Author :
Slovenian Adult Education Centre is the author of the educational programme Training for Life Skills Bridge to Education. Besides the adult education centres which were responsible for implementing the training there were also Ministry for Education and S
Duration :
Training for Life Skills Bridge to Education lasts 120 hours. Implementation of the training was a part of larger project implemented between 2005-2010
Target group of learners:
Target group are young unemployed people (18 – 35 years old) who dropped out the secondary school. Some of them had an intention to finish the secondary school some of them were not motivated to continue with the secondary school.
Institutions involved :
Slovenian Adult Education Centre, Ministry for Education, Slovenian Unemployment Centre and adult education centres across Slovenia (in our case UPI – ljudska univerza Žalec, mentor in the training Biserka Neuholt Hlastec).
Goals / Objectives :
The goal of the training was to motivate young people to return to the secondary school and to finish it. The goal of the training was also to strengthen their basic knowledge and skills (learn to learn competence, literacy skills, computer competencies, social skills…). With the training, we wanted to empower young people to become more independent, involved in the society, motivated to do something for their own future.
Structure / Contents :
Knowledge standards of the Training for Life Skills Bridge to Education cover four areas:
- basic skills,
- social skills,
- lifelong learning,
- active citizenship.
Knowledge standards are divided into
- the general standards of knowledge that they represent a standard that should be mastered by every adult who has been involved in the program;
- literacy and special standards of knowledge that determine the standard of those the basic knowledge and skills to be provided in addition to general standards dominated by adults who engage in further formal professional training education.
Specific content of the training: communication skills, reading and writing skills, calculating skills, use of information technology, social skills, lifelong learning skills, active citizenship.
Methods / Animation :
The crucial part of the training was motivation of the target group to participate in the training. This was very hard task since most of young people believed it is pointless to continue with the education. We therefore changed our motivational approaches frequently and the one with the most response was when we brought one of young person who finished the training to represent the other young ones the benefits of the training.
In the training we used most nonformal learning methods such as project learning, community learning, learning I groups, individual hours, group voluntary work as learning process… We needed to be very innovative when choosing learning methods and we had to know our participants very well.
Evaluation / Feedback :
Since the in the training, we were focused on individuals the process of evaluation was an ongoing process which lasted from the beginning until the end of the training. The participants also completed the evaluation through which they evaluated the program itself, mentors, consultants with whom they have worked hard and with possible suggestions for improvement.
After 120 hours most of the participants continued with formal education (for instance secondary school) at UPI Žalec or at other adult education centres. Many of participants finished the secondary school, few of them finished the faculty. For me as a mentor in the training the most important feedback was the information that Slovenian school system is not suitable for all young people, many of them need a different approach, different learning methods, more time. And the Training for Life Skills Bridge to Education was the training that enabled all of that and had therefore very good results.
Certified by / Not certified :
Participants in all programs have received a certificate of completion of the program with strengthened competences.
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