In December 2022, Global Libraries Bulgaria Foundation as part of a cooperation partnership began implementation of the DIGI BREAKER + project, funded under the European Union’s Erasmus+ program, Action KA220-ADU – Cooperation partnerships in adult education. The project is led by Alphabet Formation in Belgium, and is being implemented by an alliance of adult education centres with expertise in the application of digital technologies across Belgium, Bulgaria, Italy, Lithuania and Sweden.
The 24-month project aims to contribute to the following Erasmus+ programme’s policy priorities: improving the availability of high quality learning opportunities for adults; developing forward-looking learning centres; and addressing digital transformation through development of digital readiness, resilience and capacity.
The cooperation partnership will design comprehensive solutions for creating new career opportunities for unemployed adults, through a strategy that aims to widen the adoption of digital guidance services and strengthen their foundations inside local communities, which will in turn cascade through the countries involved and to a wider European level. An innovative aspect to the project is its focus on support structures for both job seekers and their guidance counsellors while incorporating self-reflection and environmental-impact awareness.
DIGI-BREAKER + will design, develop and test a sustainability-based digital skills framework (with an e-book and MOOC for adult learners and employment counsellors) that will support digital, green, open and multi-channel approaches to career guidance, foster the creation of stronger dialogue between unemployed adults and career counsellors/adult educators, and create a general awareness of how digital sustainability could be embedded in the job-search process.
100 adult learners and 50 educators and employment counsellors will be directly involved in the piloting of the project materials, with a wider reach of at least 1000 learners, educators and counsellors throughout the course of the project. The goal is not only to increase useful digital competences, but also the motivation and self-awareness around potential career options for learners and their advisors.
The DIGI-BREAKER + project will work in the spirit of various European values such as the European Pillar of Social Rights assertion that “everyone has the right to timely and tailor-made assistance to improve employment or self-employment prospects” and the recommendation of the 2021 Porto Declaration to centre education and skills in any project action. DIGI-BREAKER + will also work to bring returning learners back to a “safe and inclusive learning or working environment” as prioritised by the European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training. The nature and content of the project will support the development of green skills while maintaining attention on the green impact of its delivery, and foster active citizenship by reducing the risk of marginalisation.
The project objectives will be achieved through three results:
- The BRIDGE THE GAP multi-media tool that will support job-seeking adults to develop new skills that will help them to find new job opportunities. The tool will be developed through the collection and analysis of good practices of digital tools and methodologies.
- DIGI BREAKER CDAP (Community Development Action Plan) is a road map for managing the full exploitation of the DIGI-BREAKER methodology transnationally, which will support users and foster its implementation within local learning centres, libraries, civil society and the wider community.
- The DIGI-BREAKER Strategic Action Plan will produce recommendations to policymakers and adult training providers on how to transfer and up-scale the project results.
