse facilitation techniques and tools for inclusive education -to get to know and practice some of innovative tools and methodologies in facilitation ( Lego Serious Play, Outdoor, IT tools, Drama and Improvisation, Visual tools) -to develop visual facilitation skills -to share good practices in intercultural facilitation in adult education The overall and most important expected result to be achieved during the project corresponds to our highest expectation: a paradigm shift in the way of thinking that may be visible both in behavior and in attitudes. This shift regards the change of perspectives from the traditionalist approach of education and teaching whereas the learner is seen as a receptor to a more progressive communicative approach that takes into consideration the needs of participants and motivation for learning as a primary source for further educational activities as well as cares for development of soft skills through the usage of innovative methodologies.
-to uncover “facilitation” in diverse adult education realities -to learn about basics of intercultural facilitation and how it can serve social inclusion of adult learners from different backgrounds -to develop an essential facilitation competences such as: meaningful communication, ability to use diverse communication techniques in working with groups, ability to ask -powerful questions, ability to motivate and empower , ability to deal with ambiguity -ability to deal with ethical dilemmas, non-violent communication skill and non-judgemental approach ability to use different facilitation models and techniques -ability “speak common language” with learners, ability to transmit values through facilitation, ability to be inclusive in learning process ,ability to deal with misunderstandings and conflicts in the group -to discover diverse facilitation techniques and tools for inclusive education -to get to know and practice some of innovative tools and methodologies in facilitation ( Lego Serious Play, Outdoor, IT tools, Drama and Improvisation, Visual tools) -to develop visual facilitation skills -to share good practices in intercultural facilitation in adult education
Together with the partners, analyzing the potential of people in our organizations (BCG and SWOT), we noticed that in our institutions on average 47% of adult education workers find it challenging to facilitate educational activities and group work processes. Analysing the reasons behind it, 38% admitted that they’re not ready for giving answers regarding current challenges which frustrates them and hampers their sense of direction in educational flow, 41% are not well informed on what’s the approach in facilitating the intercultural groups and 32% admitted the they lack the diversity in facilitation. Apparently, 65% of people confirmed that they were never taught how to facilitate adult learners groups, they learnt it intuitionally, having different approaches, and even understanding “facilitation” differently.