To make adult education more inclusive for migrants, refugees socially excluded adults, it is essential to equip staff with the right skills and competencies, whether they are managers, teaching staff, administrators or communicators. Several established frameworks provide comprehensive guidelines for upskilling staff to meet these challenges effectively, and this article provides examples of frameworks for up-skilling in up-skilling in digital competences and knowledge of language abilities and development.
The DigCompEdu framework, developed by the European Commission (1), focuses on the digital competencies required for educators. In an increasingly digital world, proficiency in using digital tools is crucial for effective outreach and engagement. The framework covers six key areas:
- Professional Engagement: Leveraging digital technologies for communication, collaboration, and professional growth.
- Digital Resources: Sourcing, creating, and sharing digital educational resources.
- Teaching and Learning: Integrating digital technologies into teaching and learning practices.
- Assessment: Utilizing digital tools for assessment purposes.
- Empowering Learners: Enhancing inclusivity, personalization, and active learner engagement through digital means.
- Facilitating Learners' Digital Competence: Enabling learners to use digital technologies responsibly and creatively.
The Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) (2) is an international standard for describing language ability. It is widely used in language education and assessment to help learners and educators set clear goals and measure progress. For adult educators working with migrants and refugees, the CEFR provides a structured approach to language learning, which is often a critical component of integration and inclusion.
Learning for All Outreach Toolkit
More information on different resources for skills development in adult education outreach will be provided in Learning for All's Outreach Toolkit: a resource that staff can use to improve the quality and effectiveness of outreach so that more non-native or socially disadvantaged adults are interested and confident about participating in learning. As well as assisting organisations to reach more potential adult learners, the new outreach activities will help bridge the linguistic and cultural gaps to actively enthuse and recruit new learners.
(1) https://joint-research-centre.ec.europa.eu/digcompedu_en
(2) https://www.coe.int/en/web/common-european-framework-reference-languages