Abstract:

The last years of recession have underscored the situation of vulnerability which the students who attend centers for adult education suffer. In order to be able to offer them a better future, our school has launched an educational project whose main objective is our students’ integral development (personal, social, academic, work-related and enterprising) which avoids their social and labour exclusion. To accomplish this, we have initiated a series of innovative actions of high quality responding to our students’ needs and aims.

The first step was conducting a statistical research which allowed to deepen in the educational needs of adult learners. This research revealed a number of demands which have been responded from the educational Project, whose basic mainstay has been the implementation of the European project Grundtvig CASE (Career Assistance and Spirit of Enterprise). The previous work done resolved the definition of some objectives which have led our school to a substantial improvement regarding the training service that is offered.
The general objective contemplated by our school is our students’ integral development (personal, social, academic, work-related and enterprising) which facilitates their social and labour integration.

The specific objectives are the following:
1. Introduction of competences (basic and complementary) in the curriculum.
2. Integrating ICTs into the curriculum in a direct way and into all the subjects in a cross way.
3. Reinforcement in the subject of English in the training services offered by the school.
4. Personal counseling for students.
5. Intensive introduction of non-formal and formal learning.

The project presented in this paper is an action plan or model for the adaptation of centers for adult education to the new requirements of the 21st century society. This model has been awarded with the first prize by the Prizes Miguel Hernandez, acknowledged by the Ministry of Education, Science and Sports of Spain. This paper summarises the most important elements of the educational Project which has received the aforementioned recognition.

References:
[1] Pastor Pérez, J.T. (2014). Design of adult secondary studies from the perspective of the needs and objectives of its students. Basic skills, complementary skills, and academic contents. ICERI2014 Proceedings, 5309-5316. ISBN: 978-84-617-2484-0. ISSN: 2340-1095. Retrieved from http://library.iated.org/view/PASTORPEREZ2014DES.

Keywords:

complementary competences, adult education, lifelong learning.