© St. Virgil Salzburg 

“Finding security within oneself by building a stable personality.”

The Erasmus+ “Basic Psychosocial Education” project addressed the question of how people can regard themselves as self-confident and self-efficacious individuals despite facing adverse circumstances.

 Developments in society provide the impetus for the “Basic Psychosocial Education” project

Our reality is increasingly defined by complexity, acceleration, and greater efficiency. The course of life is taking trajectories that are steadily becoming less reliable and predictable. Many people are overwhelmed and exhausted by the expanding range of options and choice points, coupled with increasing disruptions in their personal and professional lives.

As a consequence of life’s shifting realities, emotional stress is on the rise, together with an increasing incidence of diagnosed mental illness.

The COVID-19 pandemic, which emerged as this project was under way, exposed even more starkly the pressures people face, as well as the constraints and potential they have to cope with them.

Educators and lecturers working in adult education are hence called upon to develop new offerings and formats that contribute more effectively to preventing these problems. Ultimately, when people are equipped with psychosocial skills, they are able to delve into social and cultural arenas and help shape them, to assume responsibility and practice self-care.

 Strategic partnership for sharing good practices

From 2018–2021, five European adult education institutions grappled with the issues surrounding the changing realities people are facing in their lives and the resulting psychosocial pressures as part of the Erasmus+ Basic Psychosocial Education project.

The project partners developed a concept of basic psychosocial education that can be applied in adult education to help people cope with these challenges using a preventive approach.

Alongside St. Virgil Salzburg (Austria), the participating institutions included the Volkshochschule Salzburg (Austria), the Bremer Volkshochschule (Germany), the Bildungshaus Kloster Neustift (Italy), and the VHS Bildungsinstitut Eupen (Belgium).

© St. Virgil Salzburg 

Life skills in the twenty-first century

The central basis of the Basic Psychosocial Education project, BPE for short, is a description of the current life circumstances in connection with one’s own life skills.

Drawing on this basic analysis, the project participants developed an ideal model for a “strong personality” in psychosocial terms. Under the main pillars of “Thinking”, “Feeling”, “Desiring”, and “Acting”, the group identified attitudes and skills that can be expected to enhance a person’s resilience and mental health.

While this is significant on the level of the individual, given the financial implications of rising mental illnesses, it has socio-political relevance as well.

Finding security within oneself by building a stable personality

In summary, basic psychosocial education is a preventive approach to bolstering life skills. It promotes people’s ability to self-direct in social contexts, supports their sense of personal responsibility, and provides opportunities to develop a personal orientation system. It aims to support people’s (mental) health, to promote equal (health) opportunities, and to encourage people to participate in society.

Basic psychosocial education is also based on the triad of education, counselling, and guidance. It opens up “resonant spaces of learning”, “encounter zones”, and “workshops of success and failure”. It works on the basis of resources, engages the target groups, and incorporates forms of self-directed and informal learning. It devotes a great deal of attention to the transfer of learning.

 Basic psychosocial education – a pedagogical action plan

Based on the realities, the growing lack of orientation, the urge to self-optimise, and the accelerated pace of life, the project partners formulated a definition of basic psychosocial education as a field of action within adult education:

• Providing guidance to people from a holistic perspective of the person
• Acquiring, maintaining, and expanding the basic life skills of responsible personal conduct and constructive social interaction
• The availability of (actionable) knowledge around issues of personal development and crisis management (psychoeducation)
• A range of offerings that are accessible to all target groups and sectors of society
• A learning offer that incorporates the pedagogical, psychological, and neurobiological principles of knowledge and competence acquisition

In addition to the theoretical foundation, the project team designed and implemented new formats. Secondly, they developed strategies and tools to ensure and safeguard the quality of the basic psychosocial education offerings.

This resulted in a framework for quality and a description of what successful learning entails. Furthermore, the project partners designed materials for aspects such as describing the target groups and evaluation.

For more information about the ERASMUS+ Basic Psychosocial Education project and its results, please visit https://www.virgil.at/bildung/psychosoziale-basisbildung and the Erasmus+ Results Platform as well as EPALE.

The Basic psychosocial education project was presented on 24 March at the EPALE and Erasmus+ Conference 2022: Life Skills as a Focus in Adult Education as part of an idea and networking pool. Further information

On behalf of the ERASMUS+ Basic Psychosocial Education project team:

Lisa Maria Jindra
Project Coordinator “Basic Psychosocial Education”
St. Virgil Salzburg
Education – Conference – Hotel
www.virgil.at
lisa.jindra@virgil.at

This project was financed with the support of the European Commission.

The author of this publication assumes sole responsibility for its content; the Commission bears no liability for any further use of the information contained herein.