In recent years, growing attention has been drawn towards eInclusion policies, considering information and communication technologies (ICT) as a vehicle for social inclusion, active citizenship, employability and personal development. Telecentres or public intenet points (PICs) have become an important provider of free, public access to ICT, the internet and learning environments for disadvantages target groups. Telecentres are publicly funded and provide free access and training and play a key role in local societies, in towns, small villages and deprived metropolitan areas where they have become a reference point not only for new technologies and non-formal learning, but also for the development of social cohesion, a sense of community belonging and cultural life. In a thematic strand of three EU-funded projects, an international team of practitioners, researchers and consultants is conducting research and working on strategies and concrete solutions to increase the capacity of telecentres in their engagement for eInclusion.

The paper will elaborate on two main research questions:

1) How can the professional profile of people who are working in the telecentres and provide ICT knowledge to the target groups (“e-facilitators”) in different European countries be described and categorized? This question relates to national research and comparative cross-country analysis conducted in the Leonardo da Vinci project “VET4e-I - A European VET Solution for e-Inclusion Facilitators”, illustrating how diverse the professional profiles of eFacilitators actually are, and how important the acknowledgement of this diversity is for consecutive professionalization efforts. In the cross-country analysis, four typical eFacilitator profiles were identified.

2) Which methodological approaches are being used by telecentres and their e-facilitators for training design? This question derives from transnational context analysis conducted in the project “eScouts – Intergenerational Learning Circle for Community Service” in the Lifelong Learning Programme (Key action 3 – ICT). Two distinct methodologies have been identified which, despite sharing values and aims, differ in their conception and implementation:  Community Service Learning (CSL) methodology and Participatory and Appreciative Action and Reflection (PAAR). The paper will briefly outline the methodologies themselves, and also reflect upon the harmonization of these different approaches for intergenerational learning in the eScouts project.

From different angles, this research contributes to the development of telecentres as inclusion catalysts by addressing the professionalization of their personnel. The paper suggests, as the overall result, that for telecentres to become widely accepted adult education stakeholders, there are three dimensions in which they have to be further developed:

• Pedagogically, referring to content development and the methodological background of telecentres, and curricula with high user involvement as a key challenge),
• Organizationally, with professionalization of staff and quality assurance as key targets, and
• Regionally, which includes a coordination of activities with other regional education providers and visibility in local and regional network structures.

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