THE PROJECT

Introduction

What emerges from studies and research conducted in the project partner countries is that individual life-long learning is becoming one of the central elements in policies and strategies related to the development of human resources, and that this induces the states to redirect their own education and training systems in order to draw closer to environments which up until today were mainly separate from each other and which concern the formal, non formal and informal with the aim of spreading values of active democracy and citizenship and improve the development and growth of the individual.

If we consider the age range between 25 and 64, Eurostat data allows us to compare the rate of adult participation in permanent education in the 4 partner countries from 1997 to 2001.

From this data we see that the European average in 2001 is equal to 8,4%, and that all the partner countries are clearly under that average, and that from 1997 to 200, with the exception of Greece, there has been no effective increase in participation.

One must furthermore take into consideration the fact that in the partner countries permanent education has over recent years acquired a wider significance; in other words: "any learning activity started at any time in one's lifetime, aimed at improving knowledge, ability and skills within a personal, civic, social and/or employment perspective".

Furthermore, if we analyse the level of inclination by the adult to reenter training in order to acquire better qualification for better placement in the job market and/or for continuous maintenance of the personal resources needed to deal with changes and one's own cultural wellbeing, we realise that adults with a lower level of education are the least interested due to a certain distance they have from the concept of 'education', which is more psychological than real, and difficult to reduce without the help and support of structures that are able to suggest and make use of tools and methodologies suited to the development of the person.

As a result it is increasingly necessary to remodel timescales, places and ways with which to find, involve and train that type of adult. In the partner countries, if with varying tones, it has been possible to identify that adult permanent education currently on offer does not meet the needs of large groups of citizens such as: low-qualified and low-educated workers, the unemployed, the aged, the disabled, those from outside the Comunity, etc. while the Comunication of the of the European Comunities Commission, Brussels 2002, sets itself as a target to be achieved by each member State within 2010: that of at least 10% of the adult population taking part in lifelong learning and including in that process persons with a low level of qualification and from the weaker categories.

This is the context from which the project takes its leave and finds its justification inasmuch as a qualified use of creative writing and the multimedia with pedagogical-educational and guidance functions allows one to meet needs linked to feelings such as: disorientation; inadequacy; demotivation; inability to meet a manifest need of training; need for "places and operatives" dedicated to clarification and resolution of life problems; the inability to identify the real nature of one's problems and questions.

In this way one contributes, together with effective information concerning the training on offer, in the involvement and training with personalised methodologies and contents of a wide range of adults who up until today have not taken part in the processes of permanent education. The training of trainers provided for in our project by means of a quality training course and of a European character, as well as its transmission at the European level to other teachers, trainers and persons operating in the sector of adult education may represent a first important contribution aimed at reaching the target which the European Comunities Commission has fixed for 2010: the participation of at least 10% of the population active in lifelong learning, and the inclusion of the weak categories and persons with low levels of qualification ::

General aspect

The complexity of the contemporary world can provoke anxiety and a sense of bewilderment, providing the need to continually reformulate one's own identity. 'Narration' can become the Arianna's thread in the fabric of emotional experiences, can mange, that is, to provide space and time to the multiplicity of the positions of the ego in an imaginary scenario.

Narrations of the Self are cognitive devices that regulate processing also at unaware levels of personal and social information. For this reason in the narration of the Self is inserted attribution and research of meaning which constitutes the engine for the formation of desires, values, aims, the development, that is, of life's 'plans'.

Aims of the project

- Increasing and improving the training on offer for weaker categories and persons with a low level of education.
- Improving the quality and developing innovation with special regard for non-formal training in longlife learning.
- Taking leave from an experience already had, construct by means of a widened cooperation among European subjects and structures, quality innovative training products which are also of a European character, and therefore easy to adapt and transmit.
- Develop/adapt a quality innovative training course of a European character to be transmitted in Europe by means of a team made up of European experts.
- Promote and develop in trainers, teachers and personnel operating in the sector of adult education a pedagogical-educational use of the TIC for wider exploitation of their potential aimed at enrichment and personal growth and the acquisition of skills to be used in various work related contexts and situations.
- Placing teachers thus trained in a position to be able to respond more efficiently to the need, above all of persons with a low level of instruction and the weaker categories, to acquire the skills which allow them to attain higher levels of autonomy and awareness in relation to the changes taking place.

End users of the project activities

The specific groups that will benefit directly from the products/results and the activities of the project will be:

- Teachers, trainers, operatives who deal with adult training and at which the training course is specifically aimed.
- Adults, with particular reference to those adults who due to personal conditions, both social and economic, are at risk of being alienated (weak categories), will be involved in the workshops provided for by the project (end users) Indirect end users are:

- Structtures and systems of adult training and education which could improve the quality and quantity of the training on offer.
- Guidance and professional training structures and systems that could enrich their contribution by adopting methodologies annd instruments that provide for individualised contribution.
- The institutions and organisms that provide support for and the social insertion of particular disadvantaged target groups (the disabled, addicts, psychiatric patients, the elderly) that could supply their operatives with the skills and knowledge required to improve and diversify their contribution to their reference targets.

The results/products created will be as follows:

- A training course experimented with 28 trainers from 4 European countries employed in the sector of life-long training and suitably adapted
- a manual for trainers on paper and tape in 3 languages
- the promotion and creation in Italy and in Germany of 2 training courses in favour of Grundtvig 3 candidates from all European Community countries
- FAD modules for the accompaniment and support of trainers in self-training activities
- a Cd-Rom containing the more meaningful experiences (best practices) created during experimentation of the training course together with materials, exercises, multimedia products and literary texts
- a dedicated website in English containing the presentation of the project and the partnership, results and products created for distribution - newsletters - for the promotion and information and distribution of results/products
- final conference at the end of the project for the distribution of results/products.