By Paul Garvey (External Evaluator), PGC and Associates Ltd, August 2011

Peer Education – Pan European (PEPE) is a Lifelong Learning, Transfer of Innovation Leonardo-funded project.

The lead partner is Gower College Swansea (formally Gorseinon College), in Wales, UK. Other partners include those from Bulgaria (Marie Curie Association), Cyprus (Synthesis Center for Research and Education Ltd), Denmark (Kold College), Greece (Asset Technology Ltd), Italy (CSCS) and Portugal (FMH).

These partners are made up of a mixture of public, non-governmental and private sector organisations. All the partners have made a significant contribution to the success of the project.

The PEPE project is the culmination of a series of linked projects, which has developed the concept of peer education and training over the last six years.

The central aim of PEPE has been to develop and transfer the successful Peer Education training programme to new partner countries and to engage with a broader range of groups and individuals who have been, in different ways, disengaged from mainstream training opportunities.

Significant among these new groups have been those people that experience a range of physical, sensory or learning disabilities.

It is a complex task to plan an integrated, coherent and stimulating project with contributions from seven partner countries. They are connected bilaterally but mostly through the dedicated website and phased transnational meetings.

During its implementation, the project has demonstrated a wide range of strengths, which have been identified by the external evaluation process and endorsed by the UK national agency in its interim report.

Enough significant and critical information and feedback has been collected to allow the partners to implement improvements and modifications that have been recommended to them and to customise their training to the specific requirements and needs of their own countries.

Partners have earned the strong endorsement of their own institutions for this activity and the work that will follow. This support is a key ingredient of sustainability in all transnational endeavours and is crucial to the future success of this work and the further development of the international reputation of the group.

The project management, coordination, documentation and distribution of work have been the responsibility of Gower College. They are highly experienced in providing this service and their leadership has been inspirational, efficient and well received by all the partners.

Gower College’s effective management has helped to see the project through to this advanced stage and I have no doubt will ensure its final completion when all the outstanding issues have been addressed.

This is an experienced and robust partnership, which has further developed and now effectively extended its influence to cover a much wider range of beneficiary groups and professionals. The work undertaken by the partnership has been well planned and delivered with energy and commitment, and the partners have demonstrated a clear understanding, awareness of and sensitivity to the cultural and national differences within the group.

Partners have operated effectively during the transnational meetings and via the communication channels on the PEPE website.

The website itself has been developed and customised by Adastra Cymru Ltd. Their service was adjudged to have been successful despite the increasing demands on them as the project progressed. They have responded readily to the adaptations and modifications that the partners have requested throughout, and the website will provide an enduring resource and benefit for users in years to come.

The ‘MentorSpace’ facility for mentees, mentors, peer educators and trainers continues to provide the specialist vehicle required for ongoing and safe communication. Links are being made and developed across significant national and geographical distances. At the same time, interest in and visits to the site grew steadily through the lifetime of the project.

Extensive dissemination activity was led by the Italian partners CSCS, who started this task immediately. Both varied and impactful, it has drawn on the wide range of contacts and networks that the partners enjoy at local, regional, national and European levels.

The peer educator and trainer-training pilot courses held in Bulgaria and Cyprus respectively, and driven by FMH, Marie Curie and Gower College, were lively and engaging and the participants scored them highly.

Training materials were well developed and stimulating and are now being readily converted to the particular needs of the partners’ target groups.

There has been strong beneficiary and participant engagement throughout. In particular the Portuguese partner’s introduction of the ‘Eyes and Ears’ model of trainee feedback was an excellent and extremely useful innovation.

This evaluation tool, designed to directly involve the learners, was taken very seriously by all the peer educators who were involved. It also served to underline the importance of ensuring the active involvement of the participants in the training programmes.

Issues that emerged throughout the work were mostly those of process and protocol rather than substance, but should nevertheless be noted.

Financial reporting was often slow and held up claims and audit. Partnership representation at meetings was mixed and some spasmodic attendance limited the fullest engagement with all the work package commitments. Requests for information on a partner-to-partner and administrator level could have been more promptly acted upon, and punctuality at workshops was not always as good as it might have been.

There is work to be done before the culmination of the project in October 2011. The challenge to complete all the project’s targets is nevertheless in progress and on track. The work plan requires a detailed marketing and exploitation strategy to be finalised so that the work can be carried forward. It is also important that the partnership make progress in developing nationally recognised accreditation for the courses that have been developed.

It is, however, acknowledged that the barriers to progress in all countries, especially in Bulgaria and Portugal, are considerable.

The partnership has an outline agreement for Intellectual Property Rights based on protocols from related projects, but the agreement has not yet been formally determined and defined.

The training and course materials developed on this project have the potential for significant commercial exploitation and influence across the European Union. However, their impact remains to be fully evaluated and will not be fully appreciated during the course of this project.

The partners understand that during these last few months their plans will require a clear focus and direction. Nevertheless, given the usual constraints of time and resource, the training has been identified via external evaluation as having been very successful for peer educators and trainers. This conclusion has been confirmed by all those involved, most crucially by the participants themselves.

Despite some concerns over the process and outstanding work still to be completed, this project has been highly successful. It is set to achieve its ambition of broadening the scope and breadth of mentor training to those who will benefit from this important and valuable support.

Overall, the partners and participants have been energetic and committed throughout and have brought professionalism and enthusiasm to the project, which has been exciting and refreshing to witness and a pleasure to evaluate.

Click here for the full External Evaluation report

For sample PEPE training documents please email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it