On Friday, October 21, 2022, a professional conference was held to mark the conclusion of the project “Training of Educators at NIPO in KRZS 2020–2022, in which Cene Štupar – CILJ is a consortium partner. The conference was hosted by the Ajdovščina Adult Education Center, which, together with its partners, presented the results of two years of work and discussed with all participants the efforts to ensure greater professionalization of adult educators.
The conference was attended by various experts in the field of professional development for adult educators and andragogy in general, as well as organizers and providers of adult education, managers, and all those connected in one way or another to the field of adult education. The conference featured a presentation on the “Professional Framework for Systematic Monitoring of the Continuing Education Needs of Educators in Non-Formal Adult Education Programs,” developed by the Ajdovščina Adult Education Center. These consist of two key components: an analysis of the professional development needs of adult educators in the Western Slovenia Cohesion Region and a theoretical model for establishing an information system. These professional foundations serve as the basis for the high-quality development of a system for monitoring the professional development needs of all adult educators in non-formal adult education programs, namely those employed in public and private adult education organizations, societies, and associations, as well as those employees who are identified as suitable personnel to perform educational work as adult educators, and the field of their professional development.
The partners developed and organized 13 professional development programs for educators in non-formal adult education programs, in which they subsequently enrolled and trained more than 900 adult educators, of whom over 600 were trained right here at our institution.
This was followed by an exceptionally interesting panel discussion, during which participants debated the way forward— how to systematically monitor and respond to the need for continuing education for adult educators in the future. Moderated by Tina Rožac (director of the Koper Adult Education Center), the discussion featured outstanding domestic and international experts in the field of adult education, representatives of companies, and decision-makers: Dr. Katarina Babnik (Faculty of Arts, University of Ljubljana), Dr. Nataša Potočnik (Andragogy Center of Slovenia), Mag. Bojan Hajdinjak (Association of Adult Education Centers of Slovenia), Prof. Dr. Ana Krajnc (Slovenian University for the Third Age), Maruša Hauptman Železnik (Slovenian Railways, d. o. o.), Mario Vučić (Agency for Vocational and Adult Education, Croatia), and Teja Dolgan (Ministry of Education, Science, and Sport).
