Innova Project – Sharing Best Practices on the Use of Information and Communication Technology Tools in Coaching and Adult Education
INNOVA is a small-scale project supported by the Erasmus program. Its goal is to create a handbook that enhances educators’ ability to use coaching techniques and ICT tools more effectively, and to provide more engaging online/offline coaching services and education for adult learners. The project’s target audience, broadly defined, includes all those working as educators in the SME sector: coaches, mentors, trainers, SME consultants, and other professionals striving to improve the efficiency and performance of SMEs’ human resources.
It is important to note that, in an era of globalization and rapid technological change, the need to acquire new skills has brought about significant changes not only in how learners are viewed, but also in how service providers are perceived – that is, in the way the latter deliver knowledge and experiences to adult learners.
With the forced expansion of distance learning, boundaries and rules changed just as rapidly, and neither educators nor learners had time to reflect and adapt. Numerous challenges also arose from the physical distance from students, which can be difficult even when a supportive and motivating atmosphere is successfully created. It is difficult to observe student reactions during video calls, which would otherwise provide natural feedback in a physical classroom setting. Moreover, if the teacher is not skilled in digital instruction and cannot offer interactive tools or learning opportunities, the lessons will have little impact on student development.
Throughout the project, the partners will select and test coaching, mentoring, and teaching techniques, as well as ICT tools, that more effectively develop adult participants’ transversal and social skills in both online and offline sessions.
The project offers a practical learning experience for the partners’ trainers, enabling them to learn from one another, select and test the following coaching and mentoring techniques, and, more importantly, jointly discover new methods to support adult learners. learning process in both online and offline sessions, by learning to use ICT tools more effectively.
The partners consider it important to learn to respond more precisely to the needs of SMEs, as they hold the key to the EU’s recovery in the post-COVID-19 period. Instructors must be able to use various tools, techniques, and methods while engaging adult learners in the learning process. This also helps learners adapt to communication and working in different environments, while increasing their flexibility and skills related to solving problems in the digital world.
The partners’ instructors must master new techniques and methods to support adult learners in getting the most out of this learning experience.
An even more important goal is to understand and share our knowledge on how to align the rapidly changing labour market and societal needs with the needs of education systems, which change more slowly. Regarding the project’s results, we need to know how to determine the optimal combination of online, offline, and experiential activities, how to increase participant engagement, and how to adapt the learning environment to the pace of global markets and the demand for talent.
The handbook produced as part of the project can be downloaded here.
