Monday, June 7, 2010

Brussels, 19 May 2010
















http://ec.europa.eu/education/pub/pdf/llp/llp10_en.pdf
Six EU-funded education projects aimed at promoting social inclusion were named today as winners of the 2010 European Awards for Lifelong Learning. The winning projects are from Italy, Lithuania, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway and the United Kingdom and involve partners from many other European countries. The awards were announced at a conference in Barcelona.
The European Commissioner for Education, Culture, Multilingualism and Youth, Androulla Vassiliou, said: "The EU's Lifelong Learning Programme supports transnational projects in education and training that really make a difference at grassroots level. I congratulate the six winning projects: they can be particularly proud of their contribution in this European Year of Combating Poverty and Social Exclusion."
The projects, each involving partners in several European countries, were "excellent examples of what can be achieved by working together across borders to promote learning for all, regardless of age or social group", added the Commissioner.
The awards were for projects in school education (funded by the EU 'Comenius programme'), higher education ('Erasmus' programme), adult education ('Grundtvig' programme) and vocational training ('Leonardo da Vinci'), as well as 'Languages' and 'Information and Communication Technologies'.
The European Awards for Lifelong Learning were announced at a conference in Barcelona on the future of the EU's main programme for education and training after 2013.

The conference focused on how best to develop the EU's support for cross-border exchanges of students and teachers, as well as transnational partnerships between education and training institutions and simplification of the way the programme is managed.

To know more:
"Education and training for social inclusion. European Success Stories" – with details about the winning projects plus 20 others shortlisted for the European Awards for Lifelong Learning: http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/education_culture/publ/index_en.html [brochure will be published here on the day before 12h00]

European Commission: The Lifelong Learning Programme (LLP):
http://ec.europa.eu/llp

Lifelong Learning Programme, 2010 annual conference, 'Looking beyond 2013':
http://www.llpconference.eu/

The European Year for Combating Poverty and Social Exclusion 2010: http://www.2010againstpoverty.eu/


Annex 1: The winning projects of the 2010 European Awards for Lifelong Learning

Grundtvig (adult education):
Sing, smooth and smile
Ansamblis “Senoji muzika” (Association “Old music”), LITHUANIA
The Grundtvig project Sing, smooth and smile supported marginalised families and communities, young mothers and mothers-to-be, the elderly and the disabled. The project took the simple idea of ethnic music as part of therapy and learning and applied it successfully in a context of communal care.