The bulletin e-Novičke Winter 2011 covers relevant achievements and events in Slovenian adult education as well as internationally.

We wish you pleasant reading!

Last October, the Regional and Study Library in Murska Sobota hosted a professional meeting Free Help and Support for Residents of the Pomurje Region. Tanja Vilič Klenovšek (SIAE), Jože Turkl (Association of Free Trade Unions of Slovenia) and Alojz Sraka (Murska Sobota Guidance Centre) presented the idea of gathering together in a single place and presenting organisations that offer free help in Pomurje. This would help residents of the region to resolve everyday pressures.

Under this initiative, the Murska Sobota Guidance Centre joined up with the European Commissions information point Europe Direct Murska Sobota. We agreed with the head of the Information Point, Dejan Bogdan, to a joint project establishing a special website bringing together all such information, of great importance to residents of the region. More than six months after the initial meeting (8 July 2011), we launched the free help and support website: http://www.po-pomoc.si (in Slovenian language).

In the autumn, as part of the Pomurje Lifelong Learning Centre project, we prepared a brochure, Free Help and Support, presenting information support for adult guidance. The website and brochure are a welcome aid to information and guidance work, as they bring together in a single place various providers and information on their services and contact information. It is important for everyone involved that we establish ties, get to know one another, and offer quality information to our clients.

A national conference, Reading Literacy in Slovenia and Europe, was held in the Brdo pri Kranju Conference Centre on 25 and 26 October 2011.

It was aimed at teachers and other professional staff in schools, kindergartens and educational institutions, teacher trainers, and educational counsellors.

The purpose of the two-day conference – with international participation – was to identify the current state and trends in the area of reading literacy in Slovenia and Europe, and to acquaint participants with factors affecting such trends. Delegates learnt about examples of various activities that can help improve reading literacy, the basic components of the national strategy to improve and monitor literacy levels, and also considered specific measures on the national, regional, school and subject levels.

The programme took the form of plenary talks, presentations in themed groups and workshops. It brought together practitioners and researchers active in the area of language development and reading literacy. Of the plenary speakers, I would single out Dr Astrid Roe of the University of Oslo, who described the Norwegian recipe for improving reading literacy.

More information is available on the National Education Institute website (in Slovenian language).

SGIB members met for the second time on 10 and 11 October 2011, again in Brussels. The meeting was intended for a presentation of innovations in our cooperation with the European Commission. Recommendations included combining forces to establish a strong and responsive centre for information and knowledge on education and training. This will require improved methods of data acquisition, and particular attention on data on national education systems.

European Commission representatives outlined the draft Joint Interim Report 2011, which will be released in February 2012 and will contain quite a number of findings relevant to adult education. We also discussed the future of the Progress Report, which will replace the shorter and more transparent Education and Training Monitor. Members approved the changes, while also recognising our own greater role in the preparation of this document, which will be first published in autumn 2012.
 

October 2011 sees the tenth anniversary of the first pilot implementation of the Offering Quality Education to Adults (OQEA) self-evaluation model in adult education practice. The first four educational organisations to break new ground in 2001 by introducing the OQEA self-evaluation model into their own work were the Post, Economics and Telecommunications School Centre Ljubljana, the Rudolf Maister School Centre Kamnik, Ljubljana Secondary Commerce School and the Secondary Food Industry School Ljubljana (today the Ljubljana Biotechnology Education Centre). Since then, many educational organisations have joined the OQEA project. We have trained six “OQEA generations” of educational organisations and one consortium. A total of 63 educational organisations have participated in the training. Every year, the project has been financially supported by the Ministry of Education and Sport, while in recent years the European Social Fund has also provided funding.

After ten years, the OQEA project is not finishing – early next year, we will begin training the next group, OQEA “generation 7”. We will continue to ensure that educational organisations in the OQEA network are able to use ICT support for self-evaluation. Next year we will provide online access to aids developed so far in the project, and we will also prepare descriptions of numerous examples of good practice.

The Slovenian Institute for Adult Education was invited to participate in testing instruments for recording and assessing the competences of adult educators obtained through formal or informal paths – Validpack. Testing the instruments, which will involve twelve European countries, is part of the new project Capitalizing on Validpack: going Europe wide – CAPIVAL, which among other things aims to contribute through instruments to the development of adult competences and enable their comparison in Europe.

Validpack instrument is part of the Validation of informal and non-formal psycho-pedagogical competencies of adult educators – VINEPAC project. Its main purpose was to create a series of instruments to assess the competences of adult educators. Assessment of the competences of adult educators on a European level is a contribution to the professionalisation of adult educators in Europe and to quality management of the adult education sector in Europe.

The Validpack instrument is intended to assess teachers’ competences and knowledge, regardless of how and where they were obtained (in formal, informal or non-formal education). It is divided into three steps: self-evaluation – intended for a review of the teacher’s education and competences, external evaluation – carried out by an evaluator with an education relevant to adult education, and relevant experience in the sector – and consolidation, the final step in the assessment process which combines the results of the two evaluations. The instrument is intended for all teachers with more than one year’s work experience in working with adults. The main aims of the instrument are to evaluate teachers’ competences, to collect documentation demonstrating experience and knowledge, to provide the basis for certification of the results gathered, to document the minimum competence standards, and to offer teachers equal opportunities within Europe.

You can read more about the project at: http://www.capival.eu/.

For the eleventh year running, Cankarjev Dom opened its doors between 27 and 29 September 2011 to intergenerational coexistence, creativity and the exchange of ideas through the Festival of the Third Age. In terms of both timing and content, the Festival was linked to 1 October, the International Day of Older Persons, and to 3 October, the International Day of the Child. The main theme of a three-day conference of this year's festival was dedicated to this year's European Year of Volunteering.

More: http://en.f3zo.si/about-the-festival/

On 23 September, Television Slovenia broadcast an episode of Midnight Club entitled Dropouts, overlooked people. Guests on the programme included two former dropouts, Sara Dragosavljević and David Pavlič (a SIAE award winner for promoting learning and knowledge in 2010), Anja Jamšek Furlan, a mentor in the Project Learning for Young Adults (PLYA) programme, and Natalija Žalec (SIAE), joint author of and head of mentor training in the PLYA programme.

Through the life stories of the two participants, viewers could learn about the PLYA programme from its beginnings twenty years ago to the present time. The experiences of the participants were particularly interesting and encouraging, having returned to and successfully completed formal education after a number of years. There are many similar stories among young people and adults. Sometimes people who fail or drop out of formal education without gaining qualifications view it as a lost or wasted opportunity. The programme’s clear message to viewers is that it is never too late, and it’s always a good time to learn.

The item, available on the TV Slovenia website, may give pause for thought to all those who for various reasons have left education and who don’t see a way forward, and to those who know of people with similar stories whom they could help. Finally, the programme also provides information about early dropout from school to those who were previously unaware of the phenomenon.

You can find more about the PLYA programme at http://www.acs.si/pum and watch the programme at http://www.rtvslo.si/polnocniklub/novica/76 (both in Slovenian language).
 

On 21 September 2011 the National Assembly of the Republic of Slovenia hosted a conference entitled Including Immigrants in Education: Slovenia Between Policy and Practice. The conference involved delegates from the European Commission office in Slovenia, the Ministry of the Interior, the Ministry of Education and Sport, the National Education Institute of the Republic of Slovenia, the Slovenian Migration Institute, the Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Koper Primary School, the Centre for Slovene as a Second/Foreign Language and the Peace Institute. The conference was organised by the British Council Slovenia to mark publication of the Migrant Integration Policy: Index III (MIPEX III) research, which in addition to the British Council also involved the Brussels-based Migration Policy Group.

The research, described by Dr Jan Nielsen, director of the Migration Policy Group, showed that integration of immigrants is still a very important theme, as it has not been successfully implemented in the European Union. It is clear from the results that integration is most effective in Sweden, which has the best integration policy, an area in which Slovenia does not achieve EU standards. Slovenia’s best results were for family unification, and our worst in immigrant education. The presentations showed that practice often overtakes policy in Slovenia, as we have many projects aimed at including immigrants in the education system and wider society, but the results of such projects have not yet been incorporated into national policy, and so the MIPEX III research did not find them. There is thus a shortfall in standards. The system is characteristically disordered. Conference participants stressed that immigrants cannot be viewed as a temporary phenomenon, but rather as a protracted one, as most of them want to remain in the receiving country and integrate into society.

More data on the MIPEX research can be found at http://www.mipex.eu.

On 15 September 2011, the Information Office of the European Parliament hosted both the closing conference and a press conference for the Promoting Lifelong Learning Nationally, Regionally and Locally project. The project organiser, Iksiv d.o.o., and partners thus finished a three-year project partly financed by the European Social Fund and the Ministry of Education and Sport.

Ana Hrvat and Matjaž Kušar, representatives of project providers, presented the project’s aims and results. The project entailed several dozen promotional activities, animation events and training for vulnerable groups and employers. You can learn more about the project at http://iksiv.si/. David Pavlič (photograph, right), 2010 SIAE award winner for promoting learning and knowledge, was also acknowledged in this project as an example of good practice. He spoke of his education experiences and the personality changes he underwent as a participant in Project Learning for Young Adults (PLYA). Dr. Slavica Černoša of the Ministry of Education and Sport presented strategic European Union documents: Europe 2020, smart, sustainable and inclusive growth strategy and the strategic framework for European cooperation in education and training (ET 2020).
After the official part, there was a discussion on the project and the state of learning and education in Slovenia.

The You Know, Teach Another conference was organised on 15 September 2011 by the Third Age University of Slovenia (U3A) and the S&T Slovenija, Informacijske rešitve in storitve d.d. company. The aim of the event was to present the Each One Teach One (EOTO) movement as an example of good practice for cooperation between nongovernmental organisations and the commercial sector in providing computer training to older adults, and to draw attention to the need for greater computer literacy for older people.

The conference was divided into four theme sections: 

• Initial presentation – Dr Ana Krajnc presented the theoretical foundations of the EOTO movement; 
• Presentation of the experiences of mentors and students (participants); 
• Round table entitled Let’s Give Knowledge – in the introduction, Marko Papič presented some of the results from the e-Competent Citizen of Slovenia Today research, which indicate that in terms of the use of information society services Slovenia is average for the 27 EU countries, and that there is a great difference in the use of such services among the retired and inactive (EU 40%, Slovenia 24%); Ema Perme continued by indicating that the Ministry of Education and Sport and the Ministry of Labour, Family and Social Affairs provide around €50 million for adult education each year. These funds are also used to finance computer literacy education for adults, including the elderly; Robert Trnovec emphasised that the decision to share its knowledge was a natural choice for S&T, since the company is successful and its actions make it responsible to wider society; 
• Presentation of donations to the network of nongovernmental organisations.

In mid-July, thanks to funding from the Ministry of Education and Sport and the European Social Fund, we upgraded the educational activities website of the Slovenian Institute for Adult Education. We renamed the site Further Training for Adult Educators: http://izobrazevanje.acs.si/ (in Slovenian language).

We improved the content of the site with two new subsites. We added the Web Catalogue of Programmes for Further Training for Adult Educators, which contains the full range of adult-education training and additional training programmes aimed at everyone wanting to learn about our services and basic information on individual training and additional training programmes, with enough information to guide their decisions.

The second new feature is the subsite on recognition of prior knowledge. Anyone intending to attend any of the training and additional training programmes at SIAE lasting more than 24 teaching hours can request recognition of prior knowledge. Individuals submit applications on the prescribed form, to which they attach relevant evidence. The SIAE procedure for recognising prior knowledge operates on the basis of assessment of the evidence submitted.

We also added Papers on SIAE educational activities to the website, containing articles on SIAE educational activities written by SIAE staff and other (external) authors and associates. The photo gallery shows photo impressions from our workshops and training as published in the Educational Events column.

The bulletin e-Novičke Spring 2011 covers relevant achievements and events in Slovenian adult education as well as internationally.

We wish you pleasant reading!

The Association of Austrian Adult Education Centres organised the third international Forum on the future of adult education in Vienna from 6-8 July, subtitled Alone or together? Networks and partnerships in adult education. This is a regular meeting of representatives of Austrian Adult Education Centres also attended by experts from fourteen other countries.

In an introductory plenary paper, Prof Dr John Field of the University of Stirling (United Kingdom) spoke of the tension between local and global, with particular emphasis on adult education and its networks. He outlined the importance of networking for the flow of knowledge, and described rising tensions and conflicts as the triggers for the emergence of new knowledge. He stressed that adult education institutions must start to engage in global culture, on which they can have significant influence.

The second day began with a plenary paper from Franja Centrih of UPI – LU Žalec on the Savinjska Lifelong Learning Centre. The presentation of this practical example of networking and partnerships involving numerous members in education and other sectors aroused considerable interest and a lively debate, so we are presenting a transcript in a special article.

The third day of the forum was finished by Harald Katzmair of FAS Research in Vienna, who spoke about competences for networking, focusing on social networks. He defined them as the most current mass media, capable of creating new values measurable using one of four currencies: money, knowledge/information/inspiration, contacts and/or reputation.

There were abundant opportunities between plenary papers for presentations of examples of good practice, and also for a panel debate on the added value of international networking. The papers were published on the forum website at http://www.vhs.or.at/416.

The Basic Skills Network – EBSN is an independent nongovernmental network established in June 2010. It emerged spontaneously in the European Commission working group for the preparation of an adult education action plan. It is registered in Switzerland and brings together various actors in the research and development sector and adult education policy, and it has operational links with the European Commission. EBSN members are various institutions in individual countries in Europe and beyond: development and research institutions, ministries and other actors operating in individual countries in the area of basic skills. It now has more than 64 members. The Slovenian Institute for Adult Education joined in the initial phase of organisations joining in a network, while the Ministry of Education and Sport is planning to join in 2012.

The basic purpose and objective of the network and links on this level is to monitor trends, research results and comparisons, and to formulate suitable policy guidelines in individual countries to make appropriate arrangements for the development of the basic skills of their citizens. A number of organisations were invited in 2011 to cooperate in a working group to prepare a review of the latest research results from several fields, including numeracy literacy, initial literacy education for immigrants, teacher training, financial literacy and problem-solving skills, learning within the family, intergenerational learning, etc.

At the end of June, the European network organised the annual conference in Vaduz, which elected the members of the presidency and ratified the statute.

You can find more information about the programme, conference materials and the European Basic Skills Network online at http://www.basicskills.eu/.

The A world worth living in – Adult learning and education: a key for transformation conference in Malmo, Sweden from 14-17 June 2011, attracted more than 670 delegates from 79 countries. The conference combined several events: 

• On Tuesday 14 June: General Assembly of the European Association for the Education of Adults – EAEA – which unanimously ratified the membership of the Slovenian Institute for Adult Education, the National conference of the Swedish national committee for adult education, and the NVL Nordic seminar; 
• On Wednesday and Thursday 15 and 16 June: the 8th world conference of the International Council for Adult Education – ICAE; 
• On Friday 17 June: the ICAE general assembly.

The conference programme included four key themes: 

• Ensuring realisation of the millennium development goals (MDG), the goals of Education for All and the Belem Action Plan (CONFINTEA VI), 
• Lifelong learning for sustainability in a world with a changing climate,
• Suitable learning as a condition for the right to suitable work,
• Nordic folk education and global challenges.

The conference set two main objectives: 

• Establish a shared space for more powerful establishing of lifelong learning (LL) for all, defending the values of LL and enabling citizens to build a world worth living in;
• Identify the advantages of LL and development proposals for operations on the global, regional and local levels.

More: http://aworldworthlivingin.se

The first meeting of the SGIB took place on 16-17 June in Brussels, chaired by Margarida Gameiro, the new head of Directorate DG EAC, Unit A-4. She presented innovations in the field of education and training policy relating to the Europe 2020 strategy. A number of important documents have been published in recent times as part of the subordinate Education and Training 2020 strategy, including Progress towards the common European objectives in education and training – Indicators and benchmarks (2010/2011).

“When you believe in people, they do the impossible.” (Nancy Dornan)

It is precisely this attitude and belief on the part of mentors which leads to roughly 70% of participants in the Project Learning for Young Adults (PLYA) programme in Ljubljana continuing in regular education or finding employment, a very respectable proportion. But is this number the only result of interest?

We are young people aged 15 to 25 who have dropped out of full-time formal education but would still like to be active and creative in our spare time. The PUMstival is a public event where we can prove that we are capable and that we can find the right path in life. PLYAers from the Ljubljana-based non-profit institute Bob travelled to the festival using recycled old bicycles, which we cleaned up and returned to use as part of this year’s project. PUMstival has several purposes: environmental protection, inventiveness (or added value of knowledge and thus increased employability), saving resources and money, self-help and help in the social environment. We were able to demonstrate our talents on an open stage set aside for anyone who wanted to give a presentation or demonstration. Passers-by also had the chance to watch a puppet show and take part in numerous workshops. We watched the film Šus adrenalina (A Shot of Adrenalin), which was full of adrenaline recordings and has a clear message – adrenaline sports and healthy living are better than drugs. We also had a chance to see other PLYAer projects from around Slovenia: creative workshops (presented by the PLYA group from Celje); an original costume show and photographic exhibition (Novo mesto); traditional crafts products (Murska Sobota); a film entitled Z ladjo okoli sveta – Around the World in a Boat (Radovljica); and a photographic exhibition (Maribor). Entertainment was provided by the members of Mladi Zmaji, Cirkokrog and Transformator, generating a good atmosphere.

The purpose of the festival, held this year on 8 June, is public and media presentation of PLYAer projects in the current school year. It also serves to present active and creative pastimes, with the emphasis on experiential learning, where we create presentable, topical, socially responsible and socially engaged projects.

On 25 May, the Ministry of Education and Sport organised a seminar to present the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), of which Slovenia became a full member in 2010. Slovenia has been involved in various education projects (PISA, TALIS and others) since 2002, when it had observer status in the Education Committee, and further back, since 1998, when the adult functional literacy research (IALS) did not produce encouraging results.

SIAE delegates also attended the seminar, and we were disappointed to find – both in the Ministry’s online materials and in the speech given by the minister, Dr Igor Lukšič – continual mention of the school system and schools policy. The minister even “emphasised that Slovenia wants from the OECD primarily support for the school system”. Such narrow understanding (or merely terminology) of education and learning which – not even to obtain a formal education – is far from being exclusive to schools, is foreign to the adult education profession. OECD delegates of course designed their presentations from the perspective of a comprehensive definition of education (and training), and stressed the importance of suitable data resources, data and indicators. They agreed with our intervention to point out that all of these are also important for adult education and lifelong learning.

The second theme that provoked us was the research into adult competences (PIAAC), to which OECD delegates ascribed even more importance in terms of the efficient management of human capital than the PISA research. Slovenia was only involved in the research for a short time (2009-2010) before withdrawing. When we enquired as to whether we could rejoin this important study, we received a positive response, although the decision is up to others.

From 28 March to 1 April 2011, the European Association for the Education of Adults (EAEA), together with partners from the European Civil Society Platform on Lifelong Learning (EUCIS-LLL), organised the first Lifelong Learning Week at the European Parliament. Stands offered promotional material from the EAEA and the Grundtvig programme, and provided personal responses to the questions of members of the parliament. Pierre Mairesse, director of Directorate A (lifelong learning) of the General Directorate for Education and Culture at the European Commission, met representatives of EUCIS-LLL and outlined for them the European Commission's efforts in this field: preparation of a draft new Lifelong Learning Programme, a new Action Plan for Adult Education, and a new Commission Report on Civil Society and Multilingualism.

More: http://www.eaea.org/news.php?aid=18054&k=-3&%20d=2011-03

On 24 March 2011, Bled hosted the first international conference of the Quality Assurance in Lifelong Learning network (QALLL), entitled Quality Assurance in Vocational Education and Training and in Adult Education. The conference was intended to provide a forum for discussing work, results, experience and challenges in the area of quality assurance in education and training. It brought together education and training professionals, project coordinators of the Lifelong Learning programme (Leonardo da Vinci and Grundtvig), education policymakers, representatives of ministries, social partners, and others.

A final conference on the results of the Adult Learning Action Plan was held in Budapest from 7–9 March 2011. The key objectives of the event were: to mark three years of intensive European cooperation in the field of adult education, to present results and the current position, and, in the light of contemporary challenges to define needs, priority areas and measures for the period to 2020. The conference thus helped define the European Commission initiative in the field of adult education as part of the Education and Training 2020 strategy and its overarching agenda: Europe 2020: European Strategy for Smart, Sustainable and Inclusive Growth. The end result of the conference, at which examples of good practice in key priority areas were presented, should be an action plan for the new period.

More: http://ec.europa.eu/education/news/news2835_en.htm

The traditional meeting of graduate teachers and adult educators, entitled Education and Adult Education Days, was this year held in two forms: as a web conference from 27 January to 10 February, and as a round table on 17 February at the Faculty of Arts in Ljubljana. Organisers chose the theme of Establishing the principle of individualisation in educational practice: are we on the right path? More than thirty professionals responded to the theme. This year's work bore fruit in the form of papers collected in extensive proceedings, serving as the basis for further discussion while at the same time offering some descriptions of good education and adult-education practice.

The bulletin covers relevant achievements and events in Slovenian adult education as well as internationally, and we hope that it will serve you well in your endeavours.

Novičke Spring 2009 contents:

• Report on the Review of adult education on offer in Slovenia 2008/2009;
• Awards presented for developing the quality of adult education;
• Preparing for LLW 2009;
• Adult educators discuss training conducted at the Slovenian Institute of Adult Education;
• Family literacy programme at the Ciril Kosmač Primary School in Piran;
• Guidance for those attending courses at Grm Novo mesto – Centre for Biotechnology and Tourism;
• Meeting of the Standing Group on Indicators and Benchmarks held under the auspices of the French Presidency and combined with a major conference;
• Contribution of the education system on the path to a European society of lifelong learning;
• Presentation of the project Guidance in the workplace;
• Visit by representatives of the community of Leasowe near Liverpool

Novičke Winter 2008 contents:

• Andrej Sotošek assumes leadership of SIAE,
• New family literacy programme for parents of preschoolers,
• Formal education open for non-formal education programme to develop basic skills in the workplace,
• Four new training modules developed to support the introduction of new Instructions on adapting part-time formal vocational and technical upper secondary education,
• National opening of LLW 2008 in Maribor,
• Web review of adult education and learning opportunities,
• The first in the new series of the Slovenian Third Age University’s public conferences,
• Strategic tasks in the area of adult education,
• European network for family learning,
• Meeting of the Standing Group on Indicators and Benchmarks held in Slovenia,
• First study visit of guidance practitioners as part of the Academia project,
• New approaches in adult education guidance in England,
• Study visit by Estonian coordinators of the Adult Learners Week,
• FACE IT! project concluded,
• Presentation of sub-project Adult participation in the system of formal education.

The reports will:

• constitute a major input for the International Conference,
• help to prepare a regional synthesis for the regional Preparatory Conference, and
• supply critical data for a Global Report on Adult Learning and Education(GRALE).

List of countries which have submitted their report
http://www.unesco.org/uil/en/nesico/confintea/confinteacountries.htm.

Novičke Spring 2008 contents:

• The programme of Project Learning for Young Adults – PLYA received an award at the European Regional Champions Awards 2007;
• The SIAE project Self-evaluation and quality in vocational and professional adult was awarded by Golden Apple of Quality;
• Analysis of collected data on the range of adult education on offer in Slovenia in the 2007/2008 academic year;
• New publication Employees Basic Skills Development – Guidelines for the Strategy (the Guidelines);
• Operation of the Guidance Corner in 2006 and 2007;
• Developmental activities in the field of quality of adult education;
• Video promotion of learning adults;
• Learning is an adventure that can significantly change anyone’s life;
• The challenges of adult education guidance work with vulnerable adult target groups
• Introduction of an integrated counselling approach at Doba College of Business Maribor;
• Presentation of the employment corner within the Novo mesto Guidance Centre;
• Mathematics in Action – international project concluded in November;
• Expert discussions on adult literacy in English?! No problem!.
• CEDEFOP study visit in Slovenia.