Adult education is an important factor contributing to economic well-being and social inclusion in Europe. In many cases regional and national umbrella organisations as well as professional associations, universities and large education providers take on the task of providing adult education staff with sufficient high quality opportunities to maintain and extend skills they need to support and bring about positive economic and social developments. Those efforts are usually directed at (free-lance) teachers as well as pedagogical, administrative and executive staff in the organisations. These institutions thereby attend to the important tasks of quality assurance and professionalization of staff in adult education and they contribute to the development of the field of adult education as a whole. Train the Provider afforded staff training providers the chance to address some of their most prominent issues, search for solutions and exchange good practices with peer organisations from other EU countries. Main participating organisations:1. Lower Saxon League for Liberal Adult Education (GER): regional umbrella organisation responsible for centralised staff training programme 2. Hellenic Adult Education Association (GR): national professional organisation implementing train-the-trainer-programmes and developing key competences 3. University of Pitesti (RO): university active in adult education staff training 4. Folkeuniversitetet Øst (NO): adult education provider with internal staff training programmeIn addition, partners invited professionals and experts from the field of AE to their project meetings to gain further insight into strategies and practice from different angles. The transcultural approach offered partners the chance to gain new perspectives on the most pressing issues from their day-to-day working contexts. These included lack of national standards, high cancellation rates, low motivation among trainers to get further training and designing more relevant programmes for target groups. The discussions resulted in four short papers published via the project site (see below) as well as a short journal article published at https://www.futureacademy.org.uk/files/images/upload/EDUWORLD2018F004.pdfFour papers correspond with the Work Packages:A1: Reflexion, formulation and exchange of structural educational problemsPartners compiled a collection of central challenges they are facing in their day-to-day work and for which they were looking to brainstorm for solutions. Additional input was given by experts from regional organisations active in AE (LUH, Bildungswerk Ver.di, Landesverband der VHS in NDS). A2. Comparison of existing staff training programmes and identification of good practicePartners derived common ‘main topics’ from A1 and embedded them in the individual national AE systems they work in. Through the comparison, differences emerged in terms of standardisation and quality control, types of providers, target groups as well as ways of identifying their needs, evaluation of training results. Partners identified which mechanisms promote and which mechanisms hamper quality work in their institutions. Additionally, the consortium designed an online survey to gain further insight into these topics from a wider range of AE agents. An article outlining and contextualising the results was published as an OER (see link above).A3. Identification of relevant topics and target groupsPartners identified good practice examples from their current programmes, naming formats, methodology, target groups and learning outcomes and compiled the data into a table for consultation by third parties. These examples address the challenges outlined in A1 and give partners (as well as other AE agents) inspiration for their future programme development. The resulting cannon of good practice serves as reference to other AE staff training providers interested in expanding or improving their programmes. A4. Formulating benchmarksPartners identified success factors for their best practice programmes, outlining how others could adopt approaches they deem successful. This allows for comparison between partners’ approaches, programmes and target groups. The document can be consulted by other agents in AE to compare their programmes against and find inspiration for their development. The results have had and will have considerable influence on the partner organisations involved which have all found topics and approaches they are planning to adopt and try (see document for A4). Thus, lessons learned during the project will impact the quality and implementation of future programmes, creating staff training that is more focused on applicability and trainers’ real needs. Furthermore, the results have been distributed through partners’ networks and thus benefit the AE staff training sector as a whole. All results are available for download via https://www.aewb-nds.de/themen/eu-programme/train-the-provider/

The five main objectives in the VOLCANO project were: 1)To demonstrate that people with language levels of A2 to B1 can be sustainability employed in this sector.2)To address the growing skills gap across Europe in lower levels of social/healthcare, due to population decline and movements, increased professionalisation and traditional low status and low pay. 3) To take advantage of greater in-work-learning opportunities in the sector which has opened up a new route into employment for migrants. 4)To provide a new workforce for the sector now essential due to the new demand for staff through the Working Time Directive and Directive on Professional Qualifications.5)To provide a diverse labour force which more closely resembles the diverse nature of the elderly community in Europe accessing social and healthcare. The five partners were drawn from across Northern, Southern and Eastern Europe.* Folkeuniversitetet Øst (FUØ), Oslo, Norway, was lead partner. FUØ is Norway's oldest and largest independant and non profit study organisation for adult learning. FUØ's course programmes are covering a broad variety of topics and programmes of different lengths and intensity, some providing formal competency, others not. FUØ is especially strong in the fields of second and foreign language aquisition and educational programmes for work in the healthcare sector. * Bridges Programmes, Glasgow (UK), a specialist not for profit organisation working for the last 14 years with those for whom English is a second language including refugees, migrants and the settled BME communities, to develop and facilitate their economic and social integration through a variety of work based interventions. These include work placements, employer engagement to foster anti discrimination practices in the work place and awareness raising training and support. * Volkshochschule im Landkreis Cham e.V., Germany, is one of the largest adult education centres in Bavaria. With nearly 50 employees, 250 teachers, 30 sites and a special focus on adult education, it is the largest educational institution in the Cham region. The Gesundheitsakademie Ostbayern (GAO) is part of the VHS Cham and consists of a state approved vocational school for geriatric nursing and nursing aids and school of Physiotherapy.* The Associazione N.E.T., Ponte San Nicolo, Italy, is a not for profit association founded in 2001 by experts of the training and educational sector. It addresses above all disadvantaged people like migrants, women, long term unemployed, elderly, disabled people and single parents to support them from a social, training and employment point of view. The association is very active at local and regional level by collaborating with public organisations and institutions like regions, municipalities, local health units (ULSS), universities, and chambers of commerce. * Ustanova za obrazovanje odraslih Dante, Rijeka, Croatia, is a language school engaged in several different projects with different target groups, like university students and young employees.The partner runs individual classes in business language and specific vocational language. Dante organizes language courses for medical staff and is active in the local community to improve skills and learning infrastructure in general.The project was structured around 7 Intellectual Outputs, in addition to a 5 days train the trainers session. IO 1 Research and Mapping ReportIO 2 Skills and Language Benchmarking and Profiling toolIO 3 Vocational Language Curriculum and Material ResourceIO 4 Handbook for implementation of curriculumIO 5 Piloting the CurriculumIO 6 Green PaperIO 8 VLE and websiteAll planned parts of the project were carried out in accordance with the application. The pilote courses had 179 beneficiaries.The courses were carried out in combination with the effort in providing internships/jobs for participants,in spite the lacking funding for his IO. The courses resulted in a significant number of work placements and jobs within the project period. At least 72 participants had a work placement thanks to project activities and the offer of a job position in some cases. Totally around 60 persons were employed with different contracts.The project documents produced in the project can be accessed through the website, http://volcano-europe.org/ Apart from Green Paper, all documents are available in all five partner languages. Meetings and activities were scheduled on the initial meeting in Oslo.There was one transnational meeting in each partner country, and a final meeting in connection with the final multiplier event in Oslo. Local multiplier events took place in all partner countries, where the project results were presented.The project results have been videly communicated through different medias and events on local, regional and national level. The VOLCANO project can be considered as a good practice under the point of view of the impact obtained on the end users.

STRAIGHTEN BASIC SKILLSStrategy To Raise Awareness and Improve, Generalize and Help Tackling European Needs for BASIC SKILLSImproving the accessibility of learning opportunities for adults, especially for low qualified employees and long term unemployed, with a view to training needs of workplace basic skills is one of the core areas of the European education policy. In the past a lot of projects in the EU Lifelong Learning Programme have developed different kinds of instruments and material encouraging the definition and implementation of new courses and curricula, teacher training and educational material for promoting approaches to employers and employees. Nevertheless there is a lack of full and systematic implementation. From these researches initiated in recent years, partners have learnt from the importance of the combination of factors in order to properly develop basic skills training. They are convinced that only the interaction of some influencing, successful factors could result into real improvements in basic skills for work.The innovative approach of the STRAIGHTEN BASIC SKILLS project will be the systemic view of all these successful indicators. Only taking into account many different aspects to strengthen basic skills trainings for adults will be successful and sustainable: What are successful environments, legal conditions, something like “vocational training cultures”, supportive collective agreements or agreements between the social partners etc. to provide work related basic skills trainings and make it acceptable or profitable for employers to join in those measures.But those enabling framework are not automatically successful without considering other indicators like the special pedagogical and educational training concepts, the access pathways to employers and employees, the professionalisation of counsellors and trainers, the quality assurance and evaluation of courses being offered, the involvement of all relevant actors in the field of work related basic education and the networking on regional and local level and so on. The STRAIGHTEN BASIC SKILLS project offers a multiperspective view and pools the successful indicators in a comprehensive strategy to effectively promote work related basic skills training for adults.Based on these observations, 6 organizations from Austria, France, Germany, Norway, UK and Romania, gathered together in order to develop the concept and methodologies at stake, and do adapt this model in their countries, approaching it through implementation of 6 pilot projects focusing on 2 of the success indicators defined in previously.In order to realize this, the project can rely on a solid partnership made of organizations which are expert VET providers in the field of work-based training, large-scale lifelong learning promotion bodies, and academic institutions, which all focus on the developement of lifelong learning access to low-qualified adults. These partners have a very good knowledge of the topics and target beneficiaries involved and can rely on their long experience in European cooperation to successfully develop their common proposition. The STRAIGHTEN BASIC SKILLS project expects the following results:1) STRAIGHTEN BASIC SKILLS Set of indicators (success indicators for implementing work related basic skills training for low qualified workers and unemployed) (IO1)2) STRAIGHTEN BASIC SKILLS Synthesis of Country reports (IO2)3) STRAIGHTEN BASIC SKILLS Experimental phase / country pilots (IO3)4) STRAIGHTEN BASIC SKILLS European roadmap (IO4), Policy recommendations/guidelines STRAIGHTEN BASIC SKILLS project intends to have a large impact especially considering the strong interest shared by the consortium members and their abilities to reach a large audience, either at level of education and training actors, policy makers and final beneficiaries which can be educational training entities, decision makers and financers, companies, intermediaries or trade unions. The project work program strongly supports the large impact on beneficiaries:- Awareness raising to the situations of low-access and dangerous low-mastering ofbasic skills in EU and highlinght of the success indicators developed;- Development of STRAIGHTEN BASIC SKILLS adapted pilots in 6 countries;- Valorization of the win-win STRAIGHTEN BASIC SKILLS methodologies to efficiently and successfuly implement basic skills training activities;- Creation of a large strong network of STRAIGHTEN BASIC SKILLS promoters at EU level.