Sobre la inexistencia de cártel o la falta de participación de las empresas en el mismo.

None of the country studies mention trainers of trainers positions in NVAL providers. How- ever, because this position plays an important role in keeping the qualification of adult learning staff up to date, we decided to ask the providers what tasks trainers of NVAL staff have (figure 4.8).

Figure 4.8 Activities by the trainer of adult learning staff in the NVAL providers inter-

viewed (n=45)

0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%

Teaching general subjects Teaching technical and practical subjects Coaching or mentoring people in their personal

development

Tutoring, supporting people in their self-directed learning processes

In-take of participants, needs assessment, accreditation of prior learning Guidance and counselling of people on learning

subjects

Development of material or methods for educational activities (courses etc.) Development of ICT material for educational

activities (courses etc.) Development, planning and organisation of

educational activities (courses etc.) Management, coordination of educational

activities

Evaluation of educational activities Supervision and/or training of adult education

staff

Technical, administrative or organisational support of educational activities

Main task additional task Not applicable

Source: Interview NVAL providers in-depth phase (2007)

Figure 4.8 shows that the main tasks of this group of staff are in the range of the tasks seen in management positions (supervision and/or training of staff; development, planning and organisation of educational activities; management, coordination of educational activi- ties; evaluation, development of educational materials; participant admission. Although teaching general subjects is only indicated as a main task by around 20 percent of the pro- viders, it is mentioned as an additional task by almost 60 percent. More than 50 percent of the providers say that such positions do not exist in their organisation.

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4.4

Concluding remarks

Practitioners in NVAL hold various positions. In this chapter the various positions are grouped into teaching, management, counselling and guidance, media, programme plan- ning, and supporting positions. All these fields play an important role in professional devel- opment. Some of them have always been directly related to adult education (such as teach- ing and training), for others the awareness of their relevance has only developed more re- cently, such as guidance and counselling functions and management functions.

The country reports also show that less is known about the so called “hidden groups” of adult learning staff, such as administrative staff. Most information is available concerning the position of teacher or trainer. As a consequence there is a need for more research on the other groups of staff in order to identify their work domains and define the set of appro- priate competences needed.

In setting objectives for the professional development of staff, it seems helpful to distin- guish between tasks, activities and staff competence. The study shows that NVAL staff cover a broad range of tasks and activities, especially in the case of teachers and trainers. Managers too face a broad package of tasks but one that seems to be more consistent in that it contains management and coordination, development and planning, supervision and, to a lesser extent, technical and organisational support tasks. The rest of the positions show a much more focused task set. This broad diversity of tasks makes working in NVAL particularly demanding. Too many different tasks may lead to an overly large number of tasks that are beyond an individual’s core competence; on the other hand, too narrow a definition of tasks may lead to a lack of multidisciplinary co-operation, with people being responsible only for their own task list. In the situation we see with teachers and trainers, it seems that with a little more support teachers and trainers would be much better able to focus on their main task which, of course, is teaching and training.

The country studies show that on European and national levels there is no clear view on the standard competences or skills needed to fulfil the above mentioned professional tasks in NVAL, partly due to the diversity of the field. However, in some European countries competence profiles and standards for professional actions of NVAL staff have been devel- oped and implemented. Their scope of application differs considerably between institutional and regional levels. Overall, there is a need for more comprehensive research on this issue with a view to identifying skills and competence needs for those working in the NVAL sec- tor. Moreover, further comparative studies on existing good practice will be needed in or- der to reach a deeper understanding of the conceptual elements as well as the strategies and methods of implementation appropriate for the specific cultural background. This is necessary to assist other countries in finding adequate ways to adapt existing examples to their own context.

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5

Career paths of NVAL staff

5.1

Introduction

This chapter discusses whether there is a common pathway leading to the NVAL profession, or whether we can speak of mutual pathways. To find out more on how professionals may be- come a NVAL professional and how their professionalism changes, we need to know more about the background and life history of different groups of NVAL staff (life-history approach). Consequently, this chapter discusses the educational level, work experience, and other back- ground characteristics of NVAL staff. Moreover, we will go into more detail on the educational pathways in Europe that lead to being an adult educator (like initial and continuing educa- tion). The environment in which the adult learners operate (life and work) provides them with learning opportunities. This occurs to some extent in an incidental way. However, in this study we did not include the incidental modes of learning but focused on those learning situations in which learners deliberately learn in a planned way. In most cases, this chapter focuses on adult educators because the country studies often provide information only on the career paths of teaching positions because so little empirical information is available on the other po- sitions identified in chapter 4.