Innovative learning spaces open up new avenues to education and are more closely aligned with learners’ lived experiences and needs. Learning takes place not only in traditional classrooms but also in everyday, digital, social, or international learning environments. Especially for people with basic education needs or other barriers to access, low-threshold and flexibly designed learning opportunities can help break down barriers and strengthen social participation. The European Agenda for Adult Learning addresses this issue and advocates for making learning spaces more inclusive, more oriented toward real-life contexts, and more diverse.
Erasmus+ projects demonstrate how these future-oriented skills can be promoted in concrete ways. Through European professional development opportunities, the exchange of new teaching and learning methods, and the testing of digital tools, educators expand their subject-specific and pedagogical competencies and share the knowledge they have acquired within their institutions. In this way, the projects tie directly into the Agenda’s priority area, Innovative Learning Spaces, and contribute to making adult education fit for the future and preparing learners for a changing world of life and work.
The Erasmus+ study tour in primary education organized by the State Association of Adult Education Centers in Schleswig-Holstein demonstrates what innovative learning spaces can look like in practice. Four course participants, accompanied by chaperones, traveled to Malmö for a week, where they gained new learning experiences and insights into daily life. Through a visit to a Swedish partner school, local encounters, and intensive personal support, Europe itself became a learning space. A learning agreement written in plain language, along with careful preparation, helped break down barriers to access. The project thus illustrates how Erasmus+ opens up new, international learning spaces, strengthens self-confidence and independence, and offers people with basic education needs new opportunities for social and European participation. In doing so, it ties directly into the goals of the European Agenda for Adult Education under the priority theme of “Innovative Learning Spaces.”