"<< Background >>Especially among the lower underprivileged milieu – the “left behind” – there are still major barriers to education and further training (Bremer 2017). This raises questions of connectivity of educational guidance. Many drivers such as digitalisation (e-literacy, information literacy…) polarisation of the labour market (increase of working poor, new forms of precarious work…) immigration from “poor countries” etc. are pushing this development. Because unemployed people are mostly under the supervision of public employment services (PESs), there needs to be a special focus on persons from the prime working age who have a form of gainful work (hereafter labelled “working persons”). In some European countries working persons from the underprivileged milieu are still hardly or not at all in focus of educational guidance, other countries already have a lot of experience with different approaches to reach this group of guidance users.Persons from this underprivileged milieu are characterised by a certain habitus (Bourdieu 1987), which differs greatly from that of the guidance practitioners themselves. They are characterised by lower educational and skill level and lower participation in educational guidance (Bremer 2017). People in a certain social milieu are among other things similar in their preferences and attitudes to work and education (Vester et al. 2001). Many guidance/counselling approaches focus on the users. ReachOut, however, addresses guidance practices and raises the question of the ""connectivity"" of educational guidance practitioners to their clients. Guidance practitioners are challenged to respond to different people and their concerns, to be up-to-date professionally, to deal with new media (social media, online counselling, chat counselling, etc.) and to adapt to an increasingly diversified society (multiculturalism, diverse value systems) (Leonhartsberger-Ledl 2017,5). ""Connectivity"" is created by recognising the lifeworld of the other person(s) and, above all, through ""habitus sensitivity"" (Sander 2014, Bremer 2017). In line with the ET2020/European Agenda for Adult Learning priorities and the Council Recommendation on Upskilling Pathways ReachOut aims at increasing demand and take-up of adult education through effective outreach, guidance, and motivation strategies by adapting guidance offers to the target group of working persons from the underprivileged milieu. ReachOut does this by answering the question how connectable educational guidance is and how habitus sensitivity in offers of educational guidance can be supported (Sander 2014).<< Objectives >>ReachOut sets clear objectives in relation to three direct and indirect target groups:GUIDANCE PRACTITIONERSThe ReachOut project focuses on upskilling educational and vocational guidance practitioners. The first direct target group is the group of guidance practitioners and their organisations (e.g. five associated partners), who are confronted with the challenges of working with persons from the underprivileged milieu, whose habitus differs greatly from that of the guidance practitioners themselves (e.g. due to their educational background). With the ReachOut project we want to achieve knowledge transfer and reflection on measures to reach working people from the underprivileged milieu and on the design, setting and approaches of guidance used in practice. The ReachOut project will have an impact on the skills and competences of guidance practitioners in the fields of education, career, employment and will be of use for providers of further training for guidance practitioners. Guidance practitioners and their organisations will be enabled to reflect on their experiences and practices of guidance and to upgrade its offers. Stakeholders responsible for educational guidance and professional development of the guidance practitioners will benefit from tailor-made guidance offers and will be enabled to design different training programmes.GOVERINING ACTORSThe second direct target group are governing actors on regional, national, and European level. For example, stakeholders responsible for educational guidance and training and policy actors in the field of strategic programme development and funding. To meet the needs of this target group the project will present the key findings in form of a Policy Paper. The Policy Paper “Habitus Sensitive Guidance - recommendations for policy makers"" (PR3) will be published in English, Czech, Slovenian, and German and will disseminate via the projects website and via websites of projects partners. The results will be presented at four national multiplier events (ME1, ME2, ME3, ME4).The project will raise awareness about the challenge of reaching out to working persons from the underprivileged milieu. It will help to redefine objectives and strategies of educational and vocational guidance to meet the guidance needs of this target group. And it will support the implementation of identified measures to better cater this targe group with appropriate guidance offers.WORKING PEOPLE FROM THE UNDERPRIVILIEGED MILIEUThe indirect target group of the ReachOut project are working persons from the underprivileged milieu. They are from the prime working age and have a less stable form of gainful work (e.g. fragmented, precarious, low paid, marginal, partly declared). They have a certain distance to formal education and guidance and some of which have migration background. This group has severe needs to rise their participation in educational guidance and further training. By upskilling guidance practitioners, offering adequate guidance and creation of an adequate policy setting, individual guidance users will be supported in accessing appropriate education and training opportunities in adult education and to have a clear picture about their individual career path and skills needs. They will be supported to size the labour market opportunities through education and guidance. The project will help them to move on to more stable and secure forms of work.<< Implementation >>The following activities will be implemented during the project period and beyond:>Extensive desk research at national (AT, CZ, DE, SI) and European level on the topic at hand>Presentation of progress during Mutual Learning Seminars (MLS1-4) of all partners at the Transnational Partner Meetings >Interviews with stakeholders for PR1, 3-5 interviews per partner (total of 18 all in all, 30 minutes each)>Interviews with guidance practitioners for PR2, 12 interviews per country (total of 48 interviews, 30 minutes each)>Compiling the project results: PR1 Country Reports, PR2 Self-Study-Manual, PR3 Policy Paper (see next point on “project results”>Compiling and setting up a project Onepager and a Project Website (see next point on “project results”)>Presentation and discussion of results at Multiplier Events (ME1-4) in Austria, Germany, Slovenia and Czech Republic. Each event will have about 30 participants.>Presentations at numerous conferences, workshops, seminars for different target groups<< Results >>>The first Project Result (PR1) are four different COUNTRY REPORTS titled: “Habitus Sensitive Guidance for Underprivileged Milieu” on Austria, Germany, Czech Republic and Slovenia in the respective languages, plus English (15 - 20 pages each). The objective is to map the state of the art and situation related to the policy and practice of professional educational guidance offering guidance to working persons from the underprivileged milieu. The target groups are political decision makers, managers of institutions providing training and guidance and other relevant stakeholders and governing actors in the field of educational and vocational guidance. The reports will create a base from which the mutual discussion will start and crucial points in each country systems can be defined and compared within the consortium. PR1 will also enable the target groups to identify potentially good, applied practices and approaches which could be inspiring for partners or other experts in the broader environment. > The second Project Result (PR2) is a SELF-STUDY-MANUAL titled: “Experiences and Cases from working with the Underprivileged Milieu” in English, German, Slovenian and Czech (about 60 p. + Annex each). The Self-Study-Manual is to be directly used by guidance practitioners, policy makers and relevant stakeholders, who want to inform themselves and to reflect on the practises guiding working persons from the underprivileged milieu. It contributes to the professionalisation of guidance practitioners and their organisations. Also, stakeholders responsible for educational guidance and professional development of the guidance practitioners will benefit from tailor-made guidance offers for the special needs of working persons from underprivileged milieus.> The third Project Result (PR3) is a POLICY PAPER titled: ""Habitus Sensitive Guidance - recommendations for policy makers"" in English, German, Czech and Slovenian (15 - 20 p. each).PR3 is a briefing paper for governing actors, political decision makers, managers of institutions providing training and guidance and other relevant stakeholders in the field of educational and vocational guidance. It will support actors, at European, national, regional, and institutional level in adapting their educational and vocational guidance policy towards the needs of working persons from the underprivileged milieu.Other relevant outputs are:>PROJECT WEBSITE: presenting above others all project outputs for download. It is hosted on ÖSB (www.oesb-sb.at/ReachOut) to make sure that all content will be offered for cost-free download (with an open Creative Commons license: CC BY) for unrestricted time. All partners will additionally provide open access to the project results on their websites. >MULTIPLIER EVENTSThis series of Multiplier Events (ME1-4, one in each country: AT, DE, SL, CZ) aims to boost the national discourse on the impact of recent stratification of society and labour market trends on educational and vocational guidance needs and the resulting challenges for providing guidance. These events are used to disseminate the results and to increase the impact of the project by entering a dialogue with relevant persons in the fields of educational and vocational guidance, education, and labour market, such as guidance practitioners, policy makers, administration representatives and national agencies for educational and labour market programmes. Each partner organises one Multiplier Event with about 30 participants. The output will be documentation and evaluation reports on all four 4 Multiplier Events>ReachOut-ONEPAGER: a short presentation of the project for dissemination will be available in English, German, Czech and Slovenian as PDF and PowerPoint.>According to the DISSEMINATION plans of all partner organisation there will be numerous additional results like journal article, newsletter article, Social Media input, presentations targeting different groups of audience."

In a society in which individuals change jobs more and more often, and the pace of innovation and new technologies keeps increasing, individuals need to be prepared for repeated transitions and adaptation to change. All learning might become relevant at some stage in one’s life, with non-formal and informal learning becoming as important as formal education in maintaining an adequate level of skills.The Council resolution on lifelong guidance encourages Member States to consider ways of ‘enabling people to benefit from support in obtaining validation and recognition on the labour market of their formal, non-formal and informal learning outcomes, in order to safeguard their employment and maintain their employability, in particular during the second part of their careers’ (Council, 2008, p. 6).EU countries have already some form of guidance services for adult learners or specific policy strategies that focus on educational guidance and orientation. However, the existing services or the structures on which these services rely, are not suitable to reach the adults mostly in need of education. Furthermore, existing services are often focusing on short term employment and less on identifying educational pathways that lead to more sustainable employment and social inclusion. Due to a lack of commonly arranged procedures in the system of identifying and validating non-formal and informal knowledge, it is extremely difficult for professionals in adult education and guidance to direct adults to further education and training programs.The main aim of the project is to develop Methodology for assessment and validation of ICT, numeracy and language skill for adult education and guidance services practitioners complied th Implementation Guidelines that will provide concrete measures and common principles for basic skills assessment and validation. In the project we will include low-skilled adults in the process of screening, assessment and validation of their basic skills. After the procedure they will receive an individual's skills record, which will include the counsellor’s opinion of achieved level of skills in coherence with EQF, and recommendations for further education and training programs (eg. strong areas, weak areas, recommendations for the future)There are many tools for identifying and evaluating non-formally acquired adult knowledge that may be extremely good across EU, but counsellors are not familiar with them because there is no common EU repository where these tools would be collected and available for professionals in guidance services to use them EU-wide. Moreover the professionals in adult education and guidance services do not have enough knowledge or commonly agreed and accepted instructions on how to assess non-formal learning, or how to interpret the results of different tools for identifying skills and finally how to record the findings. To this aim we are going to establish EU-wide Online repository of different tools for assessment and validation of ICT, numeracy and language skill. The repository will also have a chat room that will enable practitioners to exchange knowledge and experience.PROJECT MAIN OBJECTIVES:-to support the setting up of and access to upskilling pathways for adults through skills identification and validation -to extend competences of professionals in adult education and guidance through improvement of their teaching and guidance methods and toolsIn the project we are addressing two main TARGET GROUPS:- adult education and guidance services practitioners- low-skilled adultsPROJECT ACTIVITIES that lead to development of above mentioned outputs are:Administrative activities:Activity 1: Project management and coordination,Activity 2: Dissemination and sustainability actionsActivity 3: Project evaluation and quality assuranceImplementation activities:Activity 4: IO1: Establishment of EU-wide Online repository of different tools for assessment and validation of ICT, numeracy and language skill - lead CIK TrebnjeActivity 5: IO2: Methodology for assessment and validation of ICT, mathematic and language skill for adult education and guidance services practitioners - lead UVAActivity 6: IO3: Implementation guidelines for adult education and guidance services practitioners - lead SLPActivity 7: IO4: Recommendation for mainstreaming of Methodology into EU Adult Education System and Guidance Services - lead EAEAPROJECT IMPACT:The Methodology for assessment and validation of basic skills and implementation guidelines will support the adult education and guidance practitioners to assist and guide low-skilled adults to maximize development of their literacy, mathematic, digital, and also social skills and thus their competition in the labour market and quality of life will be improved. They will be directly involved in skills assessment and validation process and thus will have a better overview to their skills and a set plan towards skills development.

Too many people in Europe lack basic life skills (see, eg the PIAAC results of the OECD). It could be literacy, numeracy or digital skills, but also health capabilities, financial literacy etc. They often lack the know-how to access social services, proper health care that goes beyond urgencies, and democratic participation. Refugees need to learn the host language, but also acquire the knowledge on how to make a home in their new countries. Additionally, too many of the native population of Europe respond aggressively to refugees through xenophobic and violent actions. All of these target groups can benefit from a life skills approach. The life skills approach builds the curriculum around the learner and takes their needs in to account: it combines basic skills with health, financial literacy and many other aspects that enable the learners to manage their lives successfully. This project brought together partners from Denmark (national level), Belgium (European level), the UK (national level), Greece (regional/local level) and Slovenia (national) in order to improve basic skills provision by explaining, further developing and up-scaling the life skills approach. The work was first based on the experiences of the partners but then further developed through surveys, interviews, good practice collections and further analysis. The project had the following objectives, which it has all fulfilled:• Improve life skills provision in Europe• Provide tools and recommendations that can be used for and with the three target groups • Develop an overarching framework and modules that are transferable across Europe• Support people from all target groups to access learning and other services; increase their participation in a democratic society and develop greater intercultural understandingThe project targeted adult education providers and networks through the multiplier events but also policy-makers and stakeholders working in other educational sectors and in life skills areas (e.g. health, social issues etc.). The project has produced several concrete outcomes:Output 1 consists of a thorough report including a glossary based on a survey among adult education organisations and desk research, a collection of good practices of life skills initiatives across Europe and a collection of educational tools. A leaflet was made to communicate the concept of life skills short and clear. The leaflet has been translated into Greek, Danish, Slovenian and French. The summary of the report is also available in Danish, French, Slovenian and Greek.Output 2 consists of a generic learning framework for life skills provision, that was tested in the participating countries. The framework is available in English, Danish, French, Slovenian and Greek.Output 3 consists of an awareness raising and strategy toolkit aiming at both education providers and decision makers (English, Danish, French, Slovenian, Greek).Three inspiring multiplier events were held, two in Brussels and one in Patras, Greece. Given the fact that the projects outputs are available online (see https://eaea.org/project/life-skills-for-europe-lse/) and are acting as a continuing source of inspiration is ensured that the project will have more of mid-long, long-term impact on policies that is hard to be measured at that point. Partners informed their colleagues about the work that has been done on life skills, approaches to life skills and they acknowledged the life skills approach as very promising for vulnerable groups of adults, especially those with less experiences in learning.The project deliverables offer learners and providers inspiring tools to use while they provide to policy makers and stakeholder with a chance to understand better the LSE approach and its benefits. Based on those deliverables the Life Skills Approach will impact the work of the above mentioned target groups. The increased knowledge on the field of Life Skills that LSE offers will lead to a more prominent position of the approach within the area of adult education, especially when it comes to disadvantaged groups of learners.As pointed out earlier, the partners have implemented the results on their levels and will continue to disseminate the results. There are talks ongoing (in 2019) about cooperations with other sectors on how the life skills approach could be shared and further implemented. The annual theme of the EAEA in 2019, life skills and participation, will mean that there will be a Grundtvig Award on the topic of Life Skills, a conference and statement of the EAEA (in close cooperation with DAEA). The further impact is therefore already assured - it clearly demonstrated that the results of this project are being and will be mainstreamed and up-scaled.

The global economic and social challenges in Europe are common and similar, reflecting into the needs of education and the education provision. The economic recession seems to continue, which means reductions in state funding for education, including the education provided for adults. On the one hand there is a number of adults without any certificate or diploma needing education, on the other hand the educated people need to improve their skills - and in many cases it is necessary to study a totally new profession. To serve these two groups of adults is a matter of social and economic competitive ability.In order to cope with these challenges in the target groups and in the overall society, the adult educators need to keep renewing their skills as well. It is not enough that they update the professional skills of the field in question, but they have to develop and fully understand the teaching skills needed for the new target groups, better understand the essential needs of working life to overcome the economical crisis, and to fully understand and internalize the meaning of entrepreneurship as a driving force of the economy.The big question is how to provide high quality vocational adult education, that supports adults to achieve their goals in skills development and in achieving new qualifications needed in the labor market. The SHAPE –project systematically scrutinized adult education provision and training in five 5-day further training workshops from five thematic perspectives, surveyed the best practices developed and used in partner organizations within these themes, and took a step further by identifying possible next practices that partners can take home and put into practice. Target groups were adult educators, management-level responsable for the adult education provision, staff responsible for quality assurance, development staff, and researchers.The SHAPE furhter training workshop themes and partner countries were - Slovenia: Professional development of adult education staff- Denmark: Qualification labels for professional in higher education, implications to adult education sector- Italy: Quality assurance in Adult Education provision- France: Key competences and entrepreneurship- Finland: Young adult's and adults’ upskilling programmes. Competence-based vocational qualifications as a cost-effective way of providing vocational education for adults. The project produced two artifacts – a video scribing of the outcomes of the project and an article “Shaping vocational adult education and training”. The article consists of an introduction to each theme, the state of the theme in question and best and next practices found during the project. The video scribing described the most valuable things learnt during the project and also good practices to recommend.This project had a very innovative working method. The workshops were organized and prepared by each partner in turns. In each of the 5 thematic workshops, the organizing partner prepared an briefing paper on the chosen theme, gave the guidelines on the topic so that partners were able to prepare their own presentation and paper for the workshop.The projects themes were crosscutting and relevant for all partners. As all partners were working for vocational adult education, the motivation to work for the project was very high.

Education and training is the most important way to active citizenship, better life and self-fulfilment. Migrants and refugees should integrate as soon as possible into our societies. This means not only the language skills, but also the possibility to enter educational programs as soon as possible, and be prepared for finding a job in our labour markets. Sharing experiences and best practices is vital in order to cope and to develop as we go along. Therefore the aim in Reshape the future –project is to systematically scrutinize adult education provision and training for migrants and refugees, from the perspectives especially chosen as necessary and interesting to all partners. The co-operation within Reshape-project helps us to plan the structure for our education and training provision for migrants.The themes in survey were the following:-Recognition of non-formal and formal learning of migrants and refugees-Competencies and continuous training of vocational adult educators and counsellors working with migrants and refugees-Guidance and counselling for migrants and refugees-Entrepreneurial training for migrants and refugees-Quality assurance of vocational education and training provision targeted to migrants and refugees“Reshape the future” has been a co-operation between six European countries - Keuda from Finland, Finska Folkhögskolan from Sweden, Istituto Formazione Operatori Aziendali (IFOA) from Italy, ROC Alfa College from Netherlands, Tietgen from Denmark and Slovenian Institute for Adult Education (SIAE) from Slovenia.The project comprised of five chosen themes, with each was studied in 5-days workshops organized by one partner by turn. The WS preparation was teamwork with those taking part to the WS in question. Each partner prepared a thorough presentation (paper + power point, video etc.) on the theme in their own country and organization. Making the presentations and papers meant a lot of studying around the theme and scrutinizing the practises in partner’s own organization. Every 5-day thematic workshop was a training period for teachers and counsellors taking part to the project. These workshops gave an excellent opportunity for adult educators to learn about education and training activities for migrants and refugees through the theme in question. The theme reports, prepared by the host partners, are products of the project and can be found annexed in this report and on the Erasmus+ Projects Results Platform. The theme report is a description of the current practices, key messages and next practices, based on presentations, visits, discussions and debates in workshops. Form of the reports is a pdf. The project has produced also an e-article, which is an abridged synthesis of the WS theme reports, added with the introduction and conclusion chapters. The main points of the project are presented in an explainer whiteboard video.Reshape the future –project with its five different themes is extremely current in the field of education and training. Through this project our staff in partner organizations had the possibility to bring out their experiences, doubts, uncertainty and expertizes. In the other hand they learnt to look the issue from new perspectives and get to know good practices. There are many challenges and matters to take into account in the education and training for migrants and refugees, but at the same time there are activities already in daily running and solutions to be found together. These were the aims for continuous training for teachers, counsellors and managers. Continuous training has been the most important value from the project. In addition to what have been mentioned above, partners’ aim was to create a strong and wide know-how concerning the educations and training of migrants and refugees.