EDGE Project

The EDGE project is an Erasmus+ strategic partnership comprising of adult and further education providers in Ireland, Austria, Portugal, Greece and Wales. The project aims to enhance the progression prospects of socio-economically disadvantaged adults and young people in order to promote social inclusion and equality measures. Specifically, the EDGE Project aims to develop innovative approaches (career guidance, learner engagement strategies, self-evaluation tools, e-learning resources) in the provision of employability skills development. The opportunity presented by Erasmus+ will enable the partners to share best practice, drawn from our considerable collective experience in the delivery of second-chance education. The project will explore the area of career guidance and how to identify practical learner progression pathways, including the obstacles (both personal and structural) that they must realistically overcome. In order to achieve these goals the partnership is committed to producing and sharing four outputs:

1. Learner Retention Guidelines
The partnership will conduct research among its learners, teaching staff and managers to compile a number of best practice guidelines to improve learner engagement and retention.

2. Openbadge System
We will develop and pilot an Openbadges system. Openbadges are e-tools (using the Mozilla open-source platform) that can be used to accredit learner achievement in the area of core skills acquisition, as well as a way of recognising informal and non-formal learning.

3. e-Portfolio
We will also develop an easy to use and accessible e-portfolio tool which will offer our learners a flexible and effective career planning aid.

4. Final Report
We will compile our findings and best practice solutions in a report to be made available and disseminated to any interested education providers. The Partners:
Ireland: Vocational Training Opportunities Scheme at the Limerick Adult Education College. Austria: VHS Wien – Education for Everybody
Greece: Developing Advanced Forces and New Ideas through VET (DAFNI KEK)
Portugal: INSIGNARE
Wales: WEA YMCA Community College Cymru