Participation of marginalized groups in adult education:

Second chance in education or life?Anita Jakobsone, Dr phil

Sarajevo, 5 October 2012

Content

1. The insight in the “Second Chance” Project

2. What is the FEEA?

3. The social obstacles and learning barriers the FEEA participants are facing

4. “Second Chance” within Education, Adult Education, Social and Labour Policy

The “Second Chance” Project

• “The second Chance“- Systemic Development of Elementary, Practice Based Adult Education in Serbia“, Serbia

• GOPA Consultants, dvv-international, EAEA

• September 2010 until September 2013

• The EU has granted € 4 million for the project

The “Second Chance” project

The purpose of the project

To establish a system of functional elementary education for adults, which would be accessible and responsive to the learners' and labour market needs, in line with the lifelong learning concept and focusing on life skills and competencies

The results of “Second Chance”

• The FEEA concept developed, tested in the two- year pilot process

• The FEEA curriculum, teaching learning materials designed, tested, revised

• The 80 elementary school teams - more than1,200 teachers trained in two years and operational

• Up to 75 secondary schools ready to implement 35 VET training programmes within the FEEA

The results of the “Second Chance”

• More than 6,000 participants of the FEEA enrolled in two years, instead of the planed 4000

• Awareness on the role of the “Second Chance” in the lives of potential participants increased amongst the general public and the national and local stakeholders

What is the functional elementary education of adults?

• Elementary general education in the duration of 1804 hours + vocational training with up to 270 hours during 3 years:

1st cycle (1st to 4th grade)

2nd cycle (5th, 6th grade)

3rd cycle (7th, 8th grade + VET)

What is the functional elementary education of adults?

• Oriented towards basic general competencies/crosscurricular outcomes – knowledge, skills and attitudes

Language, math, basic scientific literacy, digital literacy, management of own learning, problem solving, social interaction and cooperation, civic responsibility, health, ecological literacy, initiative and entrepreneurship, cultural creativity and multiculturalism

• Oriented towards subject outcomes Serbian, Math, Chemistry, Physics, History, Geography, Responsible living in

civil society or Basic life skills, Entrepreneurship, Biology, Applied Science

• Functionalization of knowledge, individualization of the learning process, support to learners towards their individual achievements and in overcoming social obstacles and learning bariers are the key issues of the FEEA

What is the functional elementary education of adults?

• The elementary schools are providing education for both children and adults

• The elementary school teams are specifically trained and guided

• The local partnership teams are introduced with the FEEA and mobilised for its support

• The elementary school teams (director, professional

associate, andragogical assistant, teachers) and local partnership teams are cooperating in the FEEA implementation for the benefit of the participants

Who are the FEEA participants?

The average FEEA participants are:• adults who are 15 or older (28 years old on average), • without completed elementary education, • out of the school system for 13 years• partly legally invisible persons without identity numbers

and cards, • socially excluded, mostly unemployed or working in grey

economy, • living in the less developed municipalities of Serbia, • equally women and men, • Serbs, Croats, Bosniaks, Roma, Hungarians etc., up to

300,000 inhabitants of Serbia.

The social obstacles and learning barriers the FEEA participants are

facing

• Legally invisible persons wihout identity numbers and identity cards (therefore eliminated from social welfare services, health insurance, unemployment benefits, cannot be registered in the NES and included in the ALM etc.)

• Persons from poor households without a permanent living place

• With very low participation in social networks

• With lack of understanding on free of charge resources availability in their surroundings

The social obstacles and learning barriers the FEEA participants are

facing

• High dropout rate – 41 %

• Motivation for the retention of participants

• Participants would like to learn, but they give up education due to powerty, health, temporary jobs, family problems etc.

The social obstacles and learning bariers of the FEEA participants

• Local partners ensured social support to participants within the project according to their cooperation capacity

• The most demanded social support includes: - reimburcement of travel expenses, - organization of transport services, - part -time childcare - support in getting ID card- support for medical examination and purchase of glasses- support in opening of the bank account- legal consultations on various issues etc.

The social obstacles and learning barriers the FEEA participants are

facing

• The FEEA is contributing to the education system of Serbia:

- offering services to a new target group - adults- helping small schools to survive, as very

important social centers in the local community- strengthening the interactive approach to learning

which will be used in ordinary education- introducing outcome-based learning which is

focused to knowledge, skills and attitudes,- building understanding about the necessity of

the functionalization of knowledge in the age of information society

The social obstacles and learning barriers the FEEA participants are

facing

• The FEEA participants need a second chance in their life and this means to create bridges between education, social support and labour policy measures

• The FEEA should be linked with the appropriate monthly social benefit for participants

• The FEEA is and can be implemented as an ALM

• The FEEA can be implemented as AE, which includes social support measures

Second chance in education or life?

• The main problem – how to overcome stereotypes and manner of organization and financing in case of education for marginalized adults

• How to join together education, social support and employment?

Very important:• Availability of the vocational training- Availability of active labour market measures after the

end of FEEA- Establishing of contacts and promotion of the

participants towards local employers- Cooperation between schools and local stakeholders

Thank you for your attention!