Within the third cycle of the EPALE project, phase 2022-2024, a study visit to the National Support Service EPALE Italy was held on September 7 and 8, 2023. Representatives of the National Support Services (NSS) EPALE from Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina participated in this visit.
On the first day of the visit, in the premises of the National Erasmus+ Agency in Italy “INDIRE” in Florence, the hosts of the visit warmly welcomed the arrival of the delegation of B&H and Croatia and presented their work and successful project results on the EPALE platform. The representatives of NSS Italy presented the Italian synergy strategy: the management of the Erasmus+ projects: EPALE and eTwinning. The participants of the visit had the opportunity to learn more about the implementation of numerous activities in Italy as part of the EPALE project. The members of NSS Italy, Martina Blasi and Giacomo Scarzanella, spoke about the communication strategy, activities implementation, platform administration, networking strategy among both national ambassadors and stakeholders. This was followed by the presentation of good practices by representatives of NSS Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia, whose team members talked about the activities implemented within the current EPALE cycle, goals set and challenges they are facing at their national levels. Also, both visiting NSS teams shared with the hosts many examples of good practices from the joint regional EPALE cooperation of national teams from Southeast European countries.
The second day was devoted to a visit to the Center for Adult Education “Provincial Adult Education Center 2 Miriam Makeba – Florence, CPIA2”, a structure of the Ministry of Education in Italy which creates and implements training programmes for adults and young adults who do not have the final qualification of the first cycle of education or who have not fulfilled the obligation of education. Italian language professor and EPALA ambassador in Italy, Mrs. Valentina Verze hosted the second day of the visit, when she gave a presentation on the work of the institution and explained the process of creating courses for adults. As she stated, literacy and Italian language courses are levelled and created according to the specific needs of adult students.
The EPALE study visit resulted in the exchange of experiences, knowledge and good practices among NSSs from Italy, Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina and opened new opportunities for future cooperation at the international level. On behalf of the Agency and NSS EPALE B&H, Bosnian and Herzegovinian delegation was represented by PhD Siniša Gatarić, Daria Mršić and Slavko Karan.
EPALE Study visit to Italy
