ULLL Strategy of CIU

Background

Lifelong learning has been on the European agenda since the European Year of Lifelong Learning in1996, and its importance has been highlighted in the Bologna Process, the Lisbon Strategy and EU 2020. Lifelong learning had two main pillars: widening participation and learning throughout life.

The economical, social and technological changes has led to the necessity of reforms in Georgian educational system. In whole, Contemporary challenges result in an increased need for lifelong learning (LLL).

The present focus on LLL can be seen as an evolution of prior practice, even if it may seem today to revolutionize the self-understanding of higher education institutions and their perception of service to society. It is sometimes assumed that lifelong learning is in some ways different to the provision of education to traditional students. In reality, institutions do not generally provide different educational services through the provision of lifelong learning. Rather, they make their usual range of educational offer (based on research) available to different groups of learners – and it is here that the link between widening participation and lifelong learning becomes clear.

LLL refers to an individual’s opportunity to acquire knowledge, qualifications and skills throughout his or her life, as well as the capacity to have his/her prior learning recognised (whether personal, civic, social, professional or employment-based learning). LLL must be exemplified by a universal right to lifelong learning based on a set of training schemes open to a wide range of learners.

The concept of lifelong learning from a university perspective means that institutions have to provide services to target groups without losing sight of the importance of providing quality-assured, research-based education.

Definition of ULLL

ULLL focus on skills, both within and outside universities, has meant more focus on employability, and entrepreneurial and social skills in a context of knowledge transfer between universities, public and private stakeholders and students, potentially leading to increased innovation and increased competitiveness of local area.

In accordance with the provisions of the ULLL, its goals and objectives to serve the mission of the university. CIU’s ULLL department is non-formal education hub, which will be added to support the academic programs. It’s designed to prepare joint courses, together with partner universities to develop and implement. Also, its aimed at co-operation with governmental and non-governmental agencies in the development end improvement of regulations.

The ULLL department, which was established in 2011 to the CIU, aims to provide the general public with a possibility to use the university resources for professional and personal development, improvement of qualifications, acquisition of new professional skills, thus leading to the achievement of the major goal of the university.

A working group

In order to develop ULLL Strategy in CIU was set up a working Group, with the support of the rector. To ensure a good exchange of ideas between different stakeholders in the university, the Working Group consisted of people from across the university. For that reason the Group brought together representatives of the 4 faculties, staff members of the (central) educational support units and head of ULLL department. All members of the Working Group had previous experience in organizing continuing education activities for their department, faculty or within their discipline. Some members also had a research expertise in lifelong learning itself.

As a first step the Working Group had to come up with a definition for lifelong learning. University lifelong learning is about the promotion of a “want-to-learn” attitude and the competences to be able to learn, and the subsequent provision of learning opportunities, services and research for the personal and professional development of a wide range of individuals – lifelong and life wide, and for the social, cultural, ethical and economic development of communities and in local area. University lifelong learning is always research-based; it focuses primarily on the needs of the learners within their learning context and whenever relevant it is developed and/or provided in collaboration with stakeholders and external actors.

Strategic plan

The strategy plan is 4 year action plan, which is based on the analysis of the different initiatives taken at our university. There was process of revision of the mission statement, the values and guiding principles. It was created using a bottom-up strategy with the participation of the main agents of the organization: academic and technical staff. The rector and the management team discussed the different strategies and established a calendar and the action plan.

One of these policy notes is an integrated strategic vision and action plan to reinforce the position of the university in terms of knowledge transfer to lifelong learners in Georgia.

Objectives:

The main statement of the educational strategy is that teaching is based on scientific research and the principle of lifelong learning, which defines the core logic of the teaching chapter. Teaching and learning is one of the six strategic research areas of the university. Research and development also underpin LLL that is seen both as a form of dissemination of research results and a form of social interaction. The university also sees itself as a learning organization.

Courses

For developing courses ULLL is based on variety of statistical data on market. CIU is a private higher education institution to which the implementation of these courses is very important financially.

In that context and in order to address the challenge that represents these diverse and specific needs, it is essential to develop a set of integrated and flexible programs that can cope with individual and collective needs.

Courses will be conducted in the state language. Depending on market demand, the courses can be developed for other languages as well. ULL implement long-term and short-term courses. These are:

• Training courses;

• Seminars;

• Certificate courses;

Certificates will be issued to the following:

• Certificate of participation;

• Successful completion of the course;

Target groups

ULLL focused on almost university students, academic and administrative staff, but it’s will be Persons, who are working to the governmental and non-governmental structure. Also, private and public service. In the future, the entire Caucasus region, introduce the implementation of distance learning and e-learning. It’s all of them whom are interested in this courses.

Offers flexible continuing education to professionals and people with vocational qualifications. So far, programs are available in business and health and social care fields. The programs aim to help relieve the labor market shortages of skilled workers.

These programs are for students with non-academic vocational/professional educational backgrounds and with varying levels of qualifications in their field. Open access allows advanced placement based on individual assessment of prior learning.

Thus, lifelong learning is not only about knowledge transfer. Each LLL program needs to provide learners with services that can enable the resumption of studies with the aim of refining skills according to learners’ specific objectives and set of constraints.

In a competitive environment, these programs are strengthened and become more efficient when they belong to a network of excellence, built in close relationship to competitive clusters. The capacity of broadening access and personalizing training programs may require the development of internal and external partnership and cooperation networks in order to develop and disseminate resources jointly

Material and Technical base:

To achieve the goals, ULLL needs three working room, laptops, printer/scanner/copier, projectors, whiteboard and interactive whiteboard. Also, other stationery items.

Quality assurance mechanisms:

Quality assurance should be done by experts inside/outside of the university. Quality control of only domestic resources is prohibited. Quality assurance of courses should be develop by AEAG and also invited experts.

Advertising Opportunities:

Promotional activities include the following:

• Permanent placement information on university website and social networks;

• The news release;

• Send a message to students;

• Distribute flyers;

• Presentations in schools and providing information;

Vision

This, indeed, is the case of Caucasus International University (CIU), where numerous programs have been developed with partners from the local and regional to the national and international levels. However, LLL is still not seen as a holistic process that underlies the strategic decisions of the university.

As a consequence, these initiatives are often isolated, heavily dependent upon individual efforts, loosely organized and often invisible to the university community as a whole. Moreover, a supply-side mindset underpins most of the provision, with the result that these threads are, at best, loosely tied into the learning needs of the outside stakeholders.