Hanna Toiviainen (Tampere University), Paula Kuusipalo (Tampere University), Natasha Kersh (UCL Institute of Education), Pirkko Pitkänen (Tampere University)

1. The projects is funded by the European
Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and
Innovation Programme, Contract No. 693388
Paper 1: The role of Adult Education
in social inclusion of young adults:
insights from the Horizon 2020
project (EduMAP)
Hanna Toiviainen (Tampere University), Paula Kuusipalo (Tampere University),
Natasha Kersh (UCL Institute of Education), Pirkko Pitkänen (Tampere University)
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2. The projects is funded by the European
Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and
Innovation Programme, Contract No. 693388
EduMap focus
What policies and practices are needed in the field of adult
education to include young adults at risk of social exclusion in
active participatory citizenship in Europe?
• Adult education
• Vulnerable young adults (16-30)
• Social exclusion
• Inclusion and integration
• Active Participatory Citizenship
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3. The projects is funded by the European
Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and
Innovation Programme, Contract No. 693388
The role of Adult Education
• Adult education is an important means to enable
people to take active part in society and the labour
market
• Adult education policies and practices are not always
appropriate to vulnerable minority groups
• EduMAP seeks to help European, national and local
policymakers, educational authorities and educators to
tailor adult education to meet the needs of young
adults at risk of social exclusion
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4. The projects is funded by the European
Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and
Innovation Programme, Contract No. 693388
Active Participatory Citizenship
• Social participation: e.g. development of social competences,
social capital
• Economic participation: e.g. employment; awareness of and
access to social benefits
• Political participation: e.g. civic and political participation,
awareness of rights, running for boards, neighbourhood
activities
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5. The projects is funded by the European
Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and
Innovation Programme, Contract No. 693388
Development of an Intelligent Decision
Support System (IDSS)
• The research findings will be linked back to the educational practices
by developing an IDSS for the use of policymakers, educational
authorities and other relevant stakeholders
• The IDSS will cover broad information on adult education and
targeted information related to vulnerable groups
• More at the end of this presentation
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6. The projects is funded by the European
Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and
Innovation Programme, Contract No. 693388
Research methodology
Desk study
A ’wider picture’ of adult education in
the EU28 and Turkey
• Conceptions and national
approaches – active citizenships and
adult education
• Approaches towards inclusion of VYA
• Specific Programmes Related to
Adult Education
• Adult Education and Vulnerable
Young Adults
Empirical research
• 1. Context analysis
• 2. Targeted research on good
practices: AE programmes for VG
• 3. Targeted research on vulnerable
groups: communicative ecologies
mapping
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7. The projects is funded by the European
Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and
Innovation Programme, Contract No. 693388
Findings from the desk study
• Influence of social discourses
• economic justification of adult education provision (Evans, 2009; Aspin et a 2012)
• AE as a means of social inclusion/integration
• Inclusion of VYAs has been related to addressing specific problems defined by current national
political, social or economic agendas
• Vulnerability and being at risk (UNDP report (2014) Abrisketa et al., 2015)
• young adults in different situations of vulnerability
• AE – fostering resilience
• Active citizenship - Citizenship is not seen entirely as a juridical issue but also in terms of people’s
participation in political, social and economic arenas. (Field and Schemmann, 2017 Biesta 2009; Johnston 2003,
Tsitselikis & Pitkänen, 2007)
• With the exception of programmes for newly arrived migrants/refugees, the majority of adult education
courses do not demonstrate an explicit focus on citizenship education/skills. However:
• Different dimensions of active citizenship (economic, social and political), have characterised AE
programmes and initiatives.
• Often ‘citizenship’ is not used explicitly and/or may be embedded
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8. The projects is funded by the European
Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and
Innovation Programme, Contract No. 693388
Good practices: selected examples
Interviews and FG with key informants on 40 AE practices in 19 EU countries and Turkey
Country Target group Type of
programme
APC
Dimension
Scope
Germany Refugees and
Migrants
Basic skills and
remedy
Socio-
cultural
Local
Cyprys Migrants Informal learning
and non-formal
learning
Political-
legal
Regional
UK Multiple
vulnerabilities
Basic skills
VET
All, focus
on Socio-
economic
Local but linked in to
nationally recognised
programmes
Greece Homeless people Basic skills and
remedy
Socio-
cultural
Local
Latvia NEETs,
unemployed
people
VET Socio-
economic
National
Finland Prisoners VET Socio-
economic
National,
implemented locally
Ireland Young migrants
(and Irish young
people)
Informal learning and
non-formal learning
All Local but with
national reach

9. The projects is funded by the European
Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and
Innovation Programme, Contract No. 693388
Findings from empirical research: shedding light on the enabling conditions
and effective programme design factors for the promotion of social inclusion
• “Vulnerable young adults” – the terms are open to interpretation among learners, educators and policy makers.
• young adults shared some common characteristics. (e.g. a lack of self-confidence and self-reflection, difficulty
in formulating objectives and in pursuing them, or low motivation)- and this need be taken into account in the
programme’s design
• Supporting participants in their learning process, offering them tailored services is of critical importance
• The role of adult educator is multidimensional (Toiviainen, Kersh, & Hyytiä, in preparation)
• Implications for the role of adult educators:
• multidisciplinary professionals
• soft skills (e.g. empathy)
• Inclusion strategies need to be targeted to specific group needs
• Active citizenship is promoted implicitly rather than explicitly
• Communicative ecologies play significant role
• Inclusion and engagement are contextually specific (e.g. inclusion thorough employability; inclusion through the
development of social skills)
• Active Participatory Citizenship is perceived implicitly
• largely through economic and social participation
•
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10. The projects is funded by the European
Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and
Innovation Programme, Contract No. 693388
Intelligent Decision Support System (IDSS) in EduMAP
• The aim is to build an Intelligent Decision Support System (IDSS)
prototype to aid policy makers to find out appropriate adult education
interventions for the young vulnerable so that these persons will be
empowered to alleviate the reasons of vulnerability and to become
active participatory citizens.
• Such an IDSS contains:
(1) Relevant data (individual, longitudinal, context bound)
(2) A computed model
(3) A user interface

11. The projects is funded by the European
Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and
Innovation Programme, Contract No. 693388
Original idea for implementation of the platform with
Java EE/Python
User interface for
end user
Server side interface
to application logic
Application logic
Dynamic data of the
context: AE provision,
legislation etc. from
designated open
datasources (API)
Longitudinal data of individuals

12. The projects is funded by the European
Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and
Innovation Programme, Contract No. 693388
Data availability and limitations
• The data availability in different member states reflects different
traditions of data gathering and governance (register vs. survey based
data)
• Different perception of ethical issues in member states: privacy and
autonomy vs. easy access to information – how to assess
accountability of AE services and impact for active citizenship without
evidence?
• Limitations of European (and other large scale) survey data in
reaching marginal phenomena (many are unreachable or ruled out
through methodology and design…)

13. The projects is funded by the European
Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and
Innovation Programme, Contract No. 693388
Next…
Paper 2: Inclusion, lifelong learning and active citizenship: some
examples from England, Ireland and the Netherlands
Nathalie Huegler (UCL Institute of Education), Natasha Kersh (UCL Institute of Education)
Paper 3: Inclusion through mentoring: lessons from Scotland
Andrea Laczik (The Edge Foundation)
Paper 4: Adult education as a means to social inclusion in Nordic
welfare states
Hanna Toiviainen (Tampere University), Paula Kuusipalo (Tampere University), Pirkko Pitkanen
(Tampere University)
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