Support

Enabling and supporting conditions, such as effective outreach, guidance, allocation of financial resources and other support measures should be an intrinsic part of the UP process.

Motivation and outreach measures that include raising awareness on the benefits of upskilling, and making available information on existing guidance are of extreme importance. Guidance and/or mentoring services should be provided to support learners’ progression through all steps of the upskilling process.

In Slovenia guidance is provided by the network of adult education information and guidance centres (IGAE). Their objectives are to provide all adults with quality, professional and comprehensive information and guidance as a support to their education and learning and to connect into a network as many local providers of educational and guidance services for adult as possible to ensure quality, comprehensive and coordinated activities of all subjects when offering information and guidance in adult education. Services are intended for all adults with special emphasis on the low-skilled due to ESF projects at the local level.

In some countries, including Slovenia, traditional media and social media networks are being used to reach out to specific target groups, including the low-skilled. Promotional campaigns, most notable the Lifelong Learning Week and the Learning Parade, serve the same purpose.

In the 2018 UP report, with very few exceptions, all countries have indicated that much of the activity to support low-skilled adults is co-funded through the European Social Fund (ESF). Hence, many initiatives are running until 2020 or at best to 2022, and there are no obvious plans on how to sustain them beyond this date. Therefore securing funding for the upskilling of people in employment remains the greatest challenge. In some countries post-2020 lifelong learning strategies are being developed. In Slovenia the Adult Education Master Plan is under revision and grounds for the 2021–2030 edition are being discussed by various stakeholders.