Who we are
About the union
We are a cohort of practising trainers from every corner of Ukraine, each with a long personal path of development behind them. We have built a community of practice that teaches adults and supports everyone who also wants to teach adults and who shares our values, principles and approaches.
We exist to support adults in continuous, quality learning that improves their lives.
Plan
Strategic goals
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Initiating the introduction of standards for interactive adult learning, updating the methodology of interactive learning, and building a community of practitioners of interactive adult learning.
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Developing and delivering learning modules for training and certifying trainers.
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Developing and delivering learning modules for partners among donor institutions, international technical assistance projects, political parties and others.
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Organisational development: the union’s capacity to be a lasting partner in adult learning — settled processes, governance and the continuous development of the team.
Approach
Values
Context
Why this union exists
Adult learning is in demand among civil society organisations, local self-government bodies and central government bodies.
Ukraine has a fairly developed system for preparing business trainers. In the third sector and in educational institutions, by contrast, the craft of training is mostly picked up within grant programmes run by international donors. Such learning is usually one-off — there is no cycle for developing training skills. After two or three days participants receive a trainer’s certificate, often with only formal measurement of knowledge and skills, or with no measurement at all.
The pandemic and the full-scale invasion moved part of adult learning online. Without proper training skills and without command of interactive methods, those who lead learning often debase the notion of a “training” and reduce it to a lecture. At the same time, grant-makers and civil society organisations often have little sense of what an experienced trainer actually is.
There is as yet no shared understanding of adult education that uses interactive methods, and no agreed standards for such education at the national level.
What the union is built on
- years of experience in mastering the craft of training;
- participation in a large number of development programmes for trainers, facilitators and mentors;
- a substantial number of training events organised and delivered by us for target groups;
- a methodology for preparing those who lead learning, developed and tested many times over.