We here at Työväen Akatemia appreciate the benefits of cooperation with both local and international bodies. Over the years we have been involved in a range of projects with partners here in Finland, in Europe and further afield too.
The aim of our project work is to improve the quality of our teaching and guidance, and to broaden the future possibilities for our students.
At present, we are involved in two Erasmus+ projects funded by the European Commission.
This project builds on the work of the highly successful Fit for Digital Linguistic Education Erasmus+ project (2020-2023: https://www.fit4digiline.eu/). The same group of dedicated project partners from Finland, Austria, Italy, Greece and Spain are keen to help language teachers in the adult education sector further develop their digital competences, and to make use of new technologies in their teaching work. Many of the project results will be of value to teachers in other areas and at other levels too.
The main aims of the new EMPOWER project are:
We will first consult with end-user groups, to find out more about their current teaching experiences and their perceived training needs. This information will allow us to make sure that the other resources we create are of maximum benefit to teachers. The project will produce 4 main results:
1. A policy report on the current language teaching situation in Europe and the challenges that language educators face in target areas;
2. an online train-the- trainer course to help educators learn about new technology and the use of digital tools for feedback and assessment;
3. An online game to help language learners and teachers build digital resilience and develop their own digital competences;
4. A video-based MOOC giving practical examples of how digital tools can be used to help empower learners and to promote inclusion of minority groups.
We will also produce quick-reference summaries of the report and the main content of the training courses, as well as a teacher guide to using the online game with their classes.
To follow the project, please check out the project webpage (coming soon) and the project’s Facebook page.
More here in Finnish: Link
Reaching the Stars aims to develop guidance and counselling in adult education by collecting and creating practices that can help adult learners to reach their personal goals, as well as to broaden their vision for the future. The project began in January 2022 and will run for 26 months, until the end of February 2024.
The plan is to produce three concrete outputs:
Reaching the Stars continues in the footsteps of a previous Erasmus+ project, Improving Guidance and Counselling, where the project consortium collected practices for recognising the competences of adult learners. Reaching the Stars will advance the previous work by focusing on how adult learners can reach their goals while taking into account their personal competences and background. Accordingly, the project centres on the concept of hope-based guidance and counselling, which means that it places an empahsis on helping adult learners to better envision their own hopes and wishes for the future.
The coordinator of the project is Työväen Akatemia (Finland). The project partners are Deinde sp. z o.o (Poland), Ljudska univerza Celje (Slovenia) and Education in Progress (Italy).
The Fit 4 Digital Linguistic Education project (2020 – 2023) aims to improve digital and online language teaching by creating a European knowledge base of digital competences which can be used by language educators in their teaching. The project will create an online assessment tool to help teachers identify areas in which they need further professional development, and will produce a variety of training and other resources to support language teachers in the digital and online landscape.
Click here for the project webpage
Click here for the project’s Facebook page
More here in Finnish: Link
Which aimed to develop student guidance.
More information in Finnish here: Link
Which developed a range of digital open badges.
More in Finnish here: Link
Which aims to develop training in basic digital skills.
More in Finnish here: Link
Which aims to develop active citizenship through the means of drama.