REACH – Promotion of Innovative Services and Better Access in Continuous Education

Project No. AD-2010_1a-21172

Project duration: 2010–2012

Project funder: Nordic Council of Ministers, The Nordplus Framework Programme

Project coordinator: Modern Didactics Centre (Lithuania)

Project partners:

Pirkanmaa Westcome Adult Education Unit (Finland)
Sudurnes Comprehensive College (Iceland)
Sudurnes Center for Education (Iceland)

Project conference in Vilnius

PROJECT RELEVANCE

Partner organizations from Lithuania, Iceland and Finland come together to investigate and test innovative methods to promote participation of adults in life long learning process.

Partners have already common “history” of partnership, as current proposal is result of project (preparatory visit) “MOT-E / From best motivation – to best education”, run in 2008 and supported by Nordplus Adult Learning programme. Partner organizations have shared adult learning situations in their countries, identified strong and weak points of it, and presented their organizations inputs into the countries adult education systems. It was agreed that main problem in all countries is how to reach those, who are not participating or participating seldom in learning/teaching activities, who have no or have lost motivation to participate. We worked together on ideas about successful promotion of adult learning among most vulnerable groups in regions: drop-outs from general education, jobless, seniors, and others. A hypothesis was raised that traditional ways does not work: either they don’t reach those, who are targeted, at all or the forms/content/ of teaching are not attractive enough, especially if adults are from small towns and villages. Partners decided to develop proposal, which could help investigate and test innovative methods and strategies of adult learning/teaching/ promotion as well as their motivation to participate in learning process, and so to contribute to the Nordplus Adult Programme priority.

The project purpose and objectives directly correspond to the annual priorities of Adult learning programme: to strengthen social cohesion in education by improving access and availability of adult education to all potential adult learners with a special focus on rural areas and second chance teaching.

PROJECT AIMS

1. To motivate adults to participate actively and meaningfully in LLL process for success in personal and professional life.
2. To reach adults with low participation in life long learning process (formal and non-formal), invite them to participate in any kind of learning activities proposed by project partners using variety of social advertisement and marketing tools, improving content and forms of teaching services.

PROJECT OBJECTIVES

1. To analyze and map in-countries situation towards project target group: reasons for not participating, marketing strategies applied in partner countries, most popular programs and learning forms.
2.  To analyze and test different social advertisement and marketing tools in order to attract as many as possible adults learners from rural areas not participating (or poor participating) in learning activities.
3. To improve, develop and test adult education programs with selected groups (content and forms of delivery).
4. To create and maintain in-country network of different local organizations to support and promote project ideas.

PROJECT TARGET GROUP

Adults from vulnerable groups at different age, who do not participate or participate poor in life long learning activities. By concept of “vulnerable” we understand: living in most remote places and poor socio-economical regions, jobless, special needs, with low educational background, drop-outs from general education, seniors, and women growing children alone.

PROJECT ACTIVITIES

• Analysis of in-country situation on project problem (executive summary of existing statistics and research about motives to participate/not participate/ in learning; information distribution channels, most popular learning forms and topics).
• Survey (qualitative interview with representatives of target group and adult educators about motivation to participate or not to participate in life long learning process, most appropriate forms of learning and information distribution channels).
• Development and testing of service packages (original social advertisement & marketing tools, non-traditional learning/teaching forms, innovative learning content).
• Project partner meetings to discuss project run, share results, plan in detail follow-up activities, develop common schemes for outputs development, disseminate and evaluate project results.

ocal meetings with social partners (to present and discuss run of the project, to disseminate project ideas, to share and consult, to get support).

PROJECT INTELECTUAL OUTPUT

Findings about Adults Motivation to Learn in Iceland, Finland and Lithuania (2012)

The aim of the publication is to identify how to reach vulnerable groups of adults, such as the unemployed or rural residents, who rarely participate in lifelong learning processes. It provides an overview of adult education policies in the partner countries and presents the results of a study conducted in Iceland, Finland, and Lithuania, analyzing adult motivation to learn. The authors emphasize that traditional teaching methods often fail to reach target groups; therefore, it is essential to seek innovative strategies tailored to personal experience. The publication describes specific ‘social packages’ implemented in these countries, ranging from awareness campaigns to specially adapted training content and formats. The study reveals that for successful inclusion, not only external benefits but also emotional appeal and flexibility are crucial. Finally, recommendations are provided for educators on how to improve the accessibility of services and strengthen learners’ self-confidence. This is a valuable resource for andragogues and policymakers seeking to increase social cohesion through adult education.

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PROJECT RESULTS

• The final result of the project is find out effective social advertisement and marketing strategies as well as service delivery forms to increase motivation and participation of vulnerable groups adults in life long learning process.
• Different types of partner organizations (NGOs, state education centre, college) and local networks of non-formal partners have been involved into the implementation of the project and dissemination of its results.
• As an intermediate project results there was an executive report on existing statistics and research about motivation to participate/not participate in learning; information distribution channels, most popular learning forms and topics.