In spring 2020 the globalised world has been severely hit by the pandemic spread of the Coronavirus. In particular, Adult Education and cVET institutions suffer from shutdowns and hampered direct learning opportunities. Not only the classic offers from Folkhighschools are affected by the crises. Also, large numbers of unemployed persons have been facing problems to participate in qualification courses for a longer period; as well as integration courses.Neither public or private AE institutes nor the employment agencies are prepared for “alternative” online training methods. Online learning and collaboration was simply not foreseen as a standard working and learning mode in AE and cVET programmes.In this situation, it turns out that for Adult Education institutions, digitalisation can be a key factor for success and maybe even for survival. Digitalisation and online collaboration in teaching and learning could be a means to buffer some of the negative effects.Digitalisation plays an increasingly important role in all educational domains. However, there is a special responsibility and meaning in the Adult Education sector since it reaches citizens outside educational institutions in non-formal or even informal learning contexts, and those citizens who are particularly vulnerable regarding digitalisation and who need to acquire “digital literacy”.Adult learners, independent form their age, need to develop knowledge, values and a wide range of critical thinking, communication and information management skills to cope with our digital societies.This includes a large variety of knowledge, attitudes and complex skills (technological, cognitive, learning, social and emotional) which people need to function effectively in contemporary digital environments in order to create, adapt and share information and knowledge in multiple formatsIn order to bring about these competences Adult Educators need expertise related to digital literacy and appropriate digital adult learning approaches to create innovative learning scenarios in which their target group acquire digital competences.However, it is a challenge to set up learning pathways that facilitate the acquisition of relevant knowledge, skills and attitudes in this very heterogeneous field. Only singular attempts have been made to systematically include the development of these competences in Adult Education courses and/or modules. The validation (here the assessment and documentation) of these competences requires an appropriate competence framework system to give evidence of students’ development, to connect them to existing certification systems and to offer a European wide validation approach. DEAL will develop and pilot an approach to tackle this issue based on a long-term partnership of educational partners who have either worked in digital literacy and digital education projects or on competence oriented learning and validation of non-formal and informal learning.Based on a robust stocktaking of the successful approaches deployed in digital literacy and digital education modules and courses, it will set up a framework of competences on digital literacy and digital education. It will make use of the LEVEL5 validation system which has been largely applied in previous EU-funded projects on the professionalisation of Adult Education personnel and which comes with a powerful digital learning environment.A modular learning and training approach will be developed using high quality blended learning approaches combining face-to face, e-learning and practical learning on the job.The learning and training offers will also be delivered on state-of-the-art learning technologies which will offer contents, courses, e-portfolios and validation interfaces as open educational resources (OER).The DEAL courses and modules will involve more than 20 professionals and at in the piloting more than 100 adult learners from adult education institutes from six EU member-states.AE professionals will design, plan and deliver projects on digital literacy and digital education along an innovative blended learning concept based on transferrable study units that can be integrated in the offers of their home AE-institutes.Competences will be validated and connected to European validation and certification instruments.In this project experienced project partners work together in a new combination: 5 Adult education institutes (from DE, UK, IT, SE and SK) collaborate with CPD institutes for AE professionals (DE, NL) specialised on blended learning, digitalisation, learning technologies. The AE institutes represent different aspects of AE: the typical Folkhighschool portfolio and integration courses, andragogical approaches, health education and political education, cultural heritage and intercultural education. Hence the partners are covering a wide range of AE sectors and a large geographical scope.