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Regional capacity for Adult Learning and Education

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RegALE at the ESREA Conference on “New seeds for a world to come. Policies, practices and lives in adult education and learning”

Milan, 29th of September 2022 – 2nd of October 2022,

Written by Francesca Torlone, University of Siena

ESREA Conference is a European event that takes place regularly every year and collects a huge number of researchers and professionals in the field of adult learning and education.

RegALE has been presented during one of the parallel sessions of ESREA Conference where participants discussed and were confronted on some specific key topics in this field connected to policies and their effects, forecasting opinions, challenges in a short, medium and long term perspective. The presentation was about RegALE survey’ results on adult learning and education policies and practices and the connected opinions on the actual state of art of implementation and future development. 

Issues like local and regional networking development, adult learning and education professionals and their professional growth, necessity to widen adult learning to widest groups of adults, low skilled included, need to overcome the “siloed” system that is in place in all countries are just an example of the object of the discussion that took place and raised interest and questions in a comparative perspective.

Also discussion on the way opinions collected were analysed and interpreted was at the heart of the presentation by the University of Siena. 

Participants to the parallel session were researchers from different fields of work – adult education, political sciences, sociologists, representatives of local policy makers -, coming from all the European countries. 

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Webinar: Building a Learning City

Objectives

Covid-19 demonstrates the vulnerabilities of living in close proximity to others. This also high-lightened the importance of working together to deal with the crisis, as well as the importance of reflecting and learning in relation to changes to our lives. This assumption begs the question, which city would enhance the lives of all its citizens, including new arrivals. This question is at the center of attempts to bring adult and citizenship education to
address community and social problems through a pedagogy of the city, in this case the City of Larissa. UNESCO provides the framework, resources, and support for the Learning City project. It is planned as an exercise in democracy and citizenship which is the version of lifelong learning proposed by the Municipality of Larissa the local lead agency for this venture.

The webinar will introduce the participants to the concept of Learning Cities, the goals, the cultural and educational obstacles to the development of a Greek Learning City and the example of Larissa-Learning City.

Speakers and facilitators

Alexis Kokkos is Emeritus Professor of Adult Education in the Hellenic Open University. He has actively participated in the establishment of the institution of Popular Education in Greece, as well as in the foundation of the Hellenic Open University. He was the scientific responsible of the national program of Training the Educators of Professional Training. He is Chairperson of the Hellenic Adult Education Association and editor-in-chief of the international journal ADULT EDUCATION Critical Issues. His books and articles on Adult Education and Training, as well as on Transformative Learning, have been published in Jossey-Bass, Palgrave Macmillan, Brill/Sense, Routledge, Nova Science Publishers, Journal of Transformative Education, RELA, Convergence, LifeLong Learning in Europe, International Journal of Education and Ageing, Andragogical Studies, International Journal of Vocational and Technical Education. He is member of the Leadership Circle and co-responsible of the Research Circle of the International Transformative Learning Association (ITLA) and was co-convener of the European Network of ESREA Transformative Processes in Learning and
Education (2013-2021). He has been advisor on issues related to adult education of the Greek Prime Minister (2009-2012) and the General Secretary of Lifelong Learning (2019-). He has been awarded for his Exemplary Service and Leadership within the international transformative learning community.

Dimitris Deligiannis is Vice-Mayor of Municipality of Larissa and Professor/Consultant at the Hellenic Open University. His bachelor studies were on Literature and Law. His MA studies were on Social Planning in Organization and Management in Education. He obtained his PhD at the Hellenic Open University on the field of adult education. For over a decade, he worked as a teacher at secondary education and has published numerous articles in books and science magazines. In 1998 became Education Director of the Center for the Treatment of Addicts – EXODOS and since 2000 organized the Adult Alternative School, the first adult education structure for ex-users in Greece. Coordinator of the first Vocational Training Programs for former users and responsible for organizing a training structure for juveniles in the Kassavete Prison. In September 2019, he was elected as the Chairman of the City Council of Larissa. During the period 2014 – 2019, he was Deputy Mayor for Social Policy and Chairman of the Committee for the “Larissa – Learning City” for which the City of Larissa was awarded the Lifelong Learning Institute (UIL) at UNESCO 2017.

George A. Koulaouzides, studied mathematics and adult education. He teaches theory and practice of adult education at the Hellenic Open University (Assistant Professor) and the Democritus University of Thrace (Visiting Scholar). He has designed the well-known accredited training program for the instructors of the National Centre for Public Administration in Greece and has a vast experience in training of trainers. He is considered as the person who guided the internationalization of the Greek adult education community. His research interests are learning, transformative learning, educational biography and critical reflection. He has written one book on adult education, translated four books on adult education and qualitative research methods, edited journals and several textbooks. His published work counts more than 100 papers in Greek and international journals, edited volumes and conference proceedings. For 15 years he was working as Secretary General (i.e. CAO) for many Municipalities in Northern Greece. He worked extensively in supporting the Municipality of Thermi in becoming a member of the UNESCO Global Learning Cities Network, and he also supported as an external advisor the on-going application of the Municipality of Corinth. In 2019 he was the first Greek who was inducted in the International Adult and Continuing Education Hall of Fame as a distinguished adult education practitioner. He is a member of the executive board of the European Association for the Education of Adults (2019-2021), and a member of the Board of Directors of the International Adult and Continuing Education Hall of Fame (2020 – 2023).

Agenda

Format and registration

The webinar will take place on Zoom.

To participate in the webinar, please complete the registration form.

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WEBINAR: Voucher-based adult education scheme

Objectives

For years, a labour market has indicated a lack of qualified employers, but also the fact that skills that workers possess are not in line with the current needs of the economy. Also, due to the lack of required competencies, unemployed people cannot meet the expectations of today’s job market. Taking into account all these indicators and in order to encourage additional training and adoption of new skills among adults, Croatian Ministry of Labour, Pension System, Family and Social Policy in cooperation with the Ministry of Science and Education has launched a system of vouchers for adult education in April 2022. Croatian Employment Service Department is conducting the voucher-based adult education scheme together with the Ministry.

 

The webinar will introduce participants to the voucher-based adult education scheme in which it is planned to include 4,000 people over the age of 15 this year, and in total 30,000 people by 2026, who will acquire green and digital partial or micro-qualifications.

Speakers and facilitators

Kristina Mazalin, mag. psych., is a Senior Expert Adviser in Career Guidance and Education Department within the Central Office of Croatian Employment Service (HZZ), Department for Career Guidance and Education.

Her work focuses on helping to develop and implement vocational guidance and career counselling strategies, as well as education/training measures of active labour market policy, alongside newly established voucher-based adult education project. The scope of work itself involves projects and programmes at European and national level, coordination and cooperation within the  service, advisers in regional and local offices and relevant stakeholders.

Agenda

Format and registration

The webinar will take place on Zoom.

 

To participate in the webinar, please complete the registration form.

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TRAINING: Debating the learning success stories of cities and regions

Objectives

The objective of this Peer learning activity is to familiarise the participants with the methodology and the approaches that were followed by two Greek Cities (Larissa and Thermi) that are active members of the Global Network of Learning Cities. Larissa followed a strategy aiming to foster participation of the general population (community learning) while Thermi focused in developing an innovative framework of operation (sociocracy) to foster young adults’; participation in the social and political life of their respective communities.

Practical information

Organiser: Hellenic Adult Education Association, Greece

Contact person: Katerina Palaiologou, EU Project Manager, k.palaiologou@adulteduc.gr

Dates: 28 – 29 September 2022

Language: English

Venue: Thessaloniki, Greece

Registration

If you would like to participate, please register here. 

Please make sure that your place at the training has been confirmed by email by HAEA before you book your travel and accommodation.

 

This activity is limited to 25 people, and those who have already provided their application to the shared RegALE form will be prioritised.

Agenda

Study Visit_Agenda – please click here

Travel information

For more information, please click here.

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TRAINING: Local networks for lifelong learning

Practical information

Organiser: University of Sienna, Italy

Contact person: Francesca Torlone, francesca.torlone@unisi.it

Dates: 31 August – 1 September 2022 

Language: English and Italian

Venue: Lucca, Italy

Registration

If you would like to participate, please register here. 

Please make sure that your place at the training has been confirmed by email by Francesca before you book your travel and accommodation.

Agenda

Agenda in English

Agenda in Italian

 

The visit will start on the 31st August at 9.30am and will end on the 1st September at 4pm at the latest.

The meeting will take place at the Municipality premises that are located in the city centre.

Map of Lucca

Travel information

For more information, please click here.

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WEBINAR: Guidance in Adult Learning – Trends and Innovation

Objectives

As the European Commission report on ‘Lifelong guidance policy and practice in the EU: trends, challenges and opportunities (published in February 2020) indicates new and innovative guidance practices and tools are emerging in response to labour market changes and new modes of delivery, the implementation of new technologies, policy and funding changes, coordination of services and access to new labour market information. The trend towards a more integrated lifelong service includes an emphasis on user centrality, increased tailoring of provision to user preferences, and greater networking possibilities provided by digital technologies. As guidance and learning take place in more diverse settings with ICT becoming more embedded, a single practitioner, professional group or organisation will no longer be able to respond to the increasing need for support among more diverse user groups. This implies the need to create multi-professional and cross-sectoral networks. LLG is an example of an area where there should be shared policy and administrative responsibility among several ministries at national and regional levels.


These challenges have also been highlighted by the respondent to the REGALE survey distributed in 2021 and reaching ALE providers and regional/local authorities. This webinar tries to highlight new trends and innovations in the field of career guidance in different European regions. It provides an insight into innovative practical approaches of guidance systems and services on the local and regional level and in the way they develop.

Practical information

Agenda