2020 - 2022

2020-1-UK01-KA204-078807

ELT+V - Empowering Language Teachers including Non-Specialist Volunteers

The focus of this Strategic Partnership was to support innovation with the aim of developing a set of training resources used for teachers and volunteers teaching the home language to asylum seekers and refugees and to create online educational resources to share and confront ideas, practices and methods of pedagogical approaches, as well as develop networking to increase transnational working.

Objectives

• identify and prioritise generic and specific training needs in the field of teaching the home language to asylum seekers and refugees and create a self-evaluation tool

• create an outline scheme of work which addresses the training needs and the priority communication needs of the target groups

• develop the scheme of work into a modular training course in 5 languages in 5 countries

• trial and test the methodology and the resources

• identify and use tools to evaluate impact, including data and feedback from the target groups

• create a set of case studies from each country

• share the outcomes and materials widely

The overall result was a new training model, resources and evidence that this can impact on the quality of teaching asylum seekers and refugees, despite different educational and cultural contexts.

2019 - 2022

2019-1-UK01-KA201-061413

YOUNG INTERPRETERS

This project brought together 6 partners from 5 countries, all of which faced different types of migration. It aimed to overcome these issues by training up a team of ‘Young Interpreters’ in the Primary School sector to use their languages in the “official” school environment. It exploited formally the potential that exists within each school community for bi- and multi-lingual pupils to use their skills, develop their leadership skills and also facilitated peer learning.

The focus of this Strategic Partnership was to support a transfer of good practices with the aim of developing a model of how to exploit the bi- and multilingual skills of young pupils in the Primary sector in order to:

• develop a framework of challenges to develop a scheme of ‘young interpreters’

• create a recognition system for their skills

• support the inclusion and linguistic development of newly arrived migrants

• support the inclusion of families in the education of their children

The outputs of the project are:

• A project website hosting resources and case studies

• A report on the 20 top priority needs of newly-arrived migrant pupils in the context of their school and host country

• A model ‘young interpreter’ scheme of work based on those needs in terms of challenges - at three levels of complexity and badges

• A model three level accreditation scheme in the form of badges which rewards the achievement of the challenges

• A set of training modules for teachers and non-teaching staff working with the young interpreters as assessors supported by an online handbook

• A set of case studies demonstrating the programme in action in each of the 5 countries

• An impact report

• A set of dissemination materials and seminars in 5 countries

• An exploitation plan

2015 - 2017

2015-1-RO01-KA201-015212

LANGUAGE GAMES

LanguageGames aimed to develop multilingualism skills in early childhood education. The project exploits using serious games for active learning which is pitched at the appropriate development level of young learners. It immerses learners in a range of learning activities that are based on both school and real-life.

Perceptions on multilingualism in early childhood education are shifting. Emerging pedagogical theories argue that multilingualism affects a child’s cognitive development as a whole in a positive way. It widens learning opportunities as it provides access to rich educational content. Children today are exposed to languages in a natural way in everyday life: through images, games, music, text books, and more. In structured settings, a second language may be introduced as early as pre-school, although often informally through activities such as drawing, singing, playing, and more. LanguageGames aims to facilitate early language learning through learning games designed as complementary tools to be used in wider, blended classroom activities.

LanguageGames introduces game-based learning activities to promote the acquisition of a second language in pre-school and early primary education. This game-based learning approach offers specific educational advantages:It integrates active learning using ICT into blended learning that helps learners scaffold knowledge and skills. It promotes learning engagement through gaming mechanisms including story telling, collaboration, and rewards. It reinforces new knowledge through feedback mechanisms.

LanguageGames promotes early language skill acquisition through serious gaming. It exposes learners to activities based on real-life situations. Early engagement in language learning allows learners to be more intellectually perceptive and flexible. LanguageGames provides educators with digital tools which are designed to complementary to educational content to enrich language activities in the classroom. It empowers educators to effectively integrate ICT-supported game-based learning into their teaching through developing guidelines for good practice and sample learning activities.

There were 6 partner organisation from 5 countries involved in the project: Bucharest Municipality School Inspectorate (Romania), University of Thessaly (Greece), Tallinn University (Estonia), edEUcation ltd. (UK), Institute for Research and Technology Thessaly, Center for Research and Technology (Greece), Agrupamento de Escolas de Silves (Portugal).

2014 - 2016

531337-1-LLP-2012-1-BG-KA2-KA2MP

iPortal - Integrated Platform with Online Resources for Teaching of All Languages

iPortal is a platform providing teachers with valuable tools for online teaching of languages, including interactive lesson building tools, virtual classroom and 3D environment for oral skills improvement.

iPortal was a Key Activity 2 (Languages) project funded by the EU under the Lifelong Learning Programme. This three year project brought together partners from Bulgaria, Germany, Poland, Spain, UK and Turkey to develop an ‘iPortal’ – an Integrated Platform with Online Resources for Teaching of All Languages. The project aimed to improve the quality and access to independent language learning tools by combining existing e-learning tools with a 3D learning environment
The objectives were to:
- Construct a new learning environment framework
- Incorporate established language learning resources and methodologies including 3D simulation, video, audio, m-learning and social networking
- Improve access to learning resources in English, German, Spanish, Polish, Bulgarian and Turkish
- Develop a Second Life facility to enable learners to meet and communicate on-line
- Create an on-line network of language centres and freelance teachers
The platform enables teachers to teach students of all nationalities in different languages in an attractive, interactive and effective way.

2020 - 2023

2020-1-UK01-KA201-078945

PROMOTING PUPIL AND STAFF WELL-BEING AND RESILIENCE

The focus of this Strategic Partnership is to support the exchange of good practices with the aim of developing a package of training materials and resources at a European level to upskill teachers in supporting students with mental health issues and building resilience in both themselves and their student by sharing and confronting ideas, practices and methods on the vulnerabilities faced by students and strategies to address them, as well as identifying the pressures facing school staff and strategies to help mitigate them.

Objectives

• analyse and share existing strategies and resources for identifying and addressing vulnerabilities in both staff and students

• identify common areas of strength and priorities for development

• undertake a study visit to Batley Girls school to investigate the policies and practice of assessing vulnerabilities and resilience and preparing teachers to address them

• use the outcomes to develop a generic tool for identifying those at risk

• develop a model set of training resources and a methodology to equip teachers to identify and target vulnerable students and address their own life balance issues

• test the methodology and associated resources in schools in 5 countries

• produce an impact report incorporating a series of case studies and recommendations for school policy

• disseminate the outcomes widely

2020 - 2022

2020-1-DE02-KA202-007458

THINK TWICE

How green is the management of your project? – What do you consider when you organise training sessions or events? Or what kind of marketing and dissemination materials do you use for your project? How do you travel for a project? With the Think Twice! project, implemented under the Erasmus+ programme, we wanted to encourage project managers to think twice about your day-to-day activities in managing (not only) European funded projects and the impact they might have on the environment.

Achieving sustainability of business activities, intertwining social, economic, and environmental perspectives, is one of the most challenging objectives for organisations and companies all over the world. What sometimes seems like a daunting and overwhelming mission can also be approached starting with small steps. Therefore, to support project managers across Europe, the Think Twice! project is here to share knowledge, experience and good practice examples of working and managing projects in a more ecologically sustainable way.

The desired impact is reached by developing innovative transferable tools to make project management in general more ecologically sustainable.

Project managers ought to be more aware of the consequences of their actions and they should enhance their ability of conscious decision-making, critical thinking and practical application of ecological sustainability in everyday working procedures. We can influence the way our organisations work and become role models in view of other organisations as well as for the various target groups we work with on a daily basis within our projects.

Our aim is to enable organisations on local, regional, national and European level to critically analyse their own work practices and routines, then reconsider them taking into account green alternatives, and finally establish good practice, thus setting an example of sustainable management for other organisations.

There are two outputs in this project:

a Curated Treasury of good practice in ecologically sustainable project management - The Treasury will inspire you to find solutions within your own organisation and provide you with enough information for you to make conscious decisions. It includes:

• a collection of good practice examples from the participating partner countries related to the different project phases (e.g. management, meetings, training, events, dissemination, etc.) offering “greener” alternatives to think about;

• a display of the pros and cons of the more or less green alternatives for all project implementation activities;

• a checklist for project management teams, where you can check if you have thought of the different alternatives at any point of developing and implementing your project.

a Stress Test of current practice leading to a personalised Learning Pathway - Based on the contents of the Treasury, an interactive Stress Test “How green is the management of my project?” will be developed to test the ecological sustainability of your own project management. The Stress Test will take a different strategy to approach the topic of ecological sustainability in project management, through a game-based learning methodology. Once you have taken the Stress Test you will be directed to a bespoke Learning Pathway for further information and learning materials on ecological sustainability in managing projects.

2014 - 2016

2014-1-UK01-KA201-000005

School Leadership Toolkit for Accelerating Achievement

This project addressed inequality in the European school systems by improving the skills of school leaders and equipping leadership teams with the competences, structures and tools required to transform underperforming schools into high performing schools in socio-economically challenged areas.

The objectives of the School Leadership Toolkit for Accelerating Achievement project were to:

• identify the strategies, tools and resources required to turn a low performing school into a high-performing one and to develop a set of training packages which are applicable to all schools across the EU

• develop training materials to equip school leadership teams to analyse examples of successful school transformation,

• identify and use the tools required to measure performance, use self-evaluation as a tool for school improvement planning,

• design and implement the school improvement plan,

• identify and use tools to evaluate impact in the short, medium and longer term, including data and feedback from students, teachers and parents,

• pilot, test, evaluate and refine the training modules in 4-6 schools in each of 4 countries

The specific outputs of the project were:

• A project website hosting the downloadable resources and case studies

• A set of pilot training modules and case studies

• A final downloadable set of 5 training modules for current and aspiring school leaders

• A handbook to support the training

• A set of case studies in 5 countries in both Primary and High Schools illustrating practical strategies used for school transformation

• A set of dissemination materials and seminars in 5 countries

• An overarching report on the process and results of the project to feed into the EPNoSL research

• A final international conference to promote the training resources

2014 - 2016

2014-1-UK01-KA201-000002

Entrepreneurial School Leadership

In this project key successful entrepreneurial competences from the business world were identified and adapted to school leadership contexts and training modules were developed to equip school leadership teams to accelerate the pace of school improvement and lead and manage with greater school autonomy.

The objectives were to:

• audit the systems and leadership development programmes, as well as successful entrepreneurial practice in the world of work and relate it to the needs of school leadership teams

• establish a professional enquiry network to identify best practice and identify gaps in provision in the delivery of key areas of entrepreneurial competence;

• develop a methodology of using professional enquiry and action research to examine real life cases in schools and business- develop, through in-school professional enquiry, a set of training modules for leadership teams in both Primary and Secondary sectors in 4 countries

• pilot, test, evaluate and refine the training modules with leadership teams from each of the Primary and Secondary sectors in four countries

• disseminate the project outcomes and the training modules to School Leaders and Training organisations across the EU

• develop a set of online resources based on the real situations and the experiences of the participants involved to improve creativity, innovation and entrepreneurship in EU schools

• carry out longitudinal research into the processes used and their impact

For more information, please, visit the project website

Project ID number: 2014-1-UK01-KA201-000002

2022 - 2024

2022-1-ES01-KA220-SCH-000085856

Promoting Learning Environments from Nursery to Primary Education

This project reinvents Learning Environments in early childhood education as a teaching-learning methodology which respects students’ individualities and needs, embraces all types of students and learning styles at once, and also raises positive attitude towards learning. Teachers are enabled to promote the use of digital learning tools and fostering democratic values and civic engagement in classrooms, also highlighting the importance of choosing always the most sustainable of our actions.

Implementation:

This project analyses the current best use of LE in nursery and primary education and defines guiding principles for lesson planning using LE. It designs and remodels the spaces destined to the LEs in the participating schools and trials the methodology for a whole school year. Once impact is analysed and supported by case studies, a training package for teacher trainers is set up. The tested results are disseminated widely, incl. through multiplier events for strategic stakeholders.

Results:

Thanks to this project, teachers will have improved understanding and autonomous ability to use adapted learning environments at both Nursery and Primary levels based on a comprehensive methodology supported by a wealth of practical resources. Pupils will benefit from updated physical learning environments and objective-led activities, allowing them to grow into responsible young people who care about democracy, inclusion, the environment and know how to make suitable use of the digital world.

2020 - 2023

2020-1-UK01-KA226-SCH-094550

DIGITAL RESILIENCE

The focus of this Strategic Partnership is to support the exchange of good practices with the aim of developing and testing a package of training materials and resources at a European level to upskill school leaders and teachers in developing new online and blended learning approaches to the delivery of the curriculum at times when normal education is disrupted due to school closure or the enforced absence of teachers and students.

Objectives

• collate existing practice of online and blended learning in the partner countries and identify priorities for development

• produce a set of guidance for moving to online and blended learning at a school policy level (types of strategies, structures, schemes of work, resources, deployment of staffing, CPD needs)

• develop and deliver training resources for teachers and support staff on how to deliver effective online and blended learning

• pilot, test, evaluate and refine the training and models in 5 Secondary schools in 5 countries in a range of different subjects and age groups

• evaluate the impact on learning and motivation, including data and feedback from students, teachers and parents

• create a set of case studies from each country

• disseminate the outcomes widely

2018 - 2020

2018-1-UK01-KA201-048068

PEDPACK

This two-year project involved 5 partners from 5 countries. It addressed this issue of putting pedagogical theory into practice to improve the quality of initial teacher training and produce more confident teachers who are less likely to leave the profession early. 

The developed resources and the adopted methodology are based on a PedPack for schools, which was developed by the UK National Strategies over a decade ago, but not widely taken up at the time due to policy changes. However, the topics, although in need of updating, are still relevant. They are based on whole school strategies, rather than subject specific approaches, to implement pedagogical theory in practice. This project provided updated digital resources in 5 key areas to improve the delivery of ITE and support teachers in their early years to both make the teaching profession more attractive and reduce the drop-out rate due to pressure.

Five key topic areas were identified by the partners and previous cohorts of trainee teachers as:

• Structuring Learning

• Teaching Models

• Assessment for Learning

• Developing Effective Learning

• Classroom Management

The objectives of the project were to:

• update five areas of the pedagogical guidance and digitise them

• put the updated guidance into practice in teacher training provision in 5 countries

• trial and test the methodology and the resources

• undertake an impact study on the whole school methodology and the resources

• share the outcomes and materials widely

The overall result was a new training model and resources and evidence that this can impact on the quality of teaching, despite different educational and cultural contexts. They are freely available to regional authorities, training providers and schools across the EU.

2016 - 2018

2016-1-DE03-KA201-023041

PRIMETECH

The PRIMETECH project addressed the need in EU policies for high quality teachers able to innovate using ICT and for improved data on their digital competence which can lead to inclusive education.

According to the Survey of Schools in 2015: ICT in Education, two-thirds of teachers in the EU learn about ICT in their own time, and almost all are positive about ICT impact on students. Despite this readiness, the Survey revealed that teachers’ ICT use in lessons and confidence in their digital competency had to increase.

The PRIMETECH project aimed to:

• create a Technology Enhanced Teaching Competence Code which will be used as the basis of the creation of the OPEN BADGES system to be used for the recognition and validation of teachers’ practices, knowledge and skills acquired.

• design and implement the PRIMETECH professional development programme for teachers with in-built ICT training offered both on-line and school-based, and constant monitoring and assessment procedures through a mentoring and peer assessment process offered in an open environment.

• design a dynamic, interactive and powerful tool eco-system-open platform which will provide e-learning, e-connectivity and e-communication functionalities accompanied with learning modules, training material, guides etc.

The direct target group of Teachers and the indirect group of primary students benefited from the implementation of the project at a transnational level, as developing comprehensive professional programmes in the digital field cannot be achieved without the exchange of information, identification of good practices and complementarity of expertise.

The consortium of the project included the following 6 partners: Coordinator: Leibniz University Hannover (Germany), Scoala Primara EuroEd (Romania), A&A Emphasys Interactive Solutions Ltd (Cyprus), National Centre for Scientific Research “DEMOKRITOS” (Greece), BEFO-Biedriba Eurofortis (Latvia) and edEUcation Ltd. (UK).

2015 - 2017

2015-1-UK01-KA201-013414

VEO EUROPA

Video Enhanced Observation

VEO Europa was a project which aimed to improve the quality of teaching and learning through using an innovative technological approach, the Video Enhanced Observation App, to support initial teacher training and continuing professional development. This approach was developed at Newcastle University-the VEO App (www.veo-group.com) to support initial teacher training and continuing professional development.

VEO Europa also aimed to provide a tool to enable teachers to improve their monitoring and assessment of student learning. The main outputs of VEO Europa were an enhanced version of the VEO App, an online platform hosting a set of training modules and portfolio of best practice resources, a community of practice, a series of case studies, a database and a research report and publications.

As VEO Europa seeks to promote teacher education with technology in different educational contexts, the project strategic partnership was composed by 6 partners in 5 countries: Newcastle University (UK), EdEUcation Ltd (UK), Padagogische Hochschule Karlsruhe (Germany), Lapland University (Finland), Hacettepe University (Turkey) and Regional Directorate of Education in Haskovo(Bulgaria).

2015 - 2017

2015-1-UK01-KA201-013515

T2TT - Trainee to Trained Teacher

Trainee to Trained Teacher was an Erasmus+ funded project aiming to improve the quality of Initial Teacher Education (ITE) and in particular the transition from a trainee to a second year teacher.

We sought to improve the capacities of schools in professional development for both new teachers and experienced teachers, while developing new and innovative approaches to the training of school teachers and reducing the drop-out rate of teachers at the start of their professional lives.

The main objectives for the Trainee 2 Trained Teacher project were to:

• identify the tools used to support trainees and NQTs in the UK School Direct programme, including formal training, induction programmes, teacher support, coaching and mentoring, and in-house professional development

• develop a draft scheme of work for a set of training modules covering: Coaching and Mentoring; Developing an ITE/Induction package; Teaching and Learning; Behaviour for Learning and Special Education Needs; Measuring Pupil Progress and Impact; Assessment and accreditation of ITE & NQTs

• pilot, test, evaluate and refine the training modules in 5 schools in each of 5 countries

• identify and use the tools to evaluate impact, including data and feedback from trainees, teachers and pupils

• develop accreditation for the training

It was a collaboration project between 6 partners from 5 countries: Carmel Academy (UK), edEUcation ltd. (UK), Teach for Bulgaria (Bulgaria), Centre for School Improvement (Lithuania), Federación EFAS Comunidad Valenciana (Spain) and Primary School of Pefkochori (Greece).

2022 - 2025

2022-1-FI01-KA220-SCH-000090192

CORE - Carbon Offsetting for Resilient Entrepreneurship

Objectives

• Enabling children for change in the future by not relying on existing knowledge but by having the mindset for resourceful alternatives that guarantee quality of life and business

• Engaging students, educators and the wider community on the changes needed for a successful transition to become climate neutral by 2050

• Cultivating competences & future-oriented modules in line with the New European Bauhaus initiative for the incorporation of Green Deal into everyday experiences

Activities

• Country Reports on the current levels of Environmental and Entrepreneurial Education in schools and Policies in each country and in the EU in general culminating into a Research Report

• Innovative Educational Modules regarding how to exercise resilient entrepreneurship through practicing Carbon Offsetting piloted in schools

• Virtual Enterprise Workshops for students

• Online Resource Library

• Hackathon on Virtual Enterprise Practice and Carbon Offsetting

Results

• 500 students participating in the pilots workshops and final Hackathon

• 100 educators trained & involved

• Online Resource Library with original material (translated and localized) on innovative Entrepreneurial Education of the Future and Attractive Environmental Education(EE)

• Increased Attractiveness of EE

• Εnabling children to drive transformation and change in the future

• Students becoming capable citizens of tomorrow with confidence and skills to face future challenges

2020 - 2023

2020-1-UK01-KA201-078830

BENEFITS AND DANGERS OF SOCIAL MEDIA

This two-year project, develops a scheme of work and a set of teaching and training resources covering both the benefits and dangers of social media. The target age group is the Secondary sector, where there is usually an ICT curriculum which covers the technical and practical uses of ICT, but there is a shortfall in the coverage of social media.

This is now a fundamental aspect of the lives of almost all teenagers, however its use can be both beneficial and destructive. There is a lack of education on the use of social media, which this project aims to address. There is ample research to show that the negative elements of social media can have a serious impact on mental health, with access to technology a major contributor. The European Commission has made promoting safer use of the internet a priority for young people and called for improvements in critical thinking, media literacy and developing the skills necessary for ‘cyber hygiene‘.

Objectives

• analyse and share existing strategies and resources for dealing with social media

• identify common areas of strength and priorities for development

• develop a structure for the work schemes and a set of training materials and sample lesson plans, based on needs, covering:

  • types of social media and their use by young people

  • communication benefits including language learning

  • dangers of social media

  • social media as a news source

  • online safety and school policy

• pilot, test, evaluate and refine the schemes of work and training resources in schools in 5 countries

• produce a report on the outcomes, sets of case studies and recommendations for school policy including a model school policy

• disseminate the outcomes widely

2017 - 2019

2017-1-UK01-KA201-036591

EUROPEAN VALUES

This two-year project, which was led by an outstanding UK Primary School, addressed the problem of integrating migrant children in the Primary sector into their local communities. It built a partnership of six organisations from five countries, who brought complementary expertise and experience in dealing with issues relating to the integration of migrants, citizenship education and Primary practice.

The focus of this Strategic Partnership was to innovate through cooperative practice with the aim of developing a package of Values Education at a European level in order to:

• foster social inclusion, mutual understanding and respect among young people and communities

• accelerate the integration of children of newly arrived migrants into the learning environment

• minimise the risk of disengagement, marginalisation and even violent radicalisation

• address the objectives of the Paris Declaration on promoting citizenship and the common values of freedom, tolerance and non-discrimination through education

• develop networking to increase transnational working and sharing of ideas

The starting point was a study visit for to analyse best practice of the UK schools and develop a scheme of work, a training package and set of resources to be trialled in five countries before being made freely available across the EU. The partners involved represented particularly vulnerable regions, such as the Mediterranean, or challenging urban quarters.

The outputs of the project were:

• An online platform hosting the project website, the community of interest, downloadable resources and case studies

• A model curriculum with exemplar lesson plans and resources

• A set of training modules and case studies and an online handbook to support the training

• An impact report incorporating policy recommendations

• A set of dissemination materials and seminars in 5 countries

• A final international conference to promote the curriculum, training resources and impact report

Although the lingua franca was English, resources were also be developed in Greek, Italian, French and German. The initial impact was a demonstration of improved integration and adoption of European values in 13 schools in 5 countries involving 650 pupils. The project was supported by a study which explored the methodologies adopted, the impact, further issues arising from the trials and a set of recommendations to be fed back to the Policy makers.

European Values was coordinated by Parkinson Lane Community Primary School (UK) and developed transnationally with partners from the UK – edEUcation ltd, Germany – Leibniz University Hannover, Belgium – Nadwa, Greece - Directorate of Primary Education of Western Thessaloniki- and Italy – Regional School Inspectorate of Sicily.

2013 - 2014

GB-43-E9-2013-R1

GLEE: Green Light for Environmental Employment

The ‘Green Economy’ creates millions of new jobs across the world and this project was about training youth workers in helping young people to develop the skills and motivation to work in the ‘Green Economy’.

GLEE – Green Light for Environmental Employment was a training programme for Youth Workers from four countries, the UK, Denmark, Bulgaria and Turkey, supported by a European Union grant of over €30,000 through the Youth in Action programme. The training ran from September 2013 to April 2014 and focused on activities covering environmental issues. The youth workers selected projects from a range of topics including: using sustainable materials; conservation & preservation; recycling and using recycled materials; energy; ecosystems and prevention of environmental damage. The participants spent a week visiting various projects in the Teesdale area of the UK in September, and ran a set of activities in their own countries, which were shared in the Spring of 2014 at a second seminar in Teesdale. The skills and methodologies acquired during the training were then applied locally in the participants’ youth organisations.

2022 - 2024

2022-1-HR01-KA220-ADU-000085871

R(AE)L INCLUSION

The focus of this two-year project is on up-skilling adult educators who work with adults with learning and behavioural difficulties and disabilities

Main objectives:

• Provide support to adult educators facing difficulties in successfully responding to the needs of people with fewer opportunities

• Increase the quality and the offer of adult education programs for adults with fewer opportunities

• Contribute to the development of inclusive education in the field of adult education

Project results and outcomes:

• developed In-service Training Programme for Adult Educators comprising 30 hours of f2f and 20 hours of online learning

• created Open-Source Online Platform for self-directed learning and adult educators’ networking

• improved adult educators’ competences for working with adults with SEND and providing them needed support during the learning and implementation process

• increased self-awareness of adult educators

• developed and improved self-reflection skills of adult educators

• exchanged experience among adult educators across partners’ countries

• strengthened the capacity of adult educators

• increased work efficiency of adult educators working with adults with SEND

• increased awareness of needs of adults with SEND

• raised awareness about the importance of providing adults with fewer opportunities a more open and accessible education tailored to their needs

2021 - 2023

2021-1-FR01-KA220-VET-000032961

FORGET-ME-NOT 2.0

This project is a continuation of a very successful project, which between 2017 and 2019 brought together partners from 5 European Union countries (UK, Germany, Poland, Cyprus and France). It was aimed at older people and people with neuro-developmental diseases with cognitive impairment, their family carers and support professionals, with the objective of enabling them to deploy the benefits of reminiscence in their relationships.

Reminiscence mobilises the individual's landmark memories, thus stimulating their personal identity. The positive effects of these techniques have been studied since the 1960s.

The aim of the previous project was to develop simple and user-friendly tools, translated into 5 languages, that could be easily used by family members and relatives. In addition to family carers, FORGET ME NOT was also intended to be used by support professionals in all settings (home/institutional).

It was based on several ambitions:

• The development of an online platform to create dematerialised memory boxes containing text, images, videos and sounds referring to defining moments in a person's life.

• The development of a diversified and freely accessible training programme for both family carers and professionals, consisting of training modules, educational videos that specify the contexts of use, and a Webinar, facilitating discovery of the project.

The success of this initial work and the impact study carried out by a sociologist that followed, led two of the partners to propose a continuation of the project.

The objectives of the new FMN 2.0 project are to:

• Make the Forget Me Not platform accessible in 3 other languages: Bulgarian, Danish and Spanish but also for people with accessibility difficulties.

• Develop an interactive cognitive assessment tool to establish recommendations for use that respect the preserved capacities of the people supported.

• Develop new training modules and additional resources on the basic digital skills needed to use the platform in order to develop specific reminiscence activities both in the care setting and at home

• Train resource persons who can act as information relays and run workshops

All those involved in the project will jointly test the new developments and training resources with their local network and evaluate their impact in the short, medium and long term. They will also be responsible for disseminating the results to create an online network of expertise.

2020 - 2022

2020-1-ES01-KA204-081780

MAP - Motivate. Act. Promote

While most Europeans access the internet regularly and all figures seem to indicate that most jobs will require digital skills in the near future, the reality is that many people do not yet have the digital skills to cope with these changes.

We need to involve adults with low educational levels, with a special focus on migrants, the long-term unemployed and people over 45, in lifelong learning activities. We need to encourage them to enter and remain in adult education in order to improve their skills and competences and thus enable them to integrate into the labour market. To this end, educators and education administrators need to be trained to provide them with more personalized learning environments.

Objectives:

• Support adult educators and educational managers in assessing their digital competences and making them aware of new skills and competences

• Extend skills and knowledge of adult educators and educational managers to motivate adult learners to learn equity, diversity and inclusion in the learning environment.

• Develop the competences of adult educators and educational managers implementing innovative practices and digital technologies and effectively promote educational offers.

• Strengthen the cooperation and networking between organisations and associated partners active in the field of adult education on national and EU levels

Products of the project

• Digital competences self-assessment tool

• A Train the trainer blended course

• A Digital Handbook on online and offline promotional strategies of educational offers for adult educators and educational managers

2018 - 2020

2018-1-UK01-KA204-047986

DIGITAL CHAMPIONS FOR COMMUNITY SUCCESS

The Digital Champions for Community Success project brought together 5 partners from 4 countries in order to develop a Training package and Methodology to be used by adult educators and particularly by Trainers and Carers of vulnerable adults facing obstacles such as: disabilities and/or learning differences, vulnerable adults with social obstacles: low-skilled migrants, long-term unemployed, elderly in care. Trainers and carers will be able to boost the impact of their work with the target communities and foster digital champions, who will work within their communities to support their peers.

In an age of digitalisation of almost every aspect of our everyday lives, these adults are even more isolated and either dependent on external help or just excluded from participation in society. Of course, the picture is not entirely catastrophic, there are provisions to assist vulnerable adults, but they are far from adequate.

Often the approach is to solve their immediate needs, instead of empowering them to solve their needs by themselves and have a sense of achievement.

Digital Champions for Community Success aims to create a Training Package for adult educators, trainers and carers who work with vulnerable adults in different communities.

The Training Package has three main aims:

1. To be a self-learning tool for adult trainers and carers on how to design and implement effective strategies for enhancing the basic skills of vulnerable adults – digital, literacy and numeracy.

2. To develop adult educators’ competences to deal with diverse groups of learners, making use of new technologies and teaching outcomes – using online and offline adapted learning tools

3. To embrace a new methodology of fostering “Digital Champions” when adult learners become support champions in their own communities, helping their peers and motivating them.

The consortium of the project included the following 5 partners: Coordinator: A1 Community Works (UK), edEUcation ltd (UK), A&A Emphasys Interactive Solutions Ltd (Cyprus), Wisamar (Germany and Les Cultures (Italy).

2017 - 2020

2017-1-ES01-KA204-038085

OPEN IT UP

This 30-month Erasmus+ project aimed to extend and develop educators’ competences in the effective teaching of literacy, digital and entrepreneurial skills to vulnerable groups of adult learners, by making use of effective new tools and technologies.

The project is complementary to the Erasmus+ project “Open the Door to Europe”- www.opendoortoeurope.eu , finalised in 2016, strengthening furthermore language competences (moving on to BI-B2 levels) and the entrepreneurial skills and aiming to equip adult learners with the skills that are needed to turn their business ideas into successful startups.

“OpenITup” is an opportunity for both educators and adult learners to acquire the knowledge and skills necessary to be self-employed, a very challenging goal that seems almost impossible without basic skills, such as literacy and -in the world of global digitalization – digital skills as well as basic knowledge of entrepreneurship concepts.

The main products and intellectual outputs developed under this project, available for all on the open platform are:

• an E-course “Start Your Own Business” in English, Bulgarian, German, Greek, Italian, Spanish, Polish and Turkish. Available for adult learners and educators.

• A Tool-KIT for educators with an ICT (innovation – communication-technology) approach, including ICT skills upgrading materials and teaching resources in the field of entrepreneurship.

• webinars for educators with teaching and learning tools, mostly ICT and digital tools.

• videos about start-ups in Europe, which provide practical and illustrative relevant information about how the ideas of the different businesses were born; problems faced and how they were dealt with; lessons learnt, etc.)

“OpenITup” was coordinated by DomSpain and developed transnationally, together with partners from Bulgaria (Nikanor), Germany (Wisamar), Greece (IDEC), Italy (Les Cultures), Poland (Collegium Balticum), Turkey (Usak University) and the United Kingdom (edEUcation) in order to create enriching synergies of approaches, methods and tools used by adult educators around Europe and reflect them on the projects’ open educational platform. 

2017 - 2019

2017-1-PL01-KA204-038766

TAO (Teaching Adults Online)

The TAO project was a response to the lack of adequately and fully trained educators, who would be competent to conduct online classes with mature adults (50+) using online tools. The aim of the project was to train educators of mature adults, providing them with various teaching techniques using the latest ICT technologies and equip them with a tool for self-learning.

The project partnership developed a comprehensive training program for educators covering: teaching methodology for adults, the latest online adult learning tools with particular emphasis on the elderly, teaching foreign languages and other skills and competences online. Namely there is a detailed training programme, a comprehensive guide for educators and an application for mobile devices providing easy access to training materials within few taps and swipes.

Educators who were directly involved in this project, whether in the form of partnership training or dissemination training, were fully trained and trained to work with adults, especially older people, who require a slightly different educational approach.

With an increased motivation and awareness of mature adults of the value and importance of the lifelong learning process, we contributed to a widened knowledge about older people, their educational opportunities and subsequent development of essential basic skills of the elderly at a high level in the perspective of lifelong learning.

TAO is coordinated by English Unlimited (Poland) and developed transnationally with partners from Germany - Wisamar and WBS Training - and the United Kingdom – edEUcation ltd.

2017 - 2019

2017-1-UK01-KA202-036686

Forget-me-not

One of the traditional strategies used to help people with dementia remember their lives is called Reminiscence where carers or family members put together a memory box containing photos, newspaper clippings or artefacts. These are then used as a source of conversation. A trans-European partnership led by the edEUcation ltd. took this strategy further by developing a technological approach to the memory box. Through the EU funded Erasmus+ programme, we brought together partners from France, Germany, Poland and Cyprus to develop a platform to be used on computers or mobile devices, and a training package for carers and family members.

The project called Forget Me Not enables carers and family members to upload photos, sound files, texts and videos onto a virtual secure memory box. It enables memories to be stored, recalled and updated, and also to ensure that families can keep in touch. For example, imagine a sufferer has a grandchild living away, this tool will enable the grandchild to record their own memories from the person’s younger days and share them on the platform.

The overall aim was to develop an online platform and a methodology of work to be used by professional and informal carers of dementia sufferers and to develop and trial a set of training materials for carers.

The objectives of this project were to:

• create a prototype platform to be used as a multilingual tool in dementia care

• establish a baseline, create a comprehensive set of training tools (a training framework, 5 modules, 5 videos, 5 webinars)

• pilot, test, evaluate and refine the training resources in collaboration with our network of associated partners

• identify and use tools to evaluate impact in the short, medium and longer term

• disseminate the outcomes widely and build an online network of expertise

There were also two training events for trainers of carers - one in Cyprus and one in Germany. Nearer the end of the project, all the partners organised dedicated Multiplier events in all partner countries reaching 150 stakeholders from the care training, care providing, public and NGO sectors.

Forget-me-not was coordinated by the UK based edEUcation ltd. and developed transnationally with partners from Germany - WBS Schulen, France – UDAF de la Charente, Cyprus - Emphasys Centre and Poland – English Unlimited.