The project Circle of Competences for Community Work with adults was focused on development of basic skills and key competences in adult learners, through a system of actions which started from assessing learning needs of partner organisations staff and learners, then improving Educators competences and trough them reach adult learners with fewer opportunities in the 4 countries of the partnership (Italy, France, Slovenia, Portugal). 23 Educators active in Adult Education (from 4 different countries, and with different professional profiles ) were engaged in an international training course collecting and sharing good practices and tools to facilitate and recognise their learners achievements (E- portfolio) and to engage learners with fewer opportunities (Popular Education tecniques). They tested and experienced themselves those tools as well as share with colleagues from different countries. As a second step, the same Educators tested and applied the gained methods in their own countries with a group of 300 local learners with different difficulties in education and inclusion in society and job market ( adults with migrant background, asylum seekers, unemployed adults with unstable/poor educational paths ) trough workshops run at local level whose content and methods will be defined in details during the project. The workshops aimed to engage adult learners at local level, motivate them to participate to further learning experiences and to make easier the recognition of their experience acquired trough non formal and informal learning. To reach these aims we used E-portfolio and Popular Education tecniques and methods. The partnership worked on the fine-tuning of the tools used and tested during the project in order to make them accessible to a larger audience of educators and adult learners.

In the post-truth era we live in now, objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than emotions and personal belief. This post-truth reality is one of the reasons why fake news has proliferated and become so inescapable. On one hand, Internet and social media provide a new channel for fake news (misinformation/disinformation), on the other hand, people seldom verify the information/news they encounter. Misinformation is pervasive and could lead to serious consequences not only for individuals but also for the entire society. Thus, individuals need to be competent and intelligent users of information, should be able to critique the “news” being broadcast, and should be able to seek and find the information that is not being broadcast or otherwise prioritized by algorithms. In other words, in the post-truth age, critical thinking and news literacy skills seem to be the first line of defense for the survival of democracy.The main aims of this project are, firstly to develop a news literacy training course which will be designed to help individuals/adults to develop critical thinking skills needed to judge the reliability and credibility of news/information, and secondly empower trainers (such as librarians and other adult educators) to teach others the skills they need to become smart consumers of news and other information and engaged, informed participants in civic life. Main outputs of this projects will include a study report (O1), which will be based on literature and the findings of a survey on the news consumption, production and sharing behaviour of adults along with their needs for training on news literacy; a course content on news literacy (O2) which will be developed based on the findings and conclusions of the study report; a guidelines for trainers (O3) about how to implement the training course and how to teach adults (andragogy); a MOOC in five languages (O4), first part of which can be used by anyone who likes to learn or teach news literacy and the second part is for the trainers who intend to teach news literacy to adults. Project outcomes will benefit largely from the complementary knowledge and expertise of the partners, namely a public library (Belgrade City Library, RS), a higher education institution (Hacettepe University, TR), an adult education center (UPI Žalec, SI), and a national library (National Library of Latvia, LV). Literature search, both quantitative (data from survey, evaluation forms, pre and post tests) and qualitative (data from observations and feedback) methodologies along with several project management methodologies and tools will be employed. Within the project one transnational training activity will be organized to train-the-trainers (20). Trained trainers, afterwards, will train adults (80) in each country. Participants will be selected mainly based on their interest in the subject and personal qualities such as openness, communication skills, flexibility, and curiosity. Additionally four multiplier events will be organized (one in each partner country) to disseminate the intellectual outputs of the project. The desired impacts of the project are empowering adults with news literacy and critical thinking skills for post truth age to foster democracy and social inclusion; improved knowledge and skills of the partner organizations’ staff as future trainers on the subject; empowered librarians and adult trainers to teach news literacy; increased volume of cooperation between adult education providers from different sectors throughout Europe; providing effective online training content which is open to all. The project activities and results will produce benefits not only for the partners and subjects directly involved in the project but also for other indirect target groups and stakeholders across Europe and potentially the whole civil society at large, because project outputs will remain available also after the project ends. On all levels project will raise the awareness on the importance of critical thinking and news literacy competences. Trainers (who are trained within the project) will be of key importance for sustainability and long-term impact by ensuring the maintenance and the further development of the project outcomes. They will be using the training content and the guidelines (project outputs) in their day to day work. The potential for continuous use will secure the sustainability. Partners will keep using, further adapting, and developing when needed the course and guidelines (in other word the MOOC as a whole). Furthermore, when the project is completed all results/outputs will be licensed under Creative Commons which grants freedom to use, share copies, make and share remixes and other derivatives for any purpose. This will increase the long term impact (outreach, number of people who can benefit) and brings in a good potential for transferability as well sustainability.

<< Background >>Adult educators are overwhelmed by the opportunities that the digital era has brought to education. In the absence of a strategic approach to continuous training of adult educators in the field of blended learning in different countries across Europe, adult educators are mainly left to rely on their own sense of self-initiative when it comes to introducing blended learning (and innovative teaching practices involving digital technologies in general) into their teaching. While some of them may have mastered the use of individual online tools, the majority do not possess the skills to turn their existing (traditional) courses into proper blended learning ones. Neither do they possess sufficient knowledge to combine online and face-to-face activities in a meaningful way while at the same time paying attention to different factors determining the blended learning-teaching process such as learners’ needs, learning goals and outcomes, online communication, online assessment etc. Through a hands-on approach in this project, adult educators will acquire skills to break down their existing (traditionally delivered) courses into blended ones and to make their courses more flexible in terms of the time, place and pace of teaching and learning. COVID-19 has forever changed the education landscape and made effective use in contemporary teaching and learning not an option but a necessity.<< Objectives >>To meet the aforementioned needs the project will pursue the following main objectives:- to train adult educators to become blended learning champions and to be able to train and motivate other teachers for the use of blended learning,- to enhance adult educators' blended learning skills,- to increase the capacity of adult education organisations in blended learning offer, and- to enhance training offered in the adult education sector in the field of innovative teaching methodologies by using ICT.Through dissemination activities on all levels, the project will contribute to increased awareness among decision-makers, researchers, and partners about the necessity of blended learning and the need for quality training provision available to adult educators.<< Implementation >>The partnership will undertake several sets of activities to ensure a smooth and effective journey from the moment the application gets approved until the end of the project as well as upon its completion. Partners form a strong consortium of experienced organisations in international projects and project work that will together perform all necessary activities to successfully implement the project. The basis for the work is the detailed work plan produced upon the application approval that is defined by the Coordinator. The coordinator will generate management and coordination activities to guide partners throughout the project. Project activities will be defined within the main work packages which are management and coordination activities, dissemination activities, quality assurance activities, exploitation and sustainability activities, transnational meetings, joint staff training event as well development of project main results - blended learning case studies and train-the-trainer course.<< Results >>The project's main results, a COLLECTION OF BLENDED LEARNING CASES STUDIES and TRAIN-THE-TRAINER COURSE will serve as a reference point and a quality tool for any adult educator who wants to design a quality blended learning course by taking a traditional one and by breaking it into blended learning units. Blended Learning Case Studies will be documented by adult educators in partner organisations through keeping reflective journals and composition of cases study reports. The Train-the-Trainer Course will be based on two preceding courses developed within the project, the Bridging and Train-the-Trainer Pilot Course. 15 adult educators will be selected to take part in a three-day transnational training activity where they will test the Train-the-Trainer Pilot Course and become ''blended learning champions''. These ''champions'' will train additional 50 adult educators in partner organisations to multiply project impact. 75 adult educators will be directly involved in project activities and become blended learning champions while at least 175 stakeholders will attend the five project final conferences (multiplier events).

According to ISCED, educational attainment is the visible output of education systems and a measure of their success. For individuals, achievement levels have a major impact, both personally and professionally, on the quality of life and job opportunities while EUROSTAT data concerning educational attainment of the age group 55-74 are unfavourable: low educational attainment 37.4%, medium educational attainment 42.6%, high educational attainment 20.0 % (EUROSTAT, Statistical data on educational attainment, 2015) which is far from the level projected by the Lisbon Treaty. A great number of adults with low educational attainment are people aged over 45 that need to be attracted to remain in adult education in order to improve their skills and competences and, thus, be (re)included in the labour market. A key role in this process play adult educators, a target group of this project. While most of them are rather versatile dealing with students with higher levels of education attainment, they sometimes don't know what to expect and how to proceed when they have low literates as students. Adult educators and various practitioners may not be familiar with the phenomenon of low literacy, characteristics of low literate and low educated students (functional illiteracy) and how low educated learners learn. They may lack knowledge and skills about motivation and motivating strategies etc. They might not know how to gain their students confidence. If low educated students become more confident, they forget about their aversion towards changes and can stay in education and keep their job. The project seeks to contribute to empowerment of adult educators with the knowledge and skills necessary for a greater involvement of older people into lifelong education through effective outreach, guidance and motivation. To do this, different motivational strategies and technique will be offered to adult educators who test them in their adult education centres in the partner countries. In order to have these materials available for an international audience, there will be created an open educational platform with interactive resources for adult educators and other practitioners, which includes: national literature on literacy/ motivation/ learning and teaching strategies in partner languages; best practices in the field of teaching of basic skills to adult learners; an online interactive handbook of existing motivational strategies used by adult educators working with low-educated adult learners. The ultimate goal of the project is to elaborate an online learning environment to extend professional competences of adult educators based on learning and teaching strategies: knowledge, approaches, face-to-face and on-line methods and formats (webinars), techniques helping adult educators to train low educated 45+ workers as well as trigger and maintain their primary motivation for learning. The partners expect to have the following results on project completion: 1) benchmarking report on the state of the art of adult educators in EU countries prepared and available on the project website; 2) a user-friendly interactive platform containing pedagogical resources for adult educators created; 3) online interactive handbook of motivational strategies for adult educators working with low-educated learners elaborated; 4) the courses for adult educators developed; 5) 12 adult educators participated in a face-to-face training activity organised in Ljubliana in June 2019; 6) 60 adult educators from partner countries took part in the piloting of the online course; 7) Open Educational Pack for adult educators developed in English and partner languages; 8) 4 transnational meetings organised (1TM - Dec 2017 in Slovenia; 2TM – July 2018 in Italy; 3TM- March 2019 in Cyprus; 4TM – Dec 2019 in Spain); 9) 3 dissemination conferences organised in Zalec (20 local participants), Ljubliana (20 local and 10 international participants) and Nicosia (20 local and 10 international participants) in December 2019. The project will also foster and provide grounds for highly professional national and cross-border cooperation in the field of professional competences of adult educators and learning/education in later life.

•Background:Nowadays, social exclusion of migrants and refugees exists in many European countries, although it is not well-reflected in our educational systems. Thus, tackling inequalities in education should be a part of the comprehensive fight for social justice,in order to make universal values alive.The acquisition of basic skills and mostly learning the language is the foundation for the integration process and the access to further learning and the gateway to employment and social inclusion.•Objectives:The purpose of INCREA project was the development of training modules and activities respecting the different culture of the individuals to support their integration in the European societies through language and entrepreneurial competences, including soft skills as well as digital skills. In fact,INCREA developed an innovative ICT tool-based on the methodology of Serious game-integrated in a blended-learning environment aiming in transferring knowledge towards target audience together with a manual that fosters creative entrepreneurship in European societies.•Undertaken activities:INCREA activities aimed in identifying the following challenges in relation with the needs of European societies:-1:Lack of adequate language skills – A language skills course was created with hands-on examples of professional language use in working environments.-2:Lack of professional and employment-related skills – INCREA also provided a combination of courses enhancing migrants and refugees’ digital and entrepreneurial skills in order to support them in being part of European creative industries or create their own business. •Participants:Different target groups were involved:-Migrants/ refugees that participated in an analysis aiming in identifying the gap between their level and the current situation in European industries. They were also engaged in all aspects of the project (validation, workshops,events, etc.)-Stakeholders (adult training organizations, social workers, entrepreneurs, organizations working in migration, business consultants, etc.)More than 52.000 participants were reached in total.•Results:The Intellectual Outputs were:•1–Identification of skill and gaps of target migrants related to:language and entrepreneurial competences• 2–Training courses for migrants combining language,entrepreneurial and digital skills• 3-From Migrant to Creative Entrepreneur Manual• 4-Serious game to foster entrepreneurship spirit exploiting personal cultural background. The first step comprised a detailed skills gap analysis serving as the basis for the delivery of all outputs. Within IO2,3 courses and a training scheme were delivered addressing language, digital and entrepreneurial skills that are required in the creative sector. Moreover,a hands-on manual was prepared within IO3 including useful information about the administrative rules that currently occur in each partner country.Finally, a Serious Game was developed for IO4 serving as an assessment tool with motivational workflows.The results of IO2, IO3 and IO4 are hosted in a Learning Motivational Environment that supports the learning process providing autonomy to the users. •Impact:The impact of the project was related to the main objectives:1.The social inclusion of new migrants in order to increase their contribution to grow creates new job opportunities in Europe in the near future.2.Raising awareness about the benefits of social inclusion aimed also in leveraging of various stakeholders involved. In this respect, the project also aimed to have an impact in the promotion and diffusion of the impact investing. 3.At a local level, the project provided participants with the tools and techniques needed to improve the processes of running and developing their own business.4. At a national level, the increased inclusion of migrants in the economy is materialized into a generalized economic growth and a diminution of social poverty. 5.At a European and International level, the project aimed in influencing policies and helping in shaping the future of social inclusion as long as partners continue to learn from each other.•Long-term benefits:The project activities and the INCREA Academy that was created for sustainability purposes contributed in the development of synergies of stakeholders that work on the field of migration within Europe.In addition, the project methodology can be used in the future as the foundation for relevant studies in other areas,such as the financial management skills of migrants. •Acronyms identification:- E#: Multiplier Event- TPM: Transnational Project Meeting- LTTA: Learning, Teaching and Training Activity- QM: Quality Manager - QPR: Quality Progress Report - QMP: Quality Management Plan- QAC: Quality Assurance Committee- IEQ: Internal Evaluation Questionnaire- IPR: Intellectual Property Rights - KPI: Key Performance Indicator - IO: Intellectual Output - VET: Vocational Education Training