The seminar “Freedom is participation. The adult at the centre: participating to be trained”, scheduled in Genoa from the 14 to 16 November, puts under the spot light the dimension of participation both as a method and as a space for the construction of territorial networks of lifelong learning.

Which competences, knowledge and training settings do we have to offer to adults, inside and outside the world of work? Are we able to face up to different, but equally important, training needs of all generations, including the very young who dropped out of schools, and the elderlies who have still much to give back in the current generational transition?

Epale Italy that manages at national level the European community for adult education aims to contribute to the increasing demand for educational innovation, placing adult at the centre as important political and social subjects on which the Italian educational system still demonstrates its fragility.

The seminar will be entirely carried out through participatory methods and “learning by doing” and will involve more than 150 people including teachers, and experts of the sector, who are aiming at spreading a larger participatory culture inside the organisations where they operate.

Some of the issues addressed will be: competences for the future, advocacy and networks for lifelong learning. Participants will reason over strengths and weaknesses and the actual innovative and transformative nature of participatory culture also on European and international ground, by familiarising with some of the main participatory methods such as World cafè, Open Space Technology and BarCamp. In the final panel, recommendations useful to guarantee the spreading of dialogue in the territories and action spaces of the participants will be elaborated, accounting for shared long term perspectives, methods and educational actions.

The event will take place in the department of political sciences of the University of Genoa and is organised by EPALE Italia, in collaboration with the university of Genoa, the National forum of the Third sector, Edaforum, and the spin-off of the university of Florence, MoCa Future Designers.