Competences of adult learning facilitators in Europe: Analyses of five European research projects

Abstract

Quality of educational services is highly dependent on competent teachers. Thus, the competency-based framework for teacher education has become an important issue across Europe. This approach in Europe has greatly reflected in the field of adult learning and education. There are five research projects dedicated to identifying competences of adult learning facilitators, involving regional countries or all the Member States of the European Union. Based on the results of the five research projects, this paper has a twofold aim: 1) to describe those research projects and their identified competences for adult learning and 2) to analyse the common competences identified by all the five research projects. The distinct scopes of teacher's competences and teaching competences are offering the framework for analysis. We found ten common competences that are particularly relevant to teaching roles of adult learning facilitators in Europe. Moreover, the analyses revealed that adult learning facilitators need to possess teacher competences that are relevant to institutional administration. Our conclusion is that there are common competences for adult learning facilitators which are relevant to both teaching and teacher competences.