Media literacy has become one of the most essential skills in today's life. In the association, we have organized media literacy training for residents of more remote settlements and found that people lack understanding of the most basic issues. Therefore, we started with the simplest - such as passwords to a person's various accounts, PIN codes, etc. It seems to be self-evident, but in life it is different. And only after that we could start talking about fake news, hate speech, which, especially in the context of the Ukrainian war, is currently abundant in the Internet environment and creates additional psychological tension in people. Game forms that are accessible and usable by children, youth and adults alike are great.

Thanks for the great discussion! I would also like to add that we can use the concept of basic skills in a broader sense when it comes to an individualized approach. Basic skills are skills, due to the lack of which a person has reduced opportunities for life and work. For someone, it can be language skills, for someone - learning skills, for another - entrepreneurship. Individual learning accounts are a good opportunity to deal with the improvement of basic skills on an individual basis. This requires the ability of educators to work flexibly with a diverse adult audience.

Dear Colleagues,

On behalf of my colleagues and our experts today, I would like to thank all of you for your active participation and inspiring contributions! Let us continue sharing experiences in a less structured way, as moderation is over at 4 pm today. 

• If you find it relevant and useful, don't forget to share the discussion page in your network to let your partners know about today's insights and links!
• We will be back with a summary blog in the following days in which you can read the main points and resources we mentioned today!
• Keep yourself posted on future EPALE discussions to continue the promotion of adult learning through the EU Year of Skills! 

Thank you all again for your participation!

It was good to see basic skills highlighted and I particularly liked Estera Mozina's emphasis on the importance of professional identity, resilience and fulfillment.  It would be good to hear more on this.  I also liked that the point that good action research leads to the merging of theory and practice.  I remember, as part of my earlier studies, looking at the role of the reflective practitioner - and the importance of being reflective in practice and constantly questioning.  That has stayed with me throughout my years of teaching.

When discussing digital literacy as a basic skill, these discussions are often limited to functional and technical skills, i.e. being able to use digital technologies. Digital literacy however cannot be considered in isolation from wider media and information literacy: In order to be able to engage with digital technologies and the content distributed via them in today's world, it is crucial to have a basic understanding of the processes behind the production of media and content and to have critical skills for reflecting and evaluating media and information. Media and information literacy is thus an important basic skill, not just for the workspace, but also for civic participation and for all areas of personal life. The Media and Information Literacy Curriculum of UNESCO from 2021 is a useful reference point here.

We at COMMIT in Austria have been working in a project, where we try to help basic skills educators to develop methods for promoting critical media and information literacy at a basic level for adult learners, focusing on relevant issues like the production of news, dealing with desinformation or hate speech, data privacy or Artificial Intelligence.

What worked best for the educators was to plan short workshop sessions with participants (1,5 h max) and to use creative activities that were both fun for the participants and made them reflect on the issues in a new way. For the educators it was also important to see their workshops not as a traditional teaching situation, where they are the expert, but as a mutual learning experience, where both the participants and the educators/trainers can learn something from each other's experiences. These insights might be helpful for other basic skills programs as well.

If anyone is interested in our project, you can find more information (in German) here: https://explore-skgt.at/ 

Here are some of the points we discussed in the livestream:

• Basic skills programs are contextual - their content and the facilitators, trainers working in these settings are expected to consider the context
• Trainers working in basic skills development already come to teaching with a set of expertise that can be elicited during the training - professional development courses need to consider the prior knowledge and experience of the personnel. 
• Teachers and trainers' identity is influenced by professional, but as well as personal factors. Professional and personal identity should be in balance to make trainers more resilient to challenges they face during work. 
• Participation is an important element that result in motivation. Carefully designed action research methodology can contribute to a productive and self-fulfilling career engagement behaviour. 

What were you take-aways?

When planning adult education, it is essential to provide an opportunity for adults who finished formal education several years ago to enhance their basic skills. Basic skills provide a strong foundation for ongoing learning and personal development. Adults with solid literacy and numeracy skills are more likely to pursue further education or training, enabling them to adapt to new challenges and opportunities.

Good morning!

Basic skills are at the begining of our learning journey. They are really the starting point to accumulate much more learning layers. It’s impossible to be sucessfull in our society without reading, writing, ICT. But soon we discover this is not enough. We also need specific and technical skills related to a job, as well as soft skills to different domains of our lives.

All this combination is a huge challenge in the professionalisation of basic skills trainers, especially when it comes to adults. This target group can not wait to achieve a good level of literacy and numeracy to obtain other skills, like the techinical ones. All these skills come together in adulthood. So, adult basic skills educators should pay attention to adults as individuals already having a job, a family and comitted in society. These adults should learn the skills considered basic although in other domains of their lives they are not acting at a basic level. That’s why, in my opinion, it is so complex to talk about basic skills in adulthood.

I think, that to promote the development of basic skills the following key points are crucial. Create awareness about the importance of basic skills in employability and personal development. Encourage collaboration between educational institutions, governments, businesses, and civil society organizations to address the issue collectively. Invest in comprehensive teacher or lecturer training programs to equip educators with effective strategies for developing basic skills in students. Promote innovative teaching methods that foster critical thinking, problem-solving, communication, digital literacy skills and other important skills. Emphasize the importance of lifelong learning and provide opportunities for adults to acquire or enhance their basic skills. Engage the general public through media, social platforms, and public events to prioritize basic skills development. 

In our region we organize seminars and round tables focused on further education, motivating adults to learn. A small number of participants is enough, in a small group it is much easier to discuss and find interesting solutions. The important thing is to start somehow and create a network of like-minded people around you who know each other best personally. Only then do you go on to bigger events.

Thank you All for following the stream discussion with our experts today!

You can find more details about the Prison Reading Group's project that Sam mentioned in her talk here: https://prisonreadinggroups.org.uk/  and to learn more about the action research project on the professional identity of teachers in Slovenia, see Estera's presentation from EBSN Annual Conference 2023 here. 

We continue our day here in the comment section. Feel free to share your thoughts on the points you've learnt about in the livestream and on the following points too: 

• How can we call for action for basic skills development during the EU Year of Skills?

• What are the main challenges and potentials in the professionalisation of basic skills trainers?

• How can ongoing EU policies in adult learning (microcredentials and individual learning accounts) contribute to the professionalisation of basic skills trainers?

Adult reading skills are a critical issue that persists despite educational and technological development. While in the past, it was commonly associated with individuals who had limited formal education, it has become increasingly evident that even those with higher education levels can struggle with certain types of texts, particularly scientific ones, without visual aids.  The complexity of scientific texts, filled with technical terminology, can pose significant challenges for many adults. Adult educators should offer reading strategies for reading complex texts in lessons, thus promoting adult reading skills development.

Nobody will deny  that  the acquisition of basic skill are  of the most important part of the life of everybody.At the same time we have to remember that  it is a purposeful activity that requires effort and motivation and understanding what is necessary and meaningful for the person to live in the 21st century , because the life is so rapid and changing and unpredictable.May be somebody of you have  developed so called standard requirements for adult educators in this changing world ?

Hello from Bulgaria. Hello from NSS EPALE in Bulgaria.

Viva EBSN.

Zhuliyan

Welcome to our discussion "Emphasising basic skills in the European Year of Skills"! 

We invite you to to interact here in the comments section by sharing your view and asking questions!

The streaming will be followed, as usual, by a written discussion until 4pm. We look forward to your contributions :)

Guido (EPALE Moderator)

Dear Colleagues,

We are excited to start today's discussion at 10:00 CET! We will break off with a livestream session with our invited experts Sam Duncan from UCL Institute of Education and Estera Možina from the Slovenian Institute for Adult Education!

We will start by discussing matters around professionalisation of basic skills teachers and then, continue with the EPALE discussion. I will by your moderator for the day until 16:00 CET! You are of course more than welcome to share your thoughts after 16:00 CET too and re-watch to video stream as it will continue to be available on EPALE!

Thank you in advance for joining us! See you soon!

Tamás 

Basic skills are the foundation for lifelong learning and are fundamental for individuals to navigate various aspects of life effectively. Literacy, numeracy, and digital literacy skills enable individuals to access information, communicate effectively, and engage with modern technologies. These skills are essential for personal growth, employment opportunities, and civic participation. However, I want to draw attention to the fact that nowadays, one of the basic skills is the ability to learn. Unfortunately, this skill often hinders acquiring all other basic skills. All courses should help adults learn the skill of active learning.

We are going on UNE 71362 in our strategy for the next 3 years and I think it´s very close to the skills thah content creators and teachers need. We´ll be watching and taking notes tomorrow

I'm currently working at my first project within the Lifelong Learning field, so it may be that I wasn't able to get the full picture yet. But what I noticed during research and discussions is that we are using a variety of 'buzzwords': Basic Skills, Future Skills, 21st Century Skills... and sometimes I'm not sure about where's the exact distinction between all of those. And I also have the impression that I'm not the only one feeling this way.

But: you can only systematically improve something if you can define and measure it. So I would really appreciate a clear definition: Which skills can be seen as Basic Skills right now (for me, literacy is a big point)? Which criteria are used to define them?

Many thanks in advance!

Basic skills of adults have been a frequent topic of discussion amongst various policymakers, educators and employers over the course of the recent years. Skills insufficiency  evidently has a significant impact on our societies. Low-educated individuals are less likely to participate and have a positive role in public life. The changes in the global labor market require people to have different skills than they did yesterday or they do today. This means that a major part of the workforce needs to be reskilled.  To anticipate the challenges and opportunities both companies and employees will face in the near future, a list of  future workspace skills that will be highly in demand such as: 

Analytical thinking and innovation

Complex problem-solving

Leadership and social influence

Technology use, monitoring and control

Resilience, stress tolerance and flexibility