Educators are key to quality adult learning and education. Yet, a lack of professional adult educators still hinders progress towards the provision of lifelong learning opportunities in many countries around the world. That is why, on 26 May 2021, the German Institute for Adult Education (DIE), DVV International, the International Council for Adult Education (ICAE) and the UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning (UIL) launched a reference framework for the training of adult educators: Curriculum globALE.

Curriculum globALE supports the professionalization of adult educators. By providing cross-curricular approaches, it is a unique reference framework for the training of adult educators which can easily be contextualized to national and regional environments.

By supporting adult educators around the world, Curriculum globALE improves not only the standard of adult learning and education programmes but also the capacities of countries to meet the Sustainable Development Goals.

What is Curriculum globALE

Curriculum globALE aims to:

• enhance professionalization of ALE by providing a common reference framework for adult learning programmes and a suggested standard of competencies for adult educators;
• support adult learning and education providers in the design and implementation of ‘train-the-trainer’ programmes;
• foster knowledge exchange and mutual understanding among adult educators worldwide.

The curriculum constitutes a workload of approximately 800 hours distributed over a range of thematic units and other types of learning formats. In terms of thematic units, Curriculum globALE comprises:

• one introductory module,
• five thematic core modules,
• between one and three elective modules.

This updated version of Curriculum globALE was developed jointly by the German Institute for Adult Education (DIE), DVV International, the International Council for Adult Education (ICAE) and the UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning (UIL).