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Adults Acquiring Digital Skills
Start date: Sep 1, 2015, End date: Nov 30, 2017 PROJECT  FINISHED 

In Digi4Adults, Adults Acquiring Digital Skills (Erasmus+ K2), there are five adult learning organisations in the partnership, two of which provide vocational adult education i.e. Tampere Adult Education Centre (Finland) and BFI Wien, Vocational Training Institute Vienna (Austria) and three of which basic and secondary adult education i.e. VUC Storstrøm (Denmark), Sundsvalls Kommun Adult Education (Sweden) and CEPA San Bartolome de Tirajana (Spain). The objective of Digi4Adults (Adults Acquiring Digital Skills) is to create an international on-going collaborative grassroots approach for trainers in adult learning in developing and sharing methods of teaching different aspects of digital competence to adult learners in need of such competence to improve their skills for life and their employability. The aim is to enhance the digital competence of trainers and their ability to apply methods of teaching digital competence. The project collects and develops methods adapted to adult learning which allow the development of various aspects of digital skills, and which are suitable for being embedded in most types of adult education. The approach integrates digital skills in learning the actual learning content and has similarities to content and language integrated learning, (CLIL), which in our case would turn to Content and Digital Competence Integrated Learning, CDCIL. In addition, the project pays attention to the organisational level knowledge management issues by adopting a model of a peer support in taking on new skills. The novelty of Digi4Adults is to adopt a wider (not focusing only on technical skills) and context and needs driven. in a way more functional, definition of digital competence which emphasizes its’ transversal nature. This approach brings the needs of the trainers to the light as a starting point. Generally, the focus and training for enhancing trainers digital competences is less transversal and needs focused. Digi4Adults in innovative in taking a grassroots approach in supporting the acqusition and develpment of digital skills together with peer teachers/trainers in other partner countries. Trainers work in transnational peer pairs using English not necessarily part of their local work routines as a trainer in adult learning. The need for enhancing digital competence is noted e.g. in the European Commision’s Open Up Education Initiative (2013) which points out that 70% of teachers wish to get more training in developing their ICT-skills and that there are not yet enough teaching content and applications in differrent topics in different European languages. Teachers and trainers are the primary target group of Digi4Adults. As teachers gain more confidence and competence, adult learners benefit in acquiring skills required in increasingly more digital working life. Trainers in adult learning organisations can play a key role in helping to meet the needs of the 64% of disadvantaged people i.e. aged 55+, low educated, unemployed or inactive who have insufficient level of digital skills. They give training in basics skills not only for inclusion in society but also to improve the employability of adults. Digi4Adults addresses the lack of collaborative methods on learning digital skills, which are predominantly conveyed in a manner of conventional staff training. In addition, the trainers are encouraged to develop content and digital competence integrated learning methods in collaboration with the adult learners, hence supporting the teacher's role shift from a leader to a facilitator where applicable. As the main output, the project produces the Digi4Adults Caselet Track, an ongoing blog-based and peer-supported collection of caselets (mini-cases) including methods for content and digital competence integrated learning, available for all interested trainers in all project languages. The blog is linked to European open educational resources on adult learnings (Open Education Europa and EPALE). A Digi4Adults Training Scheme and Digi4Adults Model for Digital Competence Development (as chains of peer trainers) with focus on systematic organisational competence development are also available through the blog. The Digi4Adults project activities towards the implementation of the intellectual outputs are designed so as to integrate the impact on digital competence development at various levels (local, regional, European), on various target groups and audiences throughout the project implementation not only at the final stage of the project. The impact is aimed at becoming sustainable by implementing some activities several times in order to create continuity, on the one hand and, to increase familiarity, on the other hand. Sustainability is built in the project design and implementation towards the completion of outputs.
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