Continuing education for the low-educated

Many of the lowest educated in Denmark have resistance towards going to school. Many feel challenged when they have to learn skills that include reading and writing. Never the less they meet this demand from their employers from time to time. We collaborated with VUC (Center for life-long-learning) Thy / Mors on how to motivate the lowest educated for life-long education. 

Mette Gadegaard from VUC Thy / Mors and the designers Sara Brixen and Mette Mikkelsen conducted the project as a classic design course.

In a fieldwork, we investigated how dyslexics and low-educated experience the education system in general – and locally in relation to VUC Thy / Mors. The fieldwork showed that some of the decisive reasons for dropout should not be found in the teaching – but in the “journey through the system”; that is, throughout the experience. 

It is crucial how you receive the requirement for continuing education, for example by an employer. It matters how you are admitted and specifically met when you come to VUC, and not least the activities that are started to motivate and retain the student are important.

And then the story the students  tell once they leave the system is important. Low educated are (like everyone else) excellent ambassadors for a good experience.

We conducted a series of co-creation workshops, where the user insights were presented to teachers and the many other employees with whom the students have contact. It qualified the user need and gave us the basis for developing a number of concrete ideas that can improve the student’s experience on the journey through the education system.

We developed a tool for the difficult conversation between the employee and the employer. The tool was subsequently tested and implemented at the institution and at companies in Thy.