About This Course
Facilitating learning for adults is fundamentally different from teaching children. Adults bring decades of life experience, established identities, complex motivations and sometimes difficult histories with formal education into every learning space. They need to feel respected, relevant and in control of their own learning.
This course gives adult education professionals a thorough, evidence-based and personally transformative grounding in adult learning facilitation. Participants explore the theory and research on how adults learn, develop a rich personal facilitation toolkit and practice core skills: active listening, questioning, group management, motivating resistant learners and creating psychological safety.
The course is aligned with the European Agenda for Adult Learning 2021 to 2030, the Union of Skills 2025 and the Erasmus+ priorities of Inclusion and Diversity and Participation in Democratic Life.
Who Should Attend
- Adult educators and facilitators at all experience levels
- Community learning professionals and social workers
- Literacy and basic skills tutors
- Migration and integration workers who facilitate learning
- Anyone who works with adult groups in formal or non-formal educational settings
Learning Outcomes
By the end of this course participants will be able to:
Apply the key theories of adult learning to the design and facilitation of adult learning programmes.
Andragogy, transformative learning, self-directed learning and communities of practice are the foundational theories of adult education. You will use each as a practical design tool and explain their implications clearly to colleagues and managers.
Facilitate adult learning groups with skill, confidence and genuine presence.
Facilitation presence is the most important quality an adult educator can develop: the ability to be fully attentive, responsive and authentic in the group, to read the room and to create conditions where learning can happen even in difficult moments.
Design learning experiences for adults that respect their experience, agency and motivations.
The most powerful adult learning experiences start from the learner's experience, not the educator's content. You will design sessions that draw on participants' knowledge, connect to their real-life purposes and give them genuine agency.
Manage challenging group dynamics including conflict, resistance, disengagement and dominant voices.
Every adult learning group contains people who resist, disengage, dominate or carry old wounds from previous education. You will have specific strategies for each dynamic that are honest, respectful and practically effective.
Develop a personal facilitation philosophy grounded in adult learning principles and EU policy.
You will leave with a written facilitation philosophy that is genuinely yours: grounded in theory, shaped by practice and connected to the EU adult learning policy agenda.
A 7-Day Professional Development Experience
Five days of intensive training with a structured arrival day and cultural excursion. We tailor every programme to your organisation's needs.
Welcome dinner and orientation walk.
Guided cultural excursion. Departure at convenience.
This outline is a starting point. Contact us to discuss how we can tailor this programme for your organisation.
EU Policy Alignment
Erasmus+ 2026 Horizontal Priorities
EU Competence Frameworks
EU Policy Initiatives
Available Locations and Dates
Check the dates page for current availability.
Check Dates and Availability