Europe has a new education programme – the Lifelong Learning Programme. The German Federal Education Minister, Annette Schavan, the EU Education Commissioner, Ján Figel’, and the President of the Conference of Länder Ministers of Education (KMK), Professor E. Jürgen Zöllner, gave the go-ahead for this new initiative in Berlin today. Eighteen projects were awarded the "European Prize for Lifelong Learning" during the launch conference within the framework of the German EU Council Presidency. Four of the prizewinners are German projects.
The Lifelong Learning Programme has a duration of seven years and an overall budget of approximately seven billion euro – in Germany alone programme funds of about 100 million euro will be available each year. The aim is to give up to 80,000 trainees and young workers from all over Europe an opportunity to engage in qualification programmes outside their home country and prepare for the European labour market. For example, ERASMUS grants should help to double the number of young people studying in another European country: from currently 1.5 million to a total of 3 million in 2012. "A new generation of young people will determine the future of the European knowledge society", said Minister Schavan in Berlin on Monday.
But the focus of the Lifelong Learning Programme is not only on mobility. "This programme is the most important instrument for implementing European education policy", said the German Federal Education Minister. It contributes substantially to realizing the goals which the European Education Ministers agreed upon in the Bologna Process for higher education and in the Copenhagen Process for vocational education and training – by promoting innovations which benefit people. Forward-looking European pilot projects have brought Europe closer to the introduction of a credit system for vocational training and the European Qualifications Framework. These instruments will contribute to the transparency and comparability of the learning results of trainees and the qualifications of skilled workers throughout Europe.
Approximately 700 educational experts from all over Europe met in Berlin to discuss how the Lifelong Learning Programme can be used to develop the European Education Area in order to enable Europe to jointly meet current challenges. According to the experts, strengthening lifelong learning is the right approach to mastering the consequences of demographic change.
Federal Education Minister Schavan emphasized that in the European Education Area we should not only remove national borders but also the borders between educational sectors and between formal and non-formal education: "Lifelong learning should be a central element in the educational biography of every individual in future".
Within the framework of the launch conference, Minister Schavan, EU Education Commissioner Figel’ and KMK President Zöllner presented the European Prize for Lifelong Learning to 18 projects. The prizewinners include four German projects:
The Richard-von-Weizsäcker-Berufskolleg in Lüdinghausen received the prize for its project on the early technical education of children (COMENIUS Bronze).
The Humboldt University in Berlin was awarded the prize for its reception of ERASMUS students (ERASMUS Silver).
The MAN training centre in Augsburg received the prize for its exchange of trainees with Denmark (LEONARDO DA VINCI Silver).
Professor Wolfgang Wessels' Jean Monnet Chair at Cologne University was awarded the prize for excellent research and teaching in the field of European integration (JEAN MONNET Gold).
"These examples show that education institutions in Germany are making good use of the opportunities offered by the European education programmes", said Schavan.
