QUALED is a non-profit organization working in the field of adult education. Our team focuses in particular on the development, adaptation and innovation of creative and innovative educational products, methods and seminars for adults. Since 2008, QUALED has been involved as didactic expert in many educational projects delivering didactic and methodological expertise in the form of pedagogical counselling, couching, presentations and seminars. QUALED members and staff are are experts with professional background in psychology and coaching, didactics and methodology of teaching, counselling and new media. In summer 2014, the board of QUALED has adopted a strategic document that contains a strategic orientation of our organisation for the coming years. The following topics are being considered as most relevant for our staff qualification: • Increased capacity to act at EU and at international level • Improve technical skills and broader understanding of practices, policies and systems in the field of adult education at the European level • Improved quality of working with adult learners • Innovative and improved care of the target groups • Deeper understanding of social, linguistic and cultural diversity • Increased ability to deal with the needs of people with special needs As a consequence, we developed the „QUALED Staff Qualification Plan“ that foresees, for a two years‘ period between 2014 and 2016, education and training measures for its management personnel and staff in the following fields: • Quality assurance and quality control, with particular emphasis on working with disadvantaged learners and in social services • Increase the competences of disadvantaged adult learners • Working with older learners • Working with young people with difficulties (ADD, ADHD...) • Change making education: Recognition of self-power to face the risk-society • Aspects of non-formal education: basic skills, creative and artistic activities • Intercultural learning • Migrants’ learning QUALED has set up a provisional plan together with several European adult education and/or VET providers that cover the areas of QUALED’s qualification needs. Although at these organisations, course programmes for 2014/15 and beyond are not yet available, an analysis of their previous programmes and/or bilateral negotiations have provided sufficient evidence that they can cover the main areas for improvement skills, knowledge and competences that are mentioned above. Alltogether, 21 staff mobilities will be organised. They concern 10 individual person who will attend 9 different courses and trainings. The QUALED Staff Qualification Project will be communicated to the educational and scientific community through a variety of measures: • through the QUALED homepage (www.qualed.net) • through leaflets and other written communication that will be sent to stakeholders or distributed at conferences, exhibitions etc. • through presentation of the qualification outcomes at relevant forums, e.g. at events organised by the National Agency • through a publication that resume the most relevant information from the final report to the National Agency. This output will also be available for download at our website. The evaluation will be an ongoing process during the entire project period. Self-evaluation by all learners (trainers, managers) is at the heart of constructivist methods. All learners will be asked to • identify possible targets and success criteria before the commencement of work • monitor what happened by keeping diaries/records • check their progress against the targets, and • evaluate the effectiveness of what happened. We will develop checklists and profiles that support this process. Every six months, QUALED will organise evaluation meetings where all mobilities that have been executed in that period will be evaluated . Special attention will be paid to the consistency of the project objectives, and to the performance of training activities. At the end of the project, the medium and long-term impact of the QUALED Staff Qualification Plan will be assessed by interviews with members of the board and, if relevant, also with external experts and stakeholders. This final evaluation will assess the impact on the project’s objectives and on trainers and staff: It is expected that the newly acquired competences will strengthen the position of QUALED at two levels: • The scope of adult education courses and seminars will be widened, especially through more competences in non-formal education and competences in working with disadvantaged persons • QUALED will be become stronger to serve in practice European cooperation: more staff will be able to participate in European projects; we will develop and organize transnational training courses.