The project
“Quality Assurance within Adult Education”
Location:
Kaunas, Lithuania
Period of implementation:
2011 – 2013
Field of activity – formal/informal/non-formal:
All non-formal education learning areas
Funding sources:
Nord Plus programme
Target group:
- Adults education and non-formal education institutions
- Organizations
- Providers
Implementing organization/lead organization:
- Education and Training Service Centre (Iceland) – coordinator
- Estonian Folk High Schools Union (Estonia)
- Lithuanian Association of Adult Education (Lithuania)
- The Norwegian Association for Adult Learning (Norway)
Contact info:
- Mrs. Guðfinna Harðardóttir:
- web: www.frae.is
- email: gu******@fr**.is
Resources:
- The self-assessment form as well as other EQM tools for learning providers in eight languages on
www.europeanqualitymark.org - EQM users:
http://www.europeanqualitymark.org/learning-providers
Challenge or social need:
The EQM system has been implemented in Iceland and several countries have shown interest in doing the same. But without quality improvement quality assurance does not make sense and therefore there is a need to review the system with the aim of improving parts of it that have appeared to be fragile or incomplete as well as keeping it up-to-date with the development of quality assurance of adult learning. Improving the quality of education and training is one of the priority areas of the EU Council’s European agenda for adult learning and in order to build a strong adult-learning sector, the focus should be on developing quality assurance for learning providers e.g. by using existing quality assurance.
Description:
The aim of this Nordplus project is to improve and develop the quality accreditation system EQM, European Quality Mark, for providers of non-formal adult learning. We also intend to review and improve the standards, criteria and the accreditation process so that the EQM as a whole is up-to-date with new recommendation framework on quality in adult learning, which was launched in October 2013 by a Thematic Working Group on Quality in Adult Learning working with a mandate from the EU Commission.
Benefits/success factors/ measurement of success:
A part of the improvement will be to build a training course for external assessors/trainers, as their role is not only to assess the learning provision against the EQM standards and criteria but also to support the learning provider in improving the quality of their work and build a sustainable quality culture within the organisation of the learning provider.
Critical points/weaknesses:
–
Sustainability characteristics:
Developed at least one training methodological material for the dissemination of the mobility results in Lithuania.
Transferability characteristics:
N/A
Inclusive characteristics/Innovative elements:
Project is focused on wide range of adult educators not limiting to the fiels, age or experience as long as there is motivation and need to take part and apply learnt practices.