Mediation competences in adult education and training in Portugal and France

Abstract

Educational Mediation is an emergent field, namely, regarding to the contexts of Adult Education and Training. As the result of the new educational models developed in the field of Adult Education and Training (AET), in Portugal and in France, during the last decade, new professional profiles have emerged: the Mediators of the Courses of Education and Training of Adults (EFA Courses), the Specialists of Diagnosis and Referral (SDR), the RVC Professionals (PRVC) and the Specialists of Validation des Acquis de l’Expérience (VAE). One of the dimensions under discussion in this area refers to the competences that these Professionals must have to succeed in the pursuit of their work and they really have had to develop a set of specific skills to deal with the challenges ahead of them in a daily basis. Indeed, the concept of competence in Educational Mediation has been much substantiated, studied and discussed and in this article we will present some of the results of a predominantly qualitative multicase study carried out in Portugal and France and discuss the data related to those skills and the role of the figures of Mediation in these challenging processes.