Starting from the Education and Training 2020 strategy whose objective is the improvement of quality and efficiency in education and training among professional staffs, five organizations with valuable experience in the field of adult education from five different countries (Germany, Greece, Spain, Romania, Bulgaria), representing both private and public as also profit and non-profit sectors, have created a partnership to launch DEMAL project.
The “Designing, monitoring and evaluating adult learning classes – Supporting quality in adult learning” (acronym DEMAL) project is funded by the European Commission through the ERASMUS+ K2 Programme which enhances and promotes cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices. DEMAL intends to implement two key competences which, according to the 2010 “Key Competences for Adult Learning Professionals” framework, should advance adult training staffs and improve quality in adult learning. These two competences are:
- be able to design the learning process
- be able to monitor and evaluate the learning process
Their acquisition among adult teachers will be enhanced through two in-service training courses, one for each competence. Such courses will be composed by an e-learning part through an ad hoc digital platform with video lessons, presentations and assessment tests which will offer a theoretical preparation and a practical part with a transnational workshop which will consist mainly of case studies, role play games and projects to concretely apply the two competences. The curriculum will be built on the competence profile developed on the basis of conducted researches and with the support of experts in order to create a detailed programme of the learning outcomes, with the respective learning unites, activities, materials and contents.
The two courses will be supported by an innovative digital app for learning planning which serves a double goal: one the one hand, it will support teachers in the selection of methods and activities that better suit the interests/needs of their target group. On the other hand, it is expected to improve adult trainers’ ICT skills.
All the DEMAL outputs will be translated in six languages in order to guarantee their broadest use and the courses will lead to a final validation and certification according to the European framework on the basis of the trainee’s portfolio, assessment tests and an interview.
‘I think the two competences in the focus of DEMAL … are the most important for adult learning teachers.’ Is what a freelance trainer has declared, adding: ‘these provide an adequate framework for Adult Training’. DEMAL, in fact, refers to a specific target group which is adult learning staffs dealing with the design and/or the monitoring and evaluation of adult learning process including managers, executives, teachers, trainers of formal, non-formal and informal sector.