BABBAT - Output 1 / Výstup 1

OUTPUT 1 / VÝSTUP 1

To motivate, to encourage when expected results do not come, embolden in hard times, hearten and spirit those whose businesses bancrupted, stimulate those who have no hope for the future. Maintaining motivation is becoming an increasing challenge for many people slogging through life curtailed by the coronavirus pandemic.

Erasmus+ BABBAT 2019-1-IS01-KA204-51131
Output 01: Motivation (Czech Republic)

New learning – the key to a new job

Education seemed to be the attribute only to children and young people. But since 1990s with fast developing technologies in all societies it is evident that education does not finish in your 30s. For university graduates with their education, knowledge and skills it is not difficult to find a job in case the previous one is terminated. Their motivation for further education is

search for new employment,
promotion in current working environment,
making new acquaintances.

Low-skilled workers are often portrayed as unmotivated, having low aspirations, lacking confidence and self-esteem, being inactive, if not criminal. But is this presumption true? The undeniable reality is that low-skilled are more at risk in the labour market. The share of the low-skilled increased among the younger cohort due to larger numbers of drop-outs from education. This has been caused by the introduction of the unified maturita exams for all upper secondary four-year study programmes (ISCED 354). The unified maturita tests are more demanding than previous school-designed tests, so a larger number of students fail and do not accomplish their upper secondary education.

Upskilling may solve their unsafe future but how to make them, how to bring them to upgrading and requalification? They must accept as the undeniable fact that benefits of learning and self-education are:

to acquire knowledge and skills relating to an interesting, usually better paid subject
to increase the probability of finding a job or start a new career, sometimes a new business
to ensure the stable income
feeling more in control of life

The list of obstacles they must overcome is unfortunately much longer:

if low skilled are mothers/fathers on maternity/paternity leave requalifying courses may be out of their financial possibilities
courses or any form of upskilling are time-demanding
not enough information about potential upgrading courses
mistrust in efficiency of self-education (esp. with seniors)
poor or missing language and IT skills
lack of motivation which is very close to laziness, as adults´ priorities are family-children-job-relaxation

The Director General of Labour Offices in the Czech Republic Viktor Najmon adds that satisfying financial support unfortunately enables a relatively good life and the minimal mobility to follow new labour opportunities.

Educators in the process of upskilling and upgrading are not teachers any more but life-long learning guides who

ensure that the educated feel their future skills and knowledge will be useful,
motivate the educated to self-responsibility in reaching news skills and knowledge.

From the government it is expected:

to create networks among employers, companies, public authorities and educational institutions
to support regional and global partnership,
to focus on development of skills needed for useful, successful and satisfying career in the digital age
to use technologies for the public self-education (MOOC).

An increase in adult learning is crucial for our economy and society – but it needs to be accessible, affordable and attractive.
Fiona Aldridge, January 6, 2020
https://www.tes.com/news/four-ways-reverse-decline-adult-learning

PhDr. Eva Svobodová EKO Gymnázium a SOŠ Multimediálních studií Poděbrady, Czech Republic

Czech version

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Erasmus+ BABBAT 2019-1-IS01-KA204-51131
Output 01: Motivation (Estonia)

Motivations and hindrances for adult educations

Factors mention by adult’s as the main reason & motivation for participation in adult educations, like:

opportunity for up-skilling and reskilling
opportunity to find new job
opportunity for inclusion (socialisation)
opportunity to learn something new for self-esteem

Hindrances for why adults do not participate in adult educational program like:

no time
no interesting topics/subjects to lean
no strong teachers/trainers who can teach adults
no useful certificates/diplomas after learning

The Adult Education Act (2015) is the central act of the adult education system in Estonia. It stipulates the right of every person to constantly develop their knowledge and skills, the obligations of the state and local governments in the coordination of adult training, and the obligation of employers to grant study leave to learners engaged in distance learning, evening courses, external study or part-time study.
https://www.riigiteataja.ee/en/eli/529062015007/consolide

One of important sector in the area of adult education is learning of Estonian language by non-Estonians. The Estonian Unemployment Insurance Fund is funding program “Tööta ja õpi“ when unemployed can learn Estonian language. One of such language centers is Atlasnet Keelekeskus in Tallinn. Its director Sergei Redki told us that creative testing, methodology of learning and certification are very important in adult education in Atlasnet languages center. Face-to-face and digital lessons (audio and video) are in learning program. The main focus is on speaking skills training. Atlasnet created own teaching-learning materials and methodic.
https://www.atlasnet.ee/courses

Atlasnet has a close working relationship with Eesti Töötukassa (The Estonian Unemployment Insurance Fund - https://www.tootukassa.ee/eng).
Close working relationship with Integratsiooni Sihtasutus (Integration Foundation - https://www.integratsioon.ee/en).
Cooperation with Eesti Keele Majad (Estonian language houses - https://www.meis.ee/en/estonian-language-houses) in Tallinn and Narva where special courses of Estonian language and culture are provided free of charge (https://www.atlasnet.ee/klubid). Adult learners can improve Estonian language with native speakers. There are excursions and meetings with interesting people in the program.
Using website https://www.atlasnet.ee/, Facebook https://www.facebook.com/Atlasnet.ee/.
Direct mailing list and own network, phone calls and face-to-face meetings.
Cooperating with different adult education providers in Estonia and abroad.

Estonian language courses are very popular among non-Estonians and particularly meetings in language clubs which are free of charge. All places in Tallinn and Narva are taken in few hours after call for learners is open. Sometimes there is luck of teachers/trainers who know how to work with adult learners. So, preparation of educators is one of Atlasnet challenges.

Motivation to learn and to improve knowledge and skills are very important in adult education. The trust in teachers/trainers, creative methods of teaching and learning and good materials (text-books and digital education resources) are part of efficient education process and results.

Ruta Pels, Eesti People to People

Estonian version

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Erasmus+ BABBAT 2019-1-IS01-KA204-51131
Output 01: Motivation (Iceland)

Motivations and hindrances for adult educations

Factors mention by adult’s as the main reason & motivation for participation in adult educations, like:

Better paid, wider selection of job and work security
Better chances of working/staying in better environment
Respect and more responsibilities
Stronger self-awareness (Sigríður K. Hrafnkelsdóttir o.fl.,2014)

Hindrances for why adults do not participate in adult educational program like:

Too expensive
Validations are not certain
The methodology and the quality of the educational offer are not designed for adults
Not sufficient IT skills

Iceland has couple of laws and regulations that are aimed for low skilled adult, where the main focus is to create opportunities and to motivate this group to take some sort of education or at least to have them to consider the possibilities to take some training/educations.

To find out what kind of methods or what has proved to be a successful way to reach out to this group, I had an interview with Gudjonina Sæmundsdóttir, director of MSS, which is Adult training center in Reykjanesbær, Iceland. She said that one of the most successful tools in their work is a project called, Study and Career counseling, a free advice for adults that might be looking for alternatives to strengthen their work situations. MSS have directly marketed this offer by:

Having a close working relationship with the Unemployment Office
Close working relationship with the Social welfare office – meeting people
Planning and visiting different companies – discussing needs and diverse offer
Strong relationships within the working communities and municipalities, ready to response at their needs with the right educational offer
Participating in Universal Educational days with a special emphasises of Adult training
Using Social media, Website, Facebook, Twitter as well a direct marketing in the Newspaper
Direct mailing list, never to lose contact with those who have one’s made the first step into the “door of open adult education”
Offering an open, personal working office and local as a training place with an international culture and relaxing atmosphere

On top of these activities MSS is strongly aware of who and how is carrying out the presentations or the introduction meeting, since they know that this might be the first “touch” with the low skilled adult and first impression is, as always, vital. Therefore, they choose carefully who is representing MSS and what is presented. This thought is well displayed in all their IT work, with their choice of text and photos, where they show variety of activities, all ages, culture, and ethnic.

In adult educations & training in the 21^st century, we must acknowledge that adult personal skills and experience are the main keys for successful learning, all training/learning should therefore be centered around this fact.

“ The main issue with adult training is to have the right people at the right place – saying the right things – people that understand other adults – people who understand the real hindrance among adults – and usually the best way, is the peer to peer talk.“
Gudjonina Sæmundsdóttir, director of MSS, 20.05. 2020

Hansina B. Einarsdóttir, Step by Step Iceland

Icelandic version

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Erasmus+ BABBAT 2019-1-IS01-KA204-51131
Output 01: Motivation (Latvia)

How to motivate the adults to get through the door of education

Life-long education is one of the priorities set in European Union focusing on the length of working life, demographic situation and transformation tempo. Latvia is a small country of two million people facing the challenge of keeping high performance standards which presumes qualified and efficient workforce. Realising the issue Latvia has undertaken the number of initiatives to support adult training, including low skilled workers.

People in Latvia globally seek for the education:

to adjust for the new market situation, feel stable and safe
get new knowledge
get additional income
get the chance to work flexible time and on distance

What they mention as obstacles:

lack of money
unsuitable schedule, as majority of the requalifying programmes are held during the daytime
impossibility to attend courses as majority of these are organized in Riga and big cities
lack of skills to undertake the support trainings and services, language, financial literacy, IT, etc.

There are two agencies, The Employment Agency and the SEDA (Employment Agency and State Education Development Agency) setting the agenda for the adult career and education centres, providing employment and training opportunities for the employed and unemployed residents. State schools are used for adult education by the agreement of the school administration and local authorities. In addition, local municipalities, and adult training centres established by municipalities at regional and local level offer various adult education programmes. These centres provide courses and career advice to a wide target group (jobseekers, employees of different institutions, entrepreneurs, youth groups and seniors).

The Latvian Government in cooperation with municipalities, educational institutions, Employment Agency and SEDA has set the goal to develop people professional competencies to fil the gaps between labour demand and supply and increase competitiveness and productivity of the employed people. The initiative was launched for the period 2017 – 2022 funded within the EU SF framework. Target groups are employed persons older than 25 years and young parents on maternity/paternity leave. In case the choice has to be made preferences are for persons older than 45 with low skills, older than 50 with references from State Employment Agency and migrants with alternative status. Programmes are varying from short informal programmes (max 159 hours) to professional life-long learning programmes of 480-1280 hours. Time – evenings or weekends. Study fees are covered 90/10 percent, that means government pays 90% percent of the tuition fees and person covers 10% only. Persons with special needs get also service of assistant if needed. As an option, one can get consultancy in Employment Agency or Career Advisers in municipalities. https://www.macibaspieaugusajiem.lv. The project has a great success. The number of people participating has been growing enormously. RISEBA is actively participating, offering, for example, in autumn 2019 twenty three programmes with 1200+ participants that also makes a great network.

Lifelong learning is a very important thing, as people will be working for a long, long time now. As the working environment is changing, there is something new to be learned all the time, followingly one of the opportunities for everyone is to look more towards lifelong learning.
Martins Kazaks, President of Bank of Latvia

Nellija Titova, RISEBA, Riga, Latvia, 2020

Latvian version

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Erasmus+ BABBAT 2019-1-IS01-KA204-51131
Output 01: Motivation (Lithuania)

Motivation and hindrances for adult education

Factors mentioned by adults as the main reasons & motivational factors for participation in adult education/ lifelong learning, are:

a wish to expand one’s personal horizons
improving competences in the work field
better career opportunities
socialisation (Ugdymo plėtotės centras, 2010)

Hindrances for why adults do not participate in adult educational programs are:

concrete notion of the opportunities, benefits and added value at personal and professional levels
wrong expectations about the curriculum, schedule and level of difficultyclass dynamics (the way teacher manages the class)
personal reasons (family, finances, health issues)
lack of certain skills (ICT, foreign languages, time management)

The main laws regulating adult education in Lithuania speak about the creation of learning opportunities in rural areas where there is a greatest social and economic inequality, to create a possibility to develop general competences and form positive attitudes towards lifelong learning opportunities. Also, attention should be paid in aligning the possibilities of LLL and the need of the country’s economy.

Raimonda Monstvilaitė, the Coordinator of ESF project “I can” implemented by VšĮ Žmogiškųjų išteklių stebėsenos ir plėtros biuras says that working with low-skilled and low-qualified adults has been a challenge. The target group in this project also includes people having physical disabilities, problems with mental health, coming from social risk families – all these factors are additional obstacles to not seeking or not finding suitable training offer. In order to bring people to the training the effort of the project team is necessary using different communication channels and your own and your organisation’s connections, network with other private and public bodies:

The previously established relations with Unemployment Office and Social Services has helped to spread the news about the project and direct them to our organisation;
Good relations with participants in other projects also help to spread the message;
Course participants when manually trained for upgraded target activities may be parallelly coached in areas of their interests, e.g. positive parenting,
Some situations demand individual and group consultations of a psychologist so it is highly recommended when writing a project for adults, to include available psychological services;
When people are on-board, we offer the training on sustaining motivation and not dropping out;
Of course, contemporary social media channels are used to reach people, let them know about available training offers;
The team of the project is contacting people trying to motivate, persuade them to come;

“Multiple efforts are necessary to convince people that they need the training. First of all, you need to have a plan in your organization and then a team working systemically towards implementing it and your connections possessed with other organizations is the most powerful tool better than any other.”
R. Monstvilaitė

Gintarė Černikienė, ŽISPB (Lithuania)

Lithuanian version

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Erasmus+ BABBAT 2019-1-IS01-KA204-51131
Output 01: Motivation (Greece)

Motivation for adults to develop skills, competencies and knowledge upgrading in Greece:

Up to date skills and capabilities like IT skills, technical knowledge like Crafts and others that will help them to boost their chances to find a stable job at the labour market.

Up to date skills and capabilities like IT skills, technical knowledge like Crafts and others that will help them to boost their chances to find a stable job at the labour market.
Search for a new career in a developing sector
Improve current salary and working conditions
Meeting new people that share the same ambitions and will motive each other.

Why do not people attend programmes and courses for adult education in Greece?

Lack of information for such programmes and initiatives
Expenses may be too high
Not sure if it will boost their chances of getting employed
Lack of confidence in developing new competencies

Ιn Greece there are public and private initiatives to increase participation of adults in activities that increase their competencies and provide them with skills valuable for career development.

Mr. Thanasis Karalis, Professor of Lifelong Learning and Adult Education at the Department of Education, the University of Patras published a research about the participation of adults in Greece in life-long learning activities that started in 2011 and was completed in 2016. This research included a qualitative and quantitative research methodology and captured the picture of the opportunities that exist for adult training in Greece and their participation in these initiatives.

The country of Greece adults do not seek their chances to the fullest, as based on the EUROSTAT finding from 2011-2016, adults that got involved in trainings was 4% of the active citizens. What can be described as a positive picture in this result is that the percentage climbed from 2.8% to 4%. Despite the low number of participation, the second decade of 2000 has offered opportunities to more individuals during its first half.

The same research has shown also the increase of participation for adults from 2011 to 2016 in the domains of continuing learning activities, general educational activities (individual workshops, seminars) and lifelong learning activities in general. The results show an increase in participation in all domains by an average of 2%.

In the profile of participants is something that underlines the importance of engagement of the most vulnerable groups like unemployed people.

The participants were asked to declare their intentions to participate in learning activities. Unemployed people that declared their interest in participating had an increase of 10% from 2011 to 2016, whereas the average of all working groups of people was approximately 6%.

What does the research show about Adult Education in Greece?

3 out of four people want to participate in adult education activities
In the last 40 years the participation has been 10 times higher
In the last 30 years it has been 5 times higher
It has been tripled from 2011 to 2016
Citizens have a positive tendency to participate in lifelong learning activities

What are the factors that motivated the citizens?

Subsidy for unemployed people to participate in training activities
Positive view from the working agencies and employers
Regarded certification from education providers

From the summer of 2019 until today, the data show a vertical increase in the number of beneficiaries. INEDIBIM (lifelong learning provider from public) continues the implementation of the program with satisfactory and steadily increasing rates. Specifically:

As of August 2019, 12 departments were in progress in an equal number of Municipalities of the country, which were attended by 156 trainees and employed by 10 trainers.

To date, 70 new departments have already been completed in 10 Regions of the country, with 1,287 trainees and 59 trainers. There are also 366 new departments in progress in all the Regions of the country, with 7,040 trainees and 255 trainers.

Probably the most cultivated groove in adult education research is that of participation.
J. Crowther, 2000

Greek version

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Erasmus+ BABBAT 2019-1-IS01-KA204-51131
Output 01: Motivation (Spain)

MOTIVATIONS AND HINDRANCES FOR ADULT EDUCATION

Challenges for Adult learning in the era of Covid19 & next day “The New Normal”

Allow me to base this report on the new situation we are facing from now on after COVID-19. Adult education has to be from now a basic tool for the new era. The unemployment rates together with the social and economic changes that our world is suffering is awakening news paths to go back to the labour market for many citizens in this world, and education is the only access to it: https://thelifelonglearningblog.uil.unesco.org/2020/04/02/covid-19-the-case-for-prioritizing-adult-education/

Motivations for participation in adult education:

The comfort zone disappear with the new era, there is a need to seek new professional future.
The inactivity cause by unemployment gives extra time for education & learning.
Online/remote options and social distances encourage IT learning skills.
Education online options are offering now easier access and practical APP to use online learning.

Hindrances for participation in adult education:

Limited IT skills that require face to face education to increase online learning interest.
Reduction of practical/training options due to the social distancing limitations.
Low commitment from governments in invest in adult education.
Difficulties on work & life balance when education has to be included.
Social distancing reduce options for networking and motivational events to increase adult education.

SPANISH example before the COVID era:

“PFAE” PROYECTO PARA LA FORMACION Y EMPLEO: Spanish public project for education and employment: Spanish Government project for unemployed adults without specfic skills with the aim of widening their options to access back to the labour market successfully.

Characteristic:

There will be a specific learning aim.
Free of charge offered to unemployed people of 11 months duration.
Theoretic and practical learning including a short term job contract in the public services of the local community.

Benefits:

Accessibility to the labour market and practical learning to gain experience.
Professional certificate of qualification for the participant.
Los Cristianos municipality example with a solar panels installation course:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qUwtD9-noR4
Adeje municipality example:
ttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q4cdMejo8_k&list=PLEF90B472A59A16D8&index=2

Mariví Gracia, Tenerife Job Training, June2020

Spanish version