Best Trane

BEST TRANE - BEST practices for TRaining in Adults Non-formal Education

Project Number: 2020-1-FR01-KA202-079751

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Welcome to the BEST TRANE project. What will BEST TRANE achieve? BEST TRANE provides best practices to trainers in order to prepare them to teach in intergenerational environments and to motivate older learners to take part in non-formal education activities.

About the Project

The participation in non-formal education of older people aged 55+ is still very weak in Europe. The access to education of unemployed seniors is even more limited: in 2012 only 50 % of people aged 50+ attended educational courses for professional or personal reasons.

According to Eurostat data, in 2016 just over 45 % of adults aged 45–64 participated in some form of education or training and 80% of them were job-related learning activities. Non- formal education centres are traditionally dedicated to younger people and leave few spaces to engage older learners. There are no main provisions and dispositions from the national governments to tackle this issue. As a consequence, educators working in non-formal education centres often lack specific skills to engage and teach older learners.

This project addresses this gap by offering innovative training models to adult educators in non-formal centres, through the collection of information, examples of existing good practices and different views on working with older people and involving them in non-formal education.

About the Partners

BEST TRANE is funded with the support of the Erasmus+ Programme. The BEST TRANE project commenced in October 2020 and will run until April 2022. BEST TRANE is currently being delivered by a team of five organisations from France, Cyprus, Italy, Ireland and the United Kingdom.

Solution

France

The objective of Solution: Solidarity & Inclusion is to boost social inclusion among younger adults by proposing several kinds of activities allowing to foster mutual acceptance, stimulate human interests by offering cross-cutting activities, design educational programs to open minds and strengthen fair dynamics between generations.

Solution’s mission is to propose to these people non-formal education activities bringing together different publics and stimulating, this way, intercultural and intergenerational dialogue while promoting the acquisition of soft and hard skills useful for professional and social purposes.

By participating in the BEST TRANE project, Solution aims at once at sharing with the consortium its know-how in the organization of intergeneration activities and at acquiring new knowledge in the field of non-formal education for older people thanks to the exchange of best practices among European organizations expert in this field.

The Rural Hub

Ireland

The Rural Hub was set up as an association by a group of education, training and rural development professionals as a response to the impact of the economic crisis on small rural villages and towns in Ireland. Since it was first established in 2012, The Rural Hub has been providing a wide range of training and capacity development programmes to local residents and community groups. We specialise in the area of community development and have developed a number of local initiatives to support the social inclusion of disadvantaged rural youth, migrant communities and isolated older residents. We work with these groups, using creative approaches and the testing of digital media resources to support greater social cohesion among local communities in County Cavan. We have a developed network of county-wide stakeholders who support our work on a thematic basis.

Società Cooperativa Sociale Fuori dal Sommerso

Italy

Fuori dal Sommerso is a not for profit organisation founded in Mesagne (in Puglia, South of Italy) in 2001; it is active in the field of adults, active aging, social and job integration of vulnerable target groups (in particular person with disability).

SOMMERSO offers supportive services help seniors meet their daily living needs at home, which greatly impacts their health and ability to remain living independently. With community-based assistance, seniors can thrive at home where they are happiest. We are the safety net.

SOMMERSO offers a vital support system for vulnerable elderly with limited options who would otherwise not have access to or be able to afford services.

Eurospeak

UK

Eurospeak Language Schools Ltd. is a private English language school which is accredited by the British Council and the Independent Schools Inspectorate (ISI). We are also UKVI licensed under Tier 2 General and Tier 4 General of the points-based system. Established in 1991, we are an accredited Cambridge English exam centre and a Trinity College London teacher training centre. We offer a variety of language and vocational training courses ranging from Elementary to advanced level English as well as IELTS test preparation. We have two locations: Reading, Berkshire and Southampton, Hampshire.

What the BEST TRANE project will provide to Eurospeak is strengthening our knowledge about non-formal training for older people and exchanging best practices with the partnership. This will allow us to enhance our capacities to support the target groups and increase our all around expertise on the topic.

Center for Social Innovation

Cyprus

Center for Social Innovation (CSI) is a Research and Development organization, which focuses on fostering social innovation that can bring about a positive change to local, national, regional, and global contexts. CSI is working closely to address social, economic, and cultural challenges with governments, local administrative agencies, non-for-profit agencies, commercial entities, and educational institutions.

We identify and address systemic challenges through evidence-based research, state of the art investigation of global, national, regional, and local solutions, and we develop solutions by taking into consideration the local ecosystem and cultural dynamics. We strive to meet the stakeholders; needs and implement those solutions as we keep constant vigilance to ensure continuous feedback and adjustments. The feedback mechanisms and processes we employ allow us certainty in keeping in touch with our stakeholders and continually updating our social propositions.

Our areas of expertise are in the fields of social justice, labour market, education and e-learning, social entrepreneurship, project management, project evaluation services, product validation, and training.

Project Results

To achieve our objectives, BEST TRANE provides adult educators with access to a Trainers’ Manual. This Manual collects best practices about working with senior adult learners, involving senior learners in non-formal education centres, presenting innovative interactive activities both for seniors and young people and encouraging intergenerational dynamics in non-formal education classes. The research and studies that will be collected to inform the development of the Manual will follow a specific methodology, that will be planned and delivered over a series of phases:

Phase 1

Each partner will first carry out research related to their countries and local realities about the situation of non-formal education, its providers, the training programmes for trainers and intergenerational dynamics in non-formal education centres in their countries. The findings from this research phase are presented to all partners at the first partner meeting and summarised for inclusion in the manual.

Phase 2

In this phase, project partners research the low participation rates of senior adult learners in non-formal education activities in their countries. As part of this research phase, partners also study the methodologies used to motivate older people to participate in non-formal classes. The consortium then jointly analyse these methodologies, and how they are applied in each country, and the summary forms the next section of the Manual.

Phase 3

PHASE 3 In this phase, partner organisation conduct further research to identify best practice examples of exercises and activities that can attract senior adult learners to non-formal learning, and assess how to apply them in a creative and collaborative manner to intergenerational classes. These results are also included in the Manual.

Phase 4

On the basis of the analyses carried out and shared between the partners in previous months, a first draft of the Trainers’ Manual is developed during this phase. All partners provide the results of their research to Solution who are responsible for drafting the Manual. Solution then merge all the contents of the study in the draft version of the Trainers’ Manual. The content of this first draft is tested with a group of adult educators who will attend a transnational training event in Ireland.

Phase 5

After the training in Ireland, feedback from participants is collected and analysed, and their suggestions are incorporated into the final version of the Trainer Manual. The final version of the Manual is to be presented at the Final meeting and the Final Conference of the project.

News

Here you will find all of the newsletters and press releases for the project!

Newsletter 1

Newsletter 2

Newsletter 3

Newsletter 4

The European Commission’s support for the production of this publication does not constitute an endorsement of the contents, which reflect the views only of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.