The third transnational meeting of the MAPA – Mapping barriers and target groups to increase participation in adult education project took place in Lisbon, at the headquarters of the partner Edu.In – Associação para a Educação Integral, on 19 Jun2024, being preceded by an international round table, on the 18th.

The round table was attended by Monika Petlusová, Edita Rigová and Peter Mala, representing the Forum for Lifelong Learning, from Slovakia, the project's leading partner. In addition to the Edu.In project team, 14 experts from seven Portuguese organizations stakeholders of  the MAPA project participated in the round table: Rede de Desenvolvimento Local de Base Comunitária de Lisboa, Animar - Associação Portuguesa para o Desenvolvimento Local, Barafunda AJCSS (Centro Qualifica), Conselho Português para os Refugiados, CECOA - Centro de Formação Profissional para o Comércio e Afins, JRS Portugal –  Serviço Jesuíta aos Refugiados e Lisboa Cidade da Aprendizagem (an e-learning platform managed by Lisbon City Council).

The round table began with the presentation of partial and preliminary results common to research carried out in Portugal and Slovakia, particularly regarding the following barriers to access to education and training faced by people with low qualifications:

• Geographic inaccessibility and lack of public transport;
• Lack of knowledge of existing possibilities;
• Lack of knowledge about where to find information; 
• Lack of financial resources;
• Priority to work to the detriment of education;
• Negative experiences in the past with formal education.

The organizations represented spoke based on their diverse work experiences in adult education and training, establishing a debate rich in reflections, which will be the subject of a text to be published soon, and generating pertinent indications to be considered in the final report of the study.

The MAPA project, co-financed by the Erasmus+ Program, will run until March 2025, and is currently in an intermediate phase between the conclusion of the empirical research, based on around 60 interviews, and the beginning of the analysis of its contents.