"""Folk high school and a civil society - from cultural education to increased level of literacy"" - is the title of the project, which on the one hand perfectly fits in the interest and work of our association and partners, whom we invited to implement this project, and may also be very helpful in enriching the work of teachers of partner organizations in developing the civil society.The year 2018 was declared the Year of Cultural Heritage by the European Commission (EYCH -European Year of Cultural Heritage). In the Culture Development Strategy (Strategia Rozwoju Kultury) 2004-2020 it is noted that the participation in culture is one of the aspects of socio-economic development. During talks with our foreign partners, we decided, considering those two aspects, this is a great moment to present our project. The more so because in each country our partners come from, there are similar problems with participation in culture and with a low level of basic skills (according to PIAAC, over 16% of European adults have problems with basic skills). While preparing this project, all partner organizations carried out quite detailed internal analyses to identify the following problems:1. Very few students interested in the offer - problems of the institution2. Non-attractive courses for adults - the reluctance of educators to the novelty resulting from the fear of the unknown3. Low basic skills of the local community4. Lack of educational offer promoting the language and culture of the region among expatriates (foreigners)5. A large percentage of people with low basic skills.The main goals of our project, on which we and our partners particularly care are:1. An increase in the number of participants in courses improving basic skills2. Expanding the educational offer taking into account the needs of the local community3. Inspiring the staff to introduce new educational solutions (cultural education with education for the improvement of basic competences)4. Organization of pilot courses on basic skills through cultural educationThe international dimension of this project will allow participants to verify their skills and learn new methods of working with students. Thanks to trips to international project meetings to Spain, Italy, Germany and Poland related to culture and local traditions, teachers from all partner institutions will raise their own cultural awareness of partner countries / regions and enrich their own ""workshop"". The increase in the competences of educators will correspond directly into the increase of the level of basic skills amongst adults living in the local communities. In the opinion of the authors of the project, such selected priorities are consistent with the idea of the entire project, with its goals and with accordance to the Europe 2020 . At the same time, those priorities are a response to the needs of society across EuropeDue to the fact that the project laguage will be English, we expect our teacher to improve their language skills. Taking into account the fact of different locations of partners in various cultural areas, the participants of these meetings will gain knowledge about the culture of partner countries. During meetings they will have the opportunity to exchange experiences with other educators related to cultural education in different countries. Such meetings will certainly contribute to improving interpersonal competences and team work skills. After the completion of the project ""Folk high school and a civil society - from cultural education to increased level of literacy"" , we are confident that by using the knowledge and skills, teachers of our schools will be much better prepared to help increase the percentage of people participating in adult education. Enriched - with new methods and forms of educational activities acquired from partners - will allow to reduce the percentage of adults with low basic skills, for example by increasing the number of participants in cultural education courses at each partner's organisation.The project's innovation is based on using cultural education to improve the level of basic skills (something that has not been widely tested yet). Our research shows that adults are ashamed to come to classes directly addressed to people with low basic competences, especially basic skills in the field of writing, reading and ICT. It is much easier to encourage them to take part in activities related to cultural education, very broadly understood. During singing, learning about tradition and cooking, you can also practice and improve basic skills, and at the same time enrich your knowledge about culture. This makes people more creative and active, which relates directly into the civil society."

Lifelong learning has become an essential part of EU´s response to challenges that derive from globalisation, increased competition and the need for sustainable development and social cohesion. The NEWS project has identified effective preventative interventions for educators and adult trainers to become more up-skilled and up-to-date professionals who could be attractive for the nowadays students and adult learners. The project aims to introduce innovative ways to adult educators for reaching out to young and adult learners in the topics like media, critical thinking and languages; also for inclusion and reintegration of young people on the pathway toward an employment and further education on their way becoming adult educators.More specifically, according to SA Kutsekoda (Chamber of Certification) there are only 439 adult educators with existing certificate as adult educator or andragogue, most of adult educators are older than 50 years old. Therefore, there is utmost importance to find ways to increase the number of the adult education by motivating young people or new in the adult education field to become adult educator and train them in the topics like media, critical thinking and languages. Supporting empoyment of young people and ensuring their social and economic participation are already key issues on the agenda of all EU countries. Also, as most of adult educators are elderly people, they are lacking knowledge and skills of innovative teaching methods, especially of using computers and social media.NEWS project aims to increase participation of the younger people into labour market and in education through up-skilling existing adult educators in effective engagement methodologies, increasing awareness among non-educators about attractive possibilities of becoming adult educators. The secondary aim is to get general overview of the needs of the existing adult educators so that they could do marvelous work and give innovative classes/lectures/courses among general population.Adult educators, trainers, etc knowledge regarding innovative skills is limited. Critical thinking is not included in any syllabus or curriculum. Media and ICT are taught to the younger people, but elderly people are left out and their skills are perished.The objective of the project is to give the possibility to educators and trainers for better and more targeted provisions of services through the use of tools which will be implemented under the project. To achieve the above aims the project will implement the following objectives:- Identification of the needs of the existing adult trainers and educators;- Development of an on-line e-Learning Toolkit for the general methodology how to include critical thinking into syllabus of languages, ICT and media with examples;- Development of an on-line manual for training new educators. The use of specific tools would enable the target group to allocate their time with each one of the people who could be in need of their counselling in a more constructive and effective way, via mobilizing internet technologies.- Development and implementation of targeted courses, which enable adult educators to support and improve the skills of new adult educators. The practical training courses give possibility to get more personal communication between adult educators and possibly new adult educators by also up-skilling both target groups knowledge in topics of media, ICT and languages.The partners of the consortium aspire to facilitate the work of the target groups and fostering the delivery of more targeted services to people who are looking towards the job and training as adult educators, with the vision that the adult educator field of the participating countries can be more effective and more satiscatory for the general population participating in adult education.The main target groups of the project is addressing are existing adult educators with the need to up-skill their competences; and new educators with the need to be active in empoyment, training, etc in order to provide better assistance and motivated training courses for the learners.For all participants regarding selection, relevance to the content of the project (i.e. pilot testing) will be the primary focus. Any individual that has an interest in learning, sharing and/or participating in the project activities or being informed about the activities will be engaged. The engagement of the partners’ networks and the associated partners that have direct links with target groups is the most importance. Each partner involved, using criteria such as: knowledge, labor market-related background, time available, language and ICT skills etc., will select the participants to participate in the activities.