PRALINE aims at developing innovative and sustainable initiatives to support Adult Learning providers, specifically those of the non-formal domain, in approaching Quality Assurance in their organization and training provision. Indeed Quality culture, intended as aware focus on learning outcomes, sector professionals’ training, resources, models of management, organizational patterns, is a priority in the EU Agenda for AL aimed at ensuring the “possibilities for adults to access high-quality learning opportunities, regardless of gender and their personal and family circumstances”.
Partners have developed a twofold strategy to contribute to the improvement of Quality in Formal, Non-Formal and Informal Adult learning provision.
On one side, with the objective of widening adults’ participation to educational opportunities, PRALINE will work to raise awareness about the positive impact of education in terms of personal and professional development, as well as social integration. Indeed, through the Warming-up Strategy, a set of activities and initiatives will be implemented in each involved country targeting at the same time current learners, educational professionals and adults at large as potential learners.
On the other, partners will work at the adaptation of the European Peer Review methodology for the Adult Learning sector. In their experience, it represents an effective Quality Assurance methodology, based on a bottom-up approach and able to involve in Quality Culture also not-structured AL providers, often unfamiliar with other forms of external evaluation.
PRALINE 9-partners multi-actor Consortium from IT, LT, AT, PT, MT, HU and FR will contribute to turn quality in Formal and Non-formal AL providers into practice by implementing the following activities:
- Design of the “Warming-up strategy for developing a quality culture”, based on a in-depth desk analysis of needs and challenges of the Adult Learning Sector, also integrated by context surveys and learners needs analysis
- Carrying out of the Warming-up Strategy, throughout the whole project development and by the means of events, marketing campaigns, quality prize, informative workshops, initiation to Peer Review, etc..
- Adaptation of the Peer Review Methodology for the AL sectors, by the revision of the TOOL-BOX (Quality Areas and indicators) and the Manual
- Transnational training for trainers, targeting staff of the partners’ organizations who need to acquire specific competences on the adapted methodology as well as on how to transfer it to other AL providers
- Training for Peers at national level as a way to involve and motivate further AL providers in implementing PR in their organizations
- Piloting of the Adapted Peer Review methodology in at least 15 Formal & Non formal AL providers in IT, PT, LT, MT and FR
- Review and finalization of the adapted Peer Review Methodology through qualitative analysis and with the involvement of AL providers, learners, stakeholder and policy makers
- Production of Recommendations for developing a quality culture and implementing peer review in formal and non-formal adult learning sector
- Dissemination/exploitation of the results.
The process of transferring and adaptation of the PR methodology, by producing Quality Areas and indicators adequate to AL sector, represents an innovative contribution to the European discussion on quality in adult learning: it will generate a common framework for QA in AL, coherent with the EQAVET indicators and applicable beyond PR for the assessment of adult learning processes and outcomes.
Last but not least PRALINE promotes an active involvement of Adult learners in two key activities: the Warming-up Strategy and the review and finalization as partners strongly believe that through a participatory process, on one side the developed tools will be more responsive to the sector needs and, on the other, learners will become promoters of a quality provision in Formal & Non-formal Learning, able to impact on them in terms of up-skilling competences and increase participation rate (EU priorities set for the Adult Education).
More information available in the project website: http://www.praline-project.eu/.