The overarching goal of the planned activities for the project Implementation of the European Agenda for Adult Learning (EAAL) in Slovenia in the 2017–2019 period is to popularise the EU Council Recommendation Upskilling Pathways: New Opportunities for Adults (hereinafter UP) and to support its systematic implementation. With this initiative, the Council invited the member countries to give adults – employed, unemployed or economically inactive – the opportunity for a fresh start. The planned activities should be based on mechanisms for definition of knowledge and skills the adults already possess, they should enable personalised education and training and help the learners acquire new knowledge, skills and qualifications. Supporting activities such as guidance, outreach, awareness raising, etc. play an important role in this endeavour.
The first EAAL consultation – a conferenced entitled Challenges and opportunities of educating for a longer working period (in Slovenian) – was based not only on the UP initiative but also on the Slovenian Strategy for Long-lived Society (2017). The focus was on two UP topics: creation of suitable programmes for adults with low education and supporting activity – outreach. The event targeted mainly older (employed) adults with the purpose of offering them education and training to maintain their current working status. The event included seven plenary contributions, four presentations of good practices, interaction of the participants and preparation of conclusions in four work groups as well as an interesting, future-oriented panel discussion with 112 participants on the first day and 90 participants on the second day.
For autumn, we are preparing a third EAAL consultation and the annual EAAL conference. The third EAAL consultation will focus on basic and vocational competences of employed people in order to comply with the needs of employers.. The event will be held on 11 September and will be organised by the SIAE and the Association of Slovenian Adult Education Centres.
At this year’s EAAL conference, we will gather the impressions and conclusions from the EAAL consultations and improve them with additional aspects that are vital for adult education in Slovenia, focusing on the OECD national skills strategy and the corresponding action plan.
All of the above will be supported by other EAAL activities, such as the creation of a web portal for all existing national endeavours for implementation of the UP and collection of examples of good practices to be published in the form of e-proceedings.
In this phase of the EAAL project we want to support as best as we can the European and national endeavours and at the same time benefit their final user – the learner.
Zvonka Pangerc Pahernik, MSc (zvonka.pangerc@SIAE.si), SIAE
