Partnerships for cooperation in adult education

This action enables participating organisations to gain experience in international cooperation and to strengthen their capacities, but also to produce high-quality innovative deliverables.

What types of activities are supported in these projects?

Organisations have the flexibility to choose the best combination that contributes to reaching the project’s objectives in relation to its scope and in proportion to the capacities of the partnership.

These activities refer to the implementation of project activities (networking events, meetings, conferences, working sessions to to exchange practices and to develop results, staff and learner trainings etc.), project management and promotion activities.

Are there specific areas or topics these projects should address?

Projects are required to frame their activities within one or more priorities, which are prescribed annually by the European Commission, and to choose them at the application stage.

In the 2023 Call for proposals, Partnerships for Cooperation must address at least one priority from the list you can find bellow.

In addition, national agencies responsible for managing the Erasmus+ Programme may identify one or more of these European priorities as particularly relevant for the national context.

Additional aspects

In addition to the formal criteria, project proposals should pay attention to the following aspects:

  • Environment and sustainability – projects should encourage all participants to learn and discuss the issues related to the environment, as well as to find alternative, greener ways of implementing project activities.
  • Inclusion and diversity – organisations should devise accessible and inclusive project activities, taking into account the needs, as well as the opinions of participants with fewer opportunities.
  • Digital dimension – virtual cooperation as well as experimenting with virtual or blended learning possibilities is encouraged.
  • Common values, civic engagement and participation: The Programme will support active citizenship and ethics in lifelong learning; it will foster the development of social and intercultural competences, critical thinking and media literacy.
Types of projects

Depending on the project objectives, participating organisation and the expected impact, these projects can be of different sizes and scope. Accordingly, there are two types of partnerships:

  • Cooperation Partnerships in Adult Education
  • Small-scale Partnerships in Adult Education
Specific priorities in the field of adult education refer to:

This priority provides support for creation and development of flexible learning offers adapted to the learning needs of adults, for example by developing digital and blended learning opportunities. Priority is also given to projects working on validation of skills acquired through informal and non-formal learning.

This priority aims at promoting new adult education opportunities, particularly for adults with a low level of skills, knowledge and competences. Creation of new upskilling pathways should allow adult learners to enhance their key competences and to progress towards higher qualifications. Complementary work covered under this priority includes developing guidance as a service to ensure that adults have access to relevant learning throughout life, improving skills identification and screening, designing tailored learning offers, and developing effective outreach, guidance and motivation strategies.

Priority is given particularly to projects that develop staff competences that lead to overall improvements in provision, targeting and effectiveness of adult education. This includes assessment of prior knowledge and skills of adult learners, better and more innovative teaching methods, as well as strengthening the supporting role the adult education staff has in motivating, guiding and advising learners in challenging learning situations.

This priority supports the development of better quality assurance mechanisms for adult learning policies and provision. In particular, this includes development and transfer of monitoring methodologies to measure effectiveness of adult education provision and to track the progress of adult learners.

This priority aims to support local learning environments, to promote social inclusion, civic engagement and democracy, and to attract and offer everyone in the community lifelong and life wide learning opportunities, also by exploiting digital technologies. Projects could for example, encourage local learning centres, libraries, civil society and the wider community (NGOs, local authorities, health, culture, etc.) to work together to motivate and enable adults of all ages to learn the life skills and key competences necessary to be resilient and adaptable in the face of change and uncertainty.

Priority is given to projects that create and promote education opportunities and exchanges of experiences to seniors, with a view to building and strengthening European identity.

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