WHAT DO PROFESSIONALS THINK ABOUT LARA?

As a result of dissemination of the LARA training package in the countries of the partnership we have received the following comments from colleagues within our networks.

Dr Alex McMinn, U3A National Research Committee, UK:

"Thousands of volunteer tutors/study group leaders within the fast expanding U3A system and spread through 750+ locations throughout the U.K. will benefit from the LARA package. Although experts in the subject many have little pedagogic expertise and very few in the field of andragogy.
To this end the LARA package will become the focus for group leader training sessions, in turn enhancing the quality of the learning and in the longer life contributing to the wellbeing of the learners".

Stanley Miller, President of AIUTA, the International Association of Universities of the Third Age, UK:

“This training package makes an important contribution to the growing list of resources devised specifically with the needs of the ageing population in mind. Its particular value lies in its emphasis on the role of tutor as facilitator of learning derived from the older person’s own cumulative experience. The particular methodology involved is exemplified in the international team’s way of working and is thus soundly based in actual hands-on experience.
This package will appeal to those committed to a focus on the learner in the process of learning, as well as to those grounded in more traditional forms of teaching who seek practical advice in ways of engaging older people in learning.”

Ian Searle, Chair of the Third Age Trust, UK:

"I have spent the last couple of days reading and annotating the training package you sent and for which I whish to thank you wholeheartedly. It is a remarkable piece of work which fits so closely to U3A philosophy and methodology that at first I was simply astounded. We might well have written much of the booklets ourselves......." read more