Dr Ellinor Haase, Co-chair of the International Language Association and former Secretary General of the European Association for the Education of Adults (EAEA), led and moderated a seminar held in Berovo on the topic “Andragogy: methods and techniques for adult learning”.

The two-day seminar that took place on the 23-24 March 2017, was attended by relevant staff members of Workers Universities, VET schools, Centre for Adult Education, Ministry of Education, Ministry of Labour, as well as representatives of local employment service agencies and municipalities from the East and South-East regions in the country.  

“The goal of this Seminar was to promote methods and techniques for adult learning, also known in the filed as andragogic competencies, but also to sensitise the trainers about effects of the training over the participants, which is an essential component for success of adult learning programs and demands a specific approach. So, the general focus of the seminar was on teacher training,” said Ms. Mariana Matache, key-expert for Adult Education of the EU-funded project “Enhancing Lifelong Learning through Modernising Vocational Education and Training and Adult Education Systems”, implemented by the British Council.

Group discussions and observation of participants in the seminar have allowed for some general recommendations. Firstly, regardless of previous experience with methods in teaching adults, practice and regular short training sessions on specific subjects would be very useful to foster using interactive teaching and learning methods in courses. Furthermore, teachers of VET courses often have difficulties in introducing other methods and techniques than those needed just for the job proficiency, and therefore special interest should be given to VET teachers.

In a long-term perspective, a basic training framework should be developed for teachers and trainers with little or no experience in teaching or in teaching only children. This framework should comprise the most important features, which have been – partially – treated in this seminar.

This seminar for methods and techniques for adult learning was organised as one of the project activities under the overall topic of Lifelong Learning.