Adult learning is at the heart of the EU’s lifelong learning policies. It’s considered essential that adults continue learning throughout their lives, and keep developing both personally and professionally, in order to remain competitive on the labour market and acquire new skills that are required in an increasingly digitalised world.
In the European Agenda for Adult Learning the European Council highlights the need increase the participation of adults in formal, non formal and informal learning whether to acquire work skills, for personal developme- nt and fulfilment, or for active citizenship. The priorities set out in the agenda relate to, among other things: increasing the supply and demand for high quality provision, ensuring effective outreach guidance and motivation strategies to reach and assist adult learners, and offering flexible learning opportunities, especially via ICT tools.
In addition to this, the Council of the EU set out some recommendations on the creation of Upskilling Pathways, in order to create new and enhanced opportunities for adults. In consideration of the need for adults, in today’s society, to have a wide range of skills, knowledge and competences, and the increased requirements that new job openings demand, the council recommends education providers to offer adults with low level of skills, knowledge and competences with appropriate pathways which include skills assessment, a provision of tailored and flexible learning, continuous guidance and support, and validation of acquired skills.
It is in in this context that our project Ipath2UpSkilling was born, with the main idea to create an innovative online platform and learning tools and to empower adult educators to use it to the benefit of low- skilled/qualified adults. The purpose of this platform is to boost tailor-made upskilling pathways according to adult learners’ needs, reducing the disparities in accessing and engaging with formal, non-formal and informal education and to overcome skills mismatches.
The iPath2UpSkilling Platform will be a place where adult learners from different countries will be able to access training content related to transversal skills and skills not taught in school, which are highly requested in today’s job market, and to test their understanding of the subjects. They will also be able to get in touch with professional counselling, and life and career coaches, which will be able to help them assess their need and device a suitable learning pathway. Finally, they will have access to an interactive map, showing the closest adult learning providers in their area/region.
The project partners strongly believe in the need for this project and are confident that by putting together the experience and expertise of each individual partner, the project will reach its goal to provide innovative tools to adult educators and to contribute to the upskilling of low skilled/low qualified adults who will become more competitive in the labour market.
