Berlin conference kicks
off new era in lifelong learning
FOLLOWING
THE ADOPTION OF A PLAN for vocational education and training (VET) at
Helsinki last year (see issue 37)
Berlin was the venue for a flagship
event which again stressed the importance of VET in the new programme.
The two-day conference raised the curtain on the 2007-13 funding period
which promises to ‘support millions of individuals to study, train and
teach abroad’ and to ‘cover the full range of learning opportunities
from childhood to old age’. As a successor to the Socrates, Leonardo da
Vinci and eLearning schemes the programme will be divided into
pre-school and school, formal higher, vocational and adult education
sub-programmes. The vocational section, which retains the Leonardo tag,
will attract at least 25% of the total budget, amounting to €1,743
million. As before individual workers will be placed in jobs in other
EU Member States and institutions providing on-the-job training will be
supported. As well as informing delegates of these opportunities, the
conference honoured prize-winning projects from the previous programme.
The need for enhanced language training was emphasised by the award
given to Nottingham University for their ALLEGRO scheme which extended
language teaching to previously excluded groups through partnerships
with social services in other EU countries.
This was a theme taken up by newly-appointed EU Commissioner for
multilingualism Leonard Orban in a speech at Berlin in which he also
highlighted the importance of language learning ‘to promote economic
competitiveness that will lead to growth and the creation of better
jobs’ as well as cultural and political dialogue between countries.
According to the Education Commissioner Jan Figel ‘Education and
training are the cement that binds societies together in the face of
economic and demographic change, and with the possibilities it offers,
the new Lifelong Learning Programme is an important part of the mix’.
