KVALUES PROJECT: A BRIDGE BETWEEN LIFELONG LEARNING AND NEW JOB OPPORTUNITIES

Although Guidelines on the importance of validation of competences acquired in formal and non-formal settings exist at the European and national level, awareness of these themes amongst adult audiences is still lacking. Do they really know that life can become an actual learning environment? In general terms, what kind of learning can the third sectors offer to adults? KVALUES - Key competences: Validating Adult Learners' EdUcational ExperienceS is a EU funded project that aims to contribute to this debate by identifying what competences and skills can be evaluated. KVALUES is a two-year project that brings together adult cultural educators from Italy, UK, Germany, Sweden, Estonia, Bulgaria to develop and test the digital storytelling methodology as an innovative tool to guide adults and young adults in disadvantaged conditions to self-evaluate and recognize skills and key competences acquired through informal learning contexts. The idea of the project springs from the successful feedback received from the previous project DeTALES - Digital Education Through Adult Learners EU-Enlargement Stories, which showed that digital storytelling is a useful mean to engage people of all ages and backgrounds. Based on past experiences in adult education and in the cultural field, KVALUES partners realized that the target group in question (adults, young adults in disadvantaged conditions, unemployed, inactive people) is not aware that work or life experiences can be turned into learning opportunities. They aren't aware that, not only practical skills are useful to find a job or a better job position, but also the key competences such as social, transversal, cultural, creative and entrepreneurial thinking skills are an added value to their curricula. The implementation of a digital curricular story puts the individual at the center of the learning, fostering key competences (creative, entrepreneurial, basics, cultural, etc.) and, consequently, the need/willingness to undertake a new training process. The process of validation helps learners to think about what they have achieved so far and identify their strengths and skills. It helps to identify longer-term goals and what they need to do to achieve them. The use of digital tools, combined with the narrative process, aims to encourage individuals, usually excluded from traditional pathways of formal training and aiming at transferring practical skills, to become more aware of the importance of key competences to help them to re-enter the labour market.