Open it up!

We have some news for you!

On 28th of June 2021 we mark 2 years since the Open it up project won the EAEA Grundtvig award!

The EAEA Grundtvig Award was launched in 2003 in order to recognise and celebrate excellence in adult education. It highlights project results that produce new ideas, new partnerships, new methodologies and a new understanding of how we can work in adult learning. It celebrates initiatives fostering life skills approach in adult education. The winners of the award were selected in two categories: national or regional and European projects.

The 16th annual Grundtvig Awards were given to projects which successfully embrace the life skills approach in adult education. The winners were announced on 26 June 2019. The award ceremony took place in the Brahe Pavillon in Copenhagen and was a part of the EAEA General Assembly and Annual Conference.

Open IT Up has been the winner of the European category due to several points: The project targeted both adult learners and educators and provided learning and working materials for both of them. The digital tools produced in many languages ensure a wide dissemination for the results.

For the partnership, this award means the significance given by the EAEA to acquiring life skills in adult education and, more important, in informal and non-formal environments. Such a goal should go beyond this project and become the essential part of adult education all over Europe.

OpenITup is a 30-month Erasmus+ KA204 project aiming to extend and develop educators’ competences in the effective teaching of literacy, digital and entrepreneurial skills to vulnerable groups of adult learners, by making use of effective new tools and technologies.

“OpenITup” is an opportunity for both educators and adult learners to acquire the knowledge and skills necessary to be self-employed, a very challenging goal that seems almost impossible without basic skills, such as literacy and – in the world of global digitalisation – digital skills as well as basic knowledge of entrepreneurship concepts.

The project suggests new methods and tools for formal, non-formal and informal education and training, adopting a holistic approach, making use of ICT tools, to reinforce professional competences of educators, including those working with vulnerable groups, as well as improve access for adult learners to an open quality learning offer. For them, it will be an opportunity to improve their basic skills and it will facilitate their integration into the labour market.

Under this project, partners develop:

• an E-course “Start Your Own Business” in English, Bulgarian, German, Greek, Italian, Spanish, Polish and Turkish. It will be freely available to adult learners and educators.
• a toolkit for educators and learners with an ICT (innovation – communication-technology) approach, including ICT skills upgrading materials and teaching resources in the field of entrepreneurship.
• webinars for educators with teaching and learning tools, mostly ICT and digital tools.
• videos about start-ups in Europe, which provide practical and illustrative relevant information about how the ideas of different businesses were born; problems faced and how they were dealt with; lessons learnt, etc.

Find out more via this link: https://www.openitup.eu