Which competences are needed to organise high quality European trainings for adult education staff?

Professional development of all staff in adult education is seen to be a decisive factor in the quality of adult education.

To define and prioritise the competences needed to organise a quality Grundtvig IST course the European project GINCO Tools & Training has launched a survey amongst Grundtvig in-service training course organisers. Participants were also asked to define their training needs. Based on the results of this survey, the priorities set by the Lifelong Learning Programme and based on the principles of the EU Commission study on ‘Key Competences for Adult Learning Professionals’ the GINCO T&T team defined 41 competences spread over 8 competence areas.

These competence areas are the following:

1. Application of innovative didactics and competence oriented approaches
2. Quality care and self-evaluation

3. Validation of learning outcomes

4. Promotion and marketing

5. Attention to EU dimension

6. ICT use

7. Providing social and professional support

8. Management and organisation

For each of these areas the GINCO T&T team has created a set of competences you can find here together with some exemplary activities related to each competence. At the moment the team creates a validation reference system and assessment tools for those competences that are most essential to organise a Grundtvig IST course of high quality.

The competences and the training needs will also form the basis of the training material and course modules that will be collected and/or created by the GINCO T&T team. In February 2014 a first pilot course for Grundtvig course organisers and trainers will be organised in Alden Biesen, Belgium.

GINCO is a European wide network for improving professional development of adult education staff. In the network we share expertise, create and share useful material and enhance communication and cooperation in order to improve the quality of in-service training courses and of Grundtvig IST courses for adult educators.

The network has been organising international conferences, webinars, training days etc. on quality aspects and validation of IST courses. GINCO also installed a Quality Award for Grundtvig courses. All this material is downloadable from the network website: www.ginconet.eu

• Visit the document library: http://www.ginconet.eu/content/document-library or
• Look at the GINCO Award video (7 min.): http://www.ginconet.eu/content/ginco-awards-2012
• You can find Grundtvig course organisers on the GINCO map: http://www.ginconet.eu/ginco-network
• You can register as a Grundtvig course organiser: http://www.ginconet.eu/user/register