Page 5 - COMP-UP_IO4_Motivation Toolkit_EN_new

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Introduction

According to the PIAAC Survey of Adult Skills, approximately 70 million Europeans struggle with
basic reading and writing, calculation and using digital tools in everyday life. The lack of these
skills, makes various necessary everyday activities difficult and represent a barrier to social- and
work inclusion. The importance of Digital Literacy, as one of the eight key competences that
every European citizen should master, is even highlighted by the European Commission’s 2010
Digital Agenda for Europe.

As a response to this need, the European Council adopted the “Recommendation on Upskilling
Pathways” in order to help adults acquire a minimum level of literacy, numeracy and digital skills
through the development of high-quality and accessible services.
In this context the COMP-UP consortium, according to its experience with disadvantaged and
low qualified adults, suggests that updating competences of Adult Education Professionals (AEP)
who support adult learners is a reply to improve the literacy, numeracy and digital skills of this
target group.

Engaging and motivating low-skilled adult learners is another key aspect of the COMP-UP
project. Motivation is defined as a psychological process responsible for initiating, maintaining,
supporting or stopping a behaviour. It is in a way the force that drives us to act and think in one
way or another. There is a consensus that motivation is based on the interaction of intrinsic (or
internal) and extrinsic (external) factors. While intrinsic motivational factors are specific to the
individual, that they relate to his or her perception of self and of the situation, to the pleasure
and satisfaction he or she derives from an activity, extrinsic motivational factors refer to the
learning context, to the means that can encourage the learner to achieve a goal.

Therefore, adult educators have a complex task to accomplish on this regard: to animate their
adult learners to enrol in an educational or training programme, motivate them, triggering their
intrinsic, primary motivation for learning, help them overcome their aversion to learning and
changing, maintain them in education, persuading them that education is about acquiring social
power and a way to construct their future (including a future professional career).

Adult education professionals have to adapt courses and activities to their learner’s analysed
needs and may need to develop tailor-made measures to attract adults back to learning. Not
only are personalised, tailor-made learning offers crucial, but professionals have to pay special
attention to the needs of different vulnerable groups of adult learners.

In order to attract learners to education and maintain the motivation of low-educated learners,
it is crucial to get to know them and their life stories. This way, they can be advised before,
during and after the implementation of the workshop. Remembering their names right from the
start and reacting to what they say is essential.