Green4ADU Focus Groups Explore Ways to Offer Environmental Education to Adults

01.04.2025

Erasmus+ Project Involves Wittenborg and Partners from Greece, Italy, Germany and Spain

The Erasmus+ project Green4ADU has held a series of insightful focus groups with adult educators and learners, organised by the initiative’s member organisations in their respective countries. In addition to Wittenborg, Green4ADU includes educational institutions Apostolina Tsaltampasi Kai Sia EE, SME (Greece), CEIPES ETS (Italy), Interchange Non-Profit gUG, NGO (Germany) and BB&R (Spain). In the Netherlands, the focus group meetings took place online and at Wittenborg in Apeldoorn, respectively on 21 February and 5 March, after Green4ADU's launch in January 2025.

During the sessions, participants had the opportunity to share their insights and offer ideas for the project. Green4ADU aims to educate adults who are developing skills and seeking to improve their environmental competencies in order to enhance their employability. Among other topics, the initiative focuses on green technologies, ways to mitigate climate change and other knowledge relevant to the changing job market.

Wittenborg Associate Professor Cha-Hsuan Liu adds that the project seeks to foster participants’ personal development as well as an inclusive learning environment. “It is not only beneficial from a professional perspective, but it also allows participants to improve their quality of life by addressing the challenges posed by climate change. This also supports government efforts, which require everyone’s contribution to succeed.”

With the goal of contributing to the development of Green4ADU’s curriculum, workshops and courses, the focus groups discussed topics such as the green skills required by the market and the challenges involved in teaching them. Additionally, the educators shared their practical experience with the project’s target audience.

The first focus group, targeted at Wittenborg educators, included Rauf Abdul, Ad Kil, Gilbert Silvius, Dadi Chen and Isaac Acheampong. The second meeting brought together four educators from ADAMMOB: Raquel García Aneiros, Miguel Caneda Barreiro, Oksana Shamonova and Francesco Orlando. Both sessions were hosted by Wittenborg Associate Professor Cha-Hsuan Liu, with the project being coordinated by Erasmus+ Project Administrator & Researcher Jian Liu.

According to Cha-Hsuan Liu, the discussions offered a good mix of theoretical and practical knowledge. "Right now, we have two main directions for the project in the Netherlands. The first is to raise participants' awareness and understanding of green technologies. The second is to equip them with the technical skills necessary for these jobs. We hold partner meetings every month, where Green4ADU members from the five countries have the opportunity to exchange ideas and summarise the opinions gathered from the focus groups conducted in each country. This further broadens our perspectives on green skills training,” she said.