INSTITUTE BURJA EXPLORING EUROPE UNDER ERASMUS+

Under the Other Perspectives of Knowledge project, we implement staff learning mobility to improve the practices of non-formal education for minorities in Slovenia

Our Institute Burja pursues its internationalisation strategy through staff mobility projects, strengthening its international network of partner organisations and introducing new knowledge into its work processes, exchanging good practices, relevant information, joint initiatives, mutual learning, and new projects.

In this way, it contributes to the more significant role of minority organisations in non-formal adult education and added value to its end users, immigrants from ex – Yugoslav nations living in Slovenia.

With each working visit, we make a long-term impact on key areas that are important to us. We strengthen the motivation of adult minority members for non-formal education, improve their learning opportunities and potentials, promote awareness, information and social inclusion activities, improve our organisation’s institutional capacity, and develop international and regional partnerships.

To strengthen cross-sectoral integration, we choose various institutions abroad, from municipalities to people’s universities or non-governmental organisations. We need to operate in a nationally mixed environment, coordinate various forms of non-formal education and have positive practices in the social inclusion of ethnic minorities.

We successfully implemented staff mobility projects under the Erasmus + program for several years. Even during the restrictions due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we performed all our mobility live. Recently, we also obtained Erasmus accreditation in the field of adult education.

As part of the current project, Other Perspectives of Knowledge, we have already carried out learning mobility with partner organisations in the Municipality of Ludbreg and the People’s University of Umag (Croatia) and with the NGO Innovative Network in Subotica (Serbia).

Finally, we visited the Permanent Representation of the Republic of Slovenia to the EU in Brussels. The visit took place between 9 and 11 March 2022. During the visit, we were greeted by Luka Živić and Barbara Zupan, Advisers for Education, Youth and Sports, and Sašo Gazdić, Advisers for Culture and Audiovisual Affairs.

We had a series of individual and joint discussions with them on the topic of analysis of the situation and implementation of new policies in adult education, both in general and in the field of culture. The talks focused on recent trends in the Adult Education Strategy until 2030, also in the light of the new Resolution on the European Program for Adult Learning of the EPUO, which was adopted last autumn during the Slovenian Presidency.

We are pleased that the European Agenda continues to pursue priority challenges based on blended learning, the development (and limitation) of digital learning, and, most importantly, more inclusive and socially equitable education.

Among the series of topics we have discussed, we would like to highlight some in which we recognise the additional potential for strengthening the priorities of pursuing a common strategy. It is about establishing a common European approach to creating a micro-credential system and writing the learning outcomes that individuals achieve through small-scale learning. Another topic is the various incentives for involving our members in adult education programs. One of such possibilities is the introduction of personal accounts and vouchers, with which the state would systematically encourage the inclusion of adults in various adult education programs. A similar one was introduced in Croatia some time ago.

We believe that a good and consistent policy of introducing these tools would help our immigrants to choose, with a more motivated approach, those educational contents that will make them less socially excluded and, on the other hand, more competitive in the labour market. This would be an essential step towards their better integration into the majority society.