The final Meeting – Is AdELe really over?

Erasmus+ “Adult Education – It’s Never too Late to Learn”, our AdELe, as we call it, has finally come to an end. Three years, full of events, work, fun and joy have brought us to a quite different ending than we were thinking, once, we were planning the project. We are really happy and proud that the circumstances, that ruined the travelling part of the last meetings, didn’t pull us down and we took the bull by the horns and kept going with online meetings.

AdELe in Italy

It´s time for the next action of AdELe! We have all moved on with this project and in May we had the next study visit to Italy, where our Erasmus + activities continued. The host partner of Adult Education – It’s Never too Late to Learn” (AdELe) was the vocational school For. Ma from Mantova, Italy and the theme of the meeting was In-service training as a service: how to build up adult education courses, curriculums, methodologies and how to aim the right target group.

The director of For.Ma Andrea Scappi indicated the best possible program and allowed the involvement of many realities in the area.

In the afternoonof the very first day Lorenzo Bonoldi, an authorized tour guide, accompanied us to the visit of Palazzo Te and we took a walk in the city.

During these five intensive days, all the partners had an opportunity to share their own experiences about Adult Education. For. Ma, our host school, gave us a very informative and practical overview of how the adult learners are trained in Italian schools and companies, what kind of resources and conditions do they have for that. All the partners had a chance to see the vocational training centre For. Ma and the school´s other branches like the Bigattera center specializing in students with disabilities and using the the social farming method.

We got an interesting lecture from the local Unemployed Agency; visited the companies who train their employees at the workplace and saw the Youth Center, which is responsible for helping people to find a right work or start studying new skills. The Women’s Support Center is doing a great job. They are offering different services and classes for women. For example, the women can attend for the sewing course, parenting course etc. – the moto is that after leaving the centre she should be strong enough and confident at different social levels. We saw a versatile type of workshops and informal courses in cultural institutions, which also deal with adult education.

The Vocational training centre For.Ma is situated in Mantova, and the students, who attend this school, are from fourteen to sixty years old. The School has different specialities, like gardening, grooming, catering and agriculture. All our participants could try a bit gardening in Bigaterra Centre’s greenhouse. We planted parsley in the pots and it was a great opportunity to cooperate and practice some teamwork with others.

We also visited LUBIAM an important fashion company in the city of Mantua https://www.lubiam.it/.

We were all impressed how much this company invested into educating and supporting their employees, childcare, health awareness and building up the teamwork.

The next interesting teaching experience was given us in R84, an association of young people who want to revitalize abandoned industrial areas. We all got to see that learning something new doesn’t meant to be inside of the schoolhouse – learning is everywhere where there are people who want to learn or teach their skills. All our partners from ADELE were pleased to meet so brilliant people in R84!

A great surprise for us was that Telemantova interviewed us to learn about the ADELE project! So we even got into TV. What a great opportunity to spread the news about our project.

Anther interesting and practical activity organized by For.ma and with Hands On Food (handsonfood.it) based on precise scenarios on which the various teams had the chance to develop several solutions using a “high tech” approach. The participants had to solve practical tasks about safety when working in risky environments, productivity (work flow optimization – waste reduction), health risks (harmful substances present in raw materials and food), agri-tech (agriculture re-education, millennial farmers, sustainability). The participants worked in international teams and had a good brainstorm and much fun. 

On the fourth day we went to Suzzara to learn about the work of the youth information office (service aimed at providing information to young people (historically defined as the range between 14 and 29 years, subsequently and also today in continuous review) in the context of training, work, free time, social life). I believe that we have really seen here how to build adult curricula and what enrichment activity with Piazzalunga • Cultura Suzzara  youth office for education and job search

Then we discovered the Galleria del Premio Suzzara and we discussed about the museum educational program of development between artworks of the Suzzara Prize to the world of industry.

During the second part of the day we had still time to visit Centro Tecnologico Arti e Mestieri Srl corporate training and professional development company. Before driving back to Mantova we stopped and visited Abbey and Monastery of Polirone in San Benedetto Po – Museo Civico Polironiano, which is also one cooperation partner of For.ma.

We ended our 5-days meeting with a nice Farewell Dinner organized by the For.ma. This was a dinner that was served by the first year students and the families of the students were the guests. Again one impressive event which gave us lots of ideas to do the same at our scools.

The next AdELe’s study visit will take us to Croatia, where we will learn more about reaching the right target group and building up marketing in Adult Education business.