<< Background >>For European citizens there are a lot of different adult learning opportunities available. Despite this the results from the EU labour force survey shows that in 2019 the participation of adults in in lifelong learning rate in the EU stood at 10,8 %. Because of this, new and innovative ways of conveying knowledge and reaching the target group of adult education need to be explored to catch the initial attention of learners to get them involved in lifelong learning activities. All of the involved organisations in this project believe that next to established didactic methods, games can be one important tool to reach this goal and to improve the quality of adult education of the future. We all have good experience to convey bulky and difficult topics in a playful way while nowadays many approaches in adult education are still not motivating and attractive enough. Games guarantee a low-threshold participatory introduction to the topics that can be adjusted to the needs of the participants and the learning effects can be significantly higher than with classical knowledge transfer through teacher-centred teaching.In times of digital transformation and more and more virtual learning due to the pandemic, we also want to cover this field to reach learners and educator online with our videos on best practice games. Many educators still do not know about the opportunities they are given with games as pedagogical approaches and we want to make them aware of this and thus improving the quality of non-formal adult education. There is also a huge number of games that can be used in this field, but barely anyone does have an overview on them and which contents and competences they address. We want to tackle this problem by collecting best practice games, showing their strengths and weaknesses and commenting how they can be used in a proper manner. Moreover, many stakeholders in education, politics and society still do not know about the advantages of games as tools for transmitting knowledge, competences, skills and as tools for validation of those competences. We want to address this problem my concretely getting in touch with them and giving recommendations on how problems can be solved. Apart from games in adult education, the focus on European values in adult education could be stronger. Many ideas of course focus on integration, inclusion, equality, freedom and diversity. But with games these values can on one hand really be sampled through different methods and experiences. And on the other hand, they can be the content or the topic of games and hereby real knowledge about the EU is transmitted. We want to include European values in our project and put a focus on which games can be perfectly used to convey them to adult learners in a playful way. Especially inclusion will highly benefit from this project, because games can be adapted to the most different kind of learners and can communicate even the most difficult topics in an understandable manner. In addition games can help adults that have been out of a classroom for many years to refocus on their learning being interactive and participatory and more engaging than most forms of learning. Games can be created and used with a small investment of funds and many can be implemented with very little overhead.Our experiences from previous EU projects shows that a cross-border, intercultural exchange of experiences among colleagues in adult education contributes to learning and developing new perspectives, successful learning methods, teaching materials and innovative approaches.In general, we have always had amazing experiences with Erasmus+ projects and want to go on contributing to a more inclusive networked Europe with improved lifelong learning for everyone.That’s why we submit this application (amply improved and adapted after it was highly rated but still declined last year) to enrich adult education for all learners in this field.<< Objectives >>The main objectives of this project are promoting inclusion and diversity in adult education, improving the competences of educators and other adult education staff and to give concrete advise on how to use games in adult education about European values such as inclusion, diversity, participation and engagement. That includes methods of addressing the target group, shaping learning environments through games, exploring the strengths and limitations of the use of games in adult education, best-practice examples, information/instructions about special games, information about what games can be used for as well as concrete methods to implement games in educational activities and working environments. The main focus of using games is knowledge transfer. This includes theoretical knowledge on a certain topic, e.g. European values, but also soft skills that can be taught and validated very well through them. Next to this the creation of learning environments is also an important topic for us. Games create a safe environment for participation and reflection where confrontation is not necessarily perceived as threatening. Through games new strategies for active participation in classrooms, society and other authentic learning environments where the learner is challenged can be developed. Learning progresses are hereby strengthened through motivating conditions like rewards and through instant feedback like winning or losing. Furthermore, the aim is to present innovative and to get to know playful methods of knowledge transfer that can be implemented with existing resources in one's own educational work that initiate individual learning processes and make the learning outcomes more sustainable.We also want to promote the European ideas and improve intercultural understanding by sharing our experience from Erasmus+ in the different project steps and events. The participating organisations also aim for improving their own educational activities, networks and intercultural/ international work.<< Implementation >>Besides the project results we are going to implement general management activities like financial and time management lead by HochVier as the head of the steering committee as well as quality management activities like evaluations, feedback loops, qualitative and quantitative measures and controlling milestones. To achieve the project results there will be various activities such as online project meetings, designing, spreading and analysing questionnaires, creating a website, video making, collecting games, commenting on them and writing about it. Moreover, national approaches, problems and solutions will be gathered to be included in the project. Discussions with stakeholders will be held and recommendations will be given. There will be several dissemination activities like publishing the outputs, creating a website, spreading information in newsletters of our partners and our network etc. During the five transnational meetings, all the monitoring activities, communication processes and trust building will be emphasized. There will be activities to prepare the multiplier events which are conferences with stakeholders, educators etc. where the project results will be presented and also the multiplier events themselves are an implemented activity.<< Results >>To reach the goals set by this project we will identify, exchange and test already existing good practices. Furthermore, different project results (PRs) will be created during this partnership.The first project result, the study about the current situation of games in adult education, the benefits, different approaches and the application, will provide a basis for the project and will help the partnership to collect a big amount of relevant knowledge to process in the project, to exchange and adapt in the work. The second project result will not only help others to create games for (adult) education but it will also help the partners to do so. The toolkit will combine many methods for tailoring individual games in an innovative way and is a great possibility to combine different topics and methods and to even create synergies with other education fields in the future. The collection of games in the third output will be a great overview for the partners about best practice games, the applied methods and the trained competencies. It will make it easier for everyone to find the right game for a certain situation in adult education combined with all necessary information. There will also be videos in which some of the games will be presented to include an even more low-threshold and attractive medium which will reach out to many people. The fourth result will be recommendations for stakeholders which will help partners to communicate their findings and results more forcefully to stakeholders and provide a good and clear summary of what needs to be improved in the area games in adult education. They will eventually contribute to a more frequent application of this gorgeous method of non-formal education. In this way, the project can also have a longer-term impact and bring improvements for the target group.The project outcomes are structured in a logical way, guiding through the topic of games in adult education. In this project, the focus will be on how games can help communicating European values which will also help the target groups and people all over the EU.The expected results of these project results will lead to an improved and more frequent use of games in the teaching activities on European values of the involved organisations in this partnership and beyond. Other relevant organisations from the network of the participating partners, interested providers of adult education outside these networks as well as individual adult educators will be animated to use games more often in their educational activities.For the participating organisations, the project will create a strong European network where ideas and methodologies are confronted and shared. Through the exchange of good practices, organisations and educators will gather inspiration in an international context to apply methodologies in their own context and there will be an increase of intercultural awareness. The exchange with colleagues from other European countries also creates mutual understanding basis for future cross-border cooperation and lays the foundation for internationalisation efforts of the involved organisations as well as the involved staff which contributes to a European space for learning.