Geletterdheid+
Start date: Oct 1, 2014,
End date: Sep 30, 2015
PROJECT
FINISHED
Literacy +
Vocvo ( Flemish Support Centre for Adult Education) would like to sharpen its profile as the benchmark organisation for literacy training. This project aims at improving the competences and skills of our staff in this field.
Goal: To increase understanding of and to start formulating answers to the learning issues below.
Our 10 specific learning questions:
Which policy view do European countries have concerning education in prison?
How can we develop a digital newspaper for low literate people?
How can we reach more low literate people with books?
What should be taken into account if we want to develop curricula for low literates?
How can we match professional qualifications and curricula for low literates?
What is the best way to deal with low literacy on the work floor?
Which views and mindsets are there in European countries concerning literacy?
How is policy concerning literacy put into practice in other European countries?
How can we improve the flow through of low literates to further education and to work?
How can we develop an expert database?
Our organisation sent 7 of our staff abroad to learn on a European level about issues on which, in Flanders, we have difficulty finding answers.
We deliberately chose for staff members from different teams and for a mix of junior and senior members in order to embed international learning into the entire organisation.Each staff member could submit his candidacy in his own team.
Finally team Wablieft ( they edit a newspaper for low literate people) sent one person, the pedagogical guidance team sent 2 team members, the ?Literacy Toolbox? project (this is a project on literacy at work) leader went , and we sent the coordinator of the prison education team and the coordinator of the Flemish Strategic Literacy Plan..
Learning took place in many different ways: job shadowing, exchange visits, interviews, network events. conferences...: a mix of learning methods, depending on the needs of the learner and the learning context.
The acquired knowledge, skills and insights were spread throughout the teams and the organisation. Among others, they are used in the further development of an online newspaper for low literates, in the support of our centres for basic education and centres for adult education and in our support of companies dealing with literacy problems.
Based on our experiences we also developed a guidebook for our centres in order to help them and support them to take part in KA1-projects. This guidebook we also shared with other organisations on an Epos meeting.
Our participants shared their experiences and insights through the Epos newsletter and the Epale website.
Acquired knowledge, skills and insights are furthermore used in network meetings with our partner organisations and in policy meetings on adult education and literacy, e.g. on curriculum development, on the execution of the Flemish Literacy Plan, on education in prison and on literacy at work.
Finally, the past mobilities have awoken a need for more international learning with all participants. In the long run this certainly is a benefit for our learning and development policy.