More about project

The objectives of the Adult Competences Development NAP include:

  • developing expert groundwork, an educational programme and innovative resources, approaches and instruments that will contribute to improved recognisability, improved adaptation to adult needs and higher quality of implementation of educational programmes for the acquisition of basic competences of those with lower education and qualifications, whereby a special emphasis is to be placed on the employed and those older than 45 years of age; and
  • preparing expert groundwork for the inclusion of self-evaluation of adult education into the national quality reference framework and
  • developing a training programme, ICT tools and new learning materials that represent an upgrade of the achievements to date in the introduction of self-evaluation into adult education.

The project encompasses four activities that are further broken down into individual tasks. Activities deal with their own respective content but are interconnected in order to facilitate the attainment of project objectives, i.e.:

Activity No. 1: Development of professional resources and programmes as well as approaches in innovative learning environments
The aim of the activity is to develop and promote innovative learning environments and modern resources for improved knowledge about basic abilities. As part of this activity, we supplement the comprehensive concept of 8 basic competences for the remaining areas of ability (communication in a foreign language, digital abilities, social and civic capabilities, cultural awareness and expression) and focus them specifically on target groups of adults older than 45 years of age who are less qualified and educated. We perform four tasks within the scope of this activity.

The first task encompasses the development and issue of basic ability descriptors: digital literacy (ICT), communication in foreign languages, social and civic capabilities, and cultural awareness and expression.

The second task envisages the production of educational films about basic abilities.

The third task encompasses the development of a programme for adult digital literacy as an upgrade of the existing publicly recognised ACL programme (Adult Computer Literacy).

The fourth task encompasses the translation and adaptation of the instrument for individual online testing of adult abilities.

Activity No. 2: Development of new approaches and professional support to providers
The aim of the activity is to develop new approaches in the promotion of basic abilities in highly diverse environments. In doing so, we will start from the analysis of needs in the implementation of programmes for the development of abilities, which is why we will conduct several in-class observations in the field. Two groups of practitioner teachers will be performing the activity and will apply the action research method to study the various options for the implementation of selected basic abilities. An important building block within the scope of this task is the mobility of educators’ educators because innovation in the area of practice cannot be expected to occur without continuous monitoring of the trends and innovations abroad. Continuous learning from others’ experience is especially important as the latest research data confirm that there is a proportionally very large group of educationally less active adults in Slovenia whom we still “do not know how to” reach and include in education. As part of the Adult Literacy Development 2011–2014 project, we began developing special approaches for the application of various ICT tools (e.g. educational films, online tools) in order to encourage more flexible forms of learning. Our aim with this project is to continue providing professional support to expert associates in the promotion of basic abilities and animation of target groups as well as in the implementation of programmes that place a special emphasis on the use of ICT tools. This is why this task also includes the study of innovative and effective forms of access to vulnerable groups and the testing of new forms of promoting the abilities for various addressees. We perform five tasks within the scope of this activity.

The first task comprises the analysis of the needs in the implementation of programmes for the development of abilities and will be conducted over the course of several years. It will involve the performance of in-class observations of the implementation of programmes for the development of abilities.

The second task encompasses the development of strategies for accessing the most vulnerable groups. This task aims to develop new approaches for the promotion and professional support for the work in innovative learning environments.

The third task involves the mobility of educators’ educators and is also a multi-year task that contributes to the implementation of the task entitled implementation of new forms of promotion and cooperation with various partners.

The fourth task includes the study of effective ‘outreach’ approaches for reaching the educationally less active adults.

The fifth task comprises the coordination and administrative-financial project management that is conducted throughout the duration of the project up to and including March 2022.

Activity No. 3: Implementation of new forms of promotion addressing various segments of the public in cooperation with providers
The main aim of the activity is to develop the promotion of Slovenian achievements in the area of development of basic abilities of vulnerable groups.

An important objective that promotional activities strive to achieve is access to information by educationally less active groups as well as other stakeholders and the interested public. The second important objective of this activity is to broaden the general knowledge about the basic abilities in using modern promotional methods and tools.

Using the set of developed resources for all 8 ability domains, it will be possible to direct the attention of the project to the development of special strategies for the promotion of education aimed at the improvement of abilities focused on selected vulnerable target groups and the building of awareness about the importance of these abilities for work, personal development and life. We will search for other partners and stakeholders in local environments to take part in the promotion. This will truly generate value added in the area of promotion as it is a well-known fact that it is impossible to use ordinary methods and channels to address and animate the less educated adults who do not wish to expose themselves because of their lower level of abilities or who want to cover up these deficiencies. We perform two tasks within the scope of the third activity.

The first task comprises the preparation of professional resources and activities for professional promotion about the level of skills in Slovenia.

The second task encompasses the implementation of new forms of promotion and cooperation with providers.

Activity No. 4: Systematic inclusion and further development of self-evaluation in adult education
As part of this activity, we work on designing expert groundwork and solutions to include self-evaluation in adult education into the national reference framework for quality assessment and assurance. We provide consulting and professional support to educational organisations in the implementation of the national reference framework and upgrading of self-evaluation processes. We will perform four tasks within the scope of this activity.

The first task encompasses cooperation in the development of a reference framework for the assessment and assurance of quality in education and the provisions of professional support and consulting to provider organisations.

The second task encompasses the preparation of professional study resources, i.e. in the area of measurement of the results and benefits of educational work, activities and projects at educational organisations for adults.

As part of the third task, we will develop training programmes for the establishment and upgrading of an internal quality system in an organisation for adult education.

The fourth task comprises the development of an online ICT collection (repository) of good practices regarding self-evaluation in an educational organisation.

The NAP project rounds off the comprehensive approach to the development of innovative tools and programmes geared towards the knowledge and application of basic abilities for vulnerable population groups (more results from the Adult Literacy Development 2011–2014 project) which started within the scope of the Adult Literacy Development 2011–2014 project. The development of the area of literacy and abilities of vulnerable groups requires outstanding familiarity with the conditions in the field, which was certainly demonstrated by the project entitled Evaluation of Publicly Recognised Programmes for Literacy Development 2009–2011 (more results of the Evaluation of Publicly Recognised Programmes project – in Slovenian language).

The expert groundwork produced within the scope of the project entitled Measurement of the Effectiveness of the Education and Training System in Improving the Qualifications of Adult Educators 2013–2015 has allowed us to reach this goal as the groundwork is corroborated by empirical data and international comparative analyses on the competences of the Slovenian population aged 16 to 65 years of age (more results of the PIAAC project). This expert groundwork is a crucial baseline for the implementation of activities planned for the achievement of the objectives of this project.

By organising professional and promotional events, we will be providing professional support to providers and other stakeholders in the development of basic abilities of adults whereby we will ensure the continuous and appropriate application of project results. We will empower various stakeholders for testing out the new approaches in order to increase the number of promotional activities for the development of skills at the national level. There are also plans for the training of educators who train vulnerable adults to respond to the demand on the labour market and simultaneously encourage the latter to develop competences.

The end goal is to train vulnerable adults to respond to the demand on the labour market and to equip them sufficiently with competences required for job creation.

The project results achieved are presented here.

Project details

Project manager at the ACS (Slovenian Institute of Adult Education): Estera Možina, MA (T: 01 5842 591; E: ester.mozina@acs.si)
Expert project associates for the area of basic competences: Petra Javrh, PhD, Darija Premk, Alja Verdenik, Monika Zalokar
Expert associates for the area of quality: Tanja Možina, PhD, Jasmina Orešnik Cunja, Petra Šmalcelj, Milena Zorić Frantar
Project associate for administration and finance: Tjaša Gulje
Contract custodian at the Ministry of Education, Science and Sport: Marko Šiška, MSc
Project value: EUR 833,375.00; EU share – 80%, national share – 20%.
Project implementation period: 1 April 2016 – 31 March 2022