The Implementing Outreach, Empowerment, Diversity (implOED) project aims to engage disadvantaged adults in learning and to make education policies more effective for their needs.
The implOED consortium met in Paris on the 3-4 October 2016. The meeting was not only instrumental to evaluate the work done so far and plan the next steps, but also an opportunity to discuss the current developments of national policies and practice on adult education.
Partners are very motivated to start organising a series of events and workshops around Europe targeted to national and European policy-makers as well as adult education practitioners and staff. In those activities the partners will propose methods, inspiring examples and policy measures that will demonstrate how to reach out to and work with different learners.
“With this project we are taking the OED network’s outcomes from paper to practice and convincing policy-makers and adult educators that is not only necessary to include adults with different backgrounds in lifelong learning, but that it is also possible!” says project coordinator Francesca Operti.
New website
All the implOED activities will be collected and promoted through the brand-new project website which is launched today together with a press release that will reach European and national adult education stakeholders.
“The first OED website was launched in 2012,”explains Helka Repo, the EAEA communications officer. “We thought of refreshing it to make it more lively and attractive for the project’s target groups. We aim at creating a space for constant professional development and exchange between providers and policy-makers on outreach, empowerment and diversity in education”.
In one year time, partners will meet again in Helsinki to discuss the lessons learnt from their activities and start drafting an instruction manual on how to implement the OED guidelines and recommendations in different contexts. In that occasion, the Finnish Lifelong Learning Foundation (KVS) will organise an international conference on the different aspects of diversity in adult education.
The project will run between 2016-2018 and it is funded by the European Commission.
Text and photos: EAEA