Edition 95, December 2011 Successful third edition Successful third edition Successful third edition Successful third edition of ECTP Brussels Camp of ECTP Brussels Camp of ECTP Brussels Camp of ECTP Brussels Camp From Sunday 27 November to Thursday 1 De- cember, after having spent three months abroad on an AFS trimester exchange, 169 young stu- dents, age 14 to 18, coming from 16 European countries, gathered in Brussels for the EFIL clos- ing Camp of the European C itizenship Trimester European Citizenship Trimester European Citizenship Trimester European Citizenship Trimester Programme Programme Programme Programme, before returning to their home countries. Read more about it on page 3. EFIL Calendar EFIL Calendar EFIL Calendar EFIL Calendar 5-11 February Youth mobility for Intercultural Competence seminar, Romania February 2011 Second Feasibility Visit to Ro- mania and Bulgaria 11 February EFIL Regional Meeting, Bang- kok, Thailand24-26 February EFIL Board meeting, Napoli, Italy 26 Feb - 3 Mar New opportunities f or young people through cooperation of youth exchanges and local school communities seminar, Switzerland 16-21 July EFIL Volunteer Summer Sum- mit, Latvia 27 September Intercultural Dialogue Day 4-6 October Third Forum on Intercultural Learning and Exchanges, Vien- na, Austria 2-6 D ecember EFIL European Citizenship Tri- mester Programme, Brussels Camp, Belgium EFIL Programmes and Projects EFIL Programmes and Projects EFIL Programmes and Projects EFIL Programmes and Projects - Successful third edition of ECTP Brus- sels Camp - Intercultural Dialogue Day 2011 in East and Central Europe - Preparatory team for EFIL’s Volunteer Summer Summit 2012 in Latvia EFIL - The European Federation for Intercultural Learning is the umbrella organisati on of AFS organisations in Europe EFIL Advocacy EFIL Advocacy EFIL Advocacy EFIL Advocacy - Erasmus for All- EYV Conference in Warsaw- Policy developments in Europe EFIL Partner Development EFIL Partner Development EFIL Partner Development EFIL Partner Development - Promotional flyer for new Balkan part- ners - Good progress with partner develop- ment in Poland - Upcoming seminar in Romania - Work- shops contest: and the winners are...EFIL Academy EFIL Academy EFIL Academy EFIL Academy - Fruitful EFIL meeting of AFS Support Sta- Upcoming Programme Directors meet- ing in Krakow EFIL EFIL EFIL EFIL - A Christmas message EFIL Partner News EFIL Partner News EFIL Partner News EFIL Partner News - Partner news - Time to say goodbye - The French approach to growth with quality - Serbian enjoying the Brazilian way of life
Soon we’ll be waving goodbye to 2011. Thepast twelve months have passed by as ifthey were twelve days. It was a very goodyear for EFIL. And an exciting one indeed.
Thanks to our committed members, a de-termined board and a stable secretariat,EFIL has been able to meet the challengesof a well filled activity calendar.
2011 marked EFIL’s 40th anniversary,and this did not pass by unnoticed.In Vienna, during EFIL’s biennialGeneral AssemblyGeneral AssemblyGeneral AssemblyGeneral Assembly, member organi-sations and guests not only celebrat-ed this landmark anniversary, wealso welcomed no less than 6 newmember organisations into the Fed-eration, we honoured our founding father Roberto Ru-
no who was awarded Honorary Chairmanship of EFIL,we waved goodbye to Tachi Cazal and welcomed Vin-cenzo Morlini as the new CEO and President of AFS In-ternational, and the EFIL board launched the new EFILlogo and a new marketing and communication strategy.
EFIL’s annual flagship projects have become not-to-be-missed fixed features on the activity calendar : the thirdedition of our European Citizenship Trimester Pro-European Citizenship Trimester Pro-European Citizenship Trimester Pro-European Citizenship Trimester Pro-grammegrammegrammegramme with the closing camp in Europe’s capital cityof Brussels enjoyed the participation of a record numberof 170 young people from across the continent; in Zmar,
Portugal, volunteers from30 countries gathered for
the fourth edition of theEFIL Volunteer SummerEFIL Volunteer SummerEFIL Volunteer SummerEFIL Volunteer SummerSummitSummitSummitSummit; and for thefourth year running, onthe last Thursday of Sep-tember, EFIL and the
member organisations reached out to the public on ourEuropean-wide Intercultural Dialogue DayIntercultural Dialogue DayIntercultural Dialogue DayIntercultural Dialogue Day, a celebra-tion of culture and diversity all across Europe.
Next to these large scale annual projects, several highlyappreciated EFIL training events, seminars and meet-training events, seminars and meet-training events, seminars and meet-training events, seminars and meet-ingsingsingsings took place, targeting sta of the national AFS oc-es (Heads of Oce meetings in Vienna and Riga; Pro-gramme Directors meeting in Slovenia; meeting of Vol-
unteer Coordinators inHamburg; Support Stameeting in Evian; Fund-raising Seminar in Brus-sels) and AFS volunteers(study session in Stras-bourg; task force training
in Riga; training for trainers in Krakow). Substantial fund-ing was raised by EFIL for the majority of the trainingactivities, mainly through successful funding applica-tions with the European institutions.
In the field of advocacyadvocacyadvocacyadvocacy, the establishment of an EFILEuropean Pool of Representatives (EPOR) in 2011 has
already proved its use and has allowed us to gain addi-tional visibility and be present at more networkingevents than before. As a member of several Europeanplatforms and working groups, EFIL has closely followedup on developments in Europe, participating in the polit-ical and lobbying processes under way in the field of
educational exchanges and citizenship building, espe-cially with regards to the preparations and negotiationsconcerning the shaping of the new generation of pro-grammes 2014-2020.
The EFIL network is expanding. We are very proud ofour new partner organisationsnew partner organisationsnew partner organisationsnew partner organisations in Slovakia, Croatia, Ser-bia, Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and we warmlywelcomed The Netherlands asa member of our Federation in2011. Excellent progress hasbeen made with the develop-ment of AFS in Poland, andthe first, careful steps havebeen taken towards setting upa potential future AFS struc-ture in Romania and Bulgaria.
Also in 2011, the AFS EuroNetAFS EuroNetAFS EuroNetAFS EuroNet initiative gained momen-tum. AFS returnees of all ages, currently based in Brus-
sels, supported several of ouractivities, and they raisedfunds for the participation ofthree Balkan volunteers inEFIL’s Summer Summit inPortugal. Ulrike Lunacek
joined us as a speaker in Vi-enna at our General Assembly, and Wolfgang Pape vol-unteered as a trainer at the Summit in Portugal. The AFSEuroNet group now has close to 100 members.
The EFIL boardEFIL boardEFIL boardEFIL board met in Milan,Vienna and Prague. We said
goodbye to long time boardmembers Martha Eiriksdottirand Anett Deaver-Miklos, andwe welcomed Philipp Wagnerand Bart van Doveren as newboard members. In the EFILoce in Brussels Ilyana Pantel-eeva (sta), Charlotte Klintingand Thomas Jürgenschellert (interns) left us, while ElisaBriga (sta), Stefania Francescon and Gizem Bayer(interns) joined the team.
Last but not least, I would like to extend a sincere wordof thanks to the numerous people that have supported
EFIL over the past year, sparing no time or eort tokeep things moving and help us improve our services:the sta and boards of the national oces and of AFS
International, members ofthe EPOT, EPOR andTAB, the AFS EuroNetgroup, the wonderfulAFS volunteers all overEurope who participatedin our activities andhelped us with the coor-
dination of events as members of the preparatoryteams, support teams or trainers teams, and of coursefirst and foremost : my very own board and my dear
colleagues at the EFIL secretariat in Brussels, withoutwhom none of the above would have happened!
I wish you all the very best forI wish you all the very best forI wish you all the very best forI wish you all the very best foran unforgettable 2012!an unforgettable 2012!an unforgettable 2012!an unforgettable 2012!
Novemberuntil Thursday 1 December, afterhaving spent three months abroadon an AFS trimester exchange, 169young students, age 14 to 18, comingfrom 16 European countries, gath-ered in Brussels for the EFIL closingCamp of the European CitizenshipEuropean CitizenshipEuropean CitizenshipEuropean CitizenshipTrimester ProgrammeTrimester ProgrammeTrimester ProgrammeTrimester Programme, before re-
turning to their homecountries. Add to this ateam of 36 volunteers(prep team, trainers andsupport team), and youhave a wonderful multi-cultural mix with peoplefrom Russia, Austria, Po-land, Latvia, Italy, Swit-zerland, Bosnia and Her-zegovina, Portugal, Spain,Denmark, Germany,France, Czech Republic,Hungary, Slovakia, Croa-tia, The Netherlands, Bel-gium Flanders and Bel-giumFrench,plus onepartici-pantfromCanada.
Addi-tionalhostingdestinations were Serbia, Turkey andIreland.
At the Brussels Camp, the partici-pants had the unique opportunity toshare their AFS experience withtheir peers from all over Europe,
providing a su-perb climax anda substantialadditional valueto their tri-mester schoolexchange. Indynamic work-shops and inter-active sessions
they reflected on their stay abroadand focused on topics like European
and Active Citizenship. On Wednes-day afternoon, we were joined byMrs Maria Podlasek-Ziegler from theYouth In Action Unit of the DG Edu-cation and Culture of the EuropeanCommission, who talked to the par-ticipants about the opportunities foractive citizenship oered to youngpeople through the Youth in Action
Programme (incl. EVS,Youth Initiatives, etc.).
A visit to Europe’s capitalcity once again proved to
be among the highlightsof the Camp. A firstgroup of participantswent to visit the Europe-
an Parliament, where they learnedabout the Parliament, the Council ofMinisters and the European Commis-sion, their legislative and executiveroles, members and presidency. Thevisit included the impressive hemi-circular auditorium where the Parlia-
ment holds its Brussels sessions andcommittee meetings. A secondgroup of participants visited the re-cently opened “Parlamentarium”, theEuropean Parliament’s new Visitors’centre, where the students engagedin an interactive virtual trip throughEurope and learned – in a refreshingand dynamic way – how decisionsare made in Europe and how they
influ-ence
our dai-ly lives.Formoreinfor-mation,have alook at www.europarl.europa.eu/parlamentarium. Dierent from theprevious years, the weather godswere on our side, and we continuedthe day’s programme with a rallythrough Brussels’ city centre to givethe students an opportunity to see
the royal Palace, the Grand Placeand other major landmarks of Brus-sels.
On Thursday, tired butwith big smiles on theirfaces and with lots ofnew friends, all the par-ticipants were transport-ed to the airport to returnto their homes after atrimester abroad and fourintense days of sharingand learning. With the
extraordinary support ofthe volunteers of theprep team, the supportteam and the trainers,coming from EFIL’s Mem-ber Organisations in allcorners of Europe, EFIL’s
third edition of the ECTP Camp wasa tremendous success. We havealready booked the venue for nextyear’s edition!
For more information: elisa.briga@
afs.org.
Successful third edition of ECTP Brussels Camp! BRUSSELS, BELGIUM
Intercultural Dialogue Day in East andCentral Europe
In each edition of EFILife we are reporting on some of the events that took placeIn each edition of EFILife we are reporting on some of the events that took placeIn each edition of EFILife we are reporting on some of the events that took placeIn each edition of EFILife we are reporting on some of the events that took place
across Europe on the occasion of the Intercultural Dialogue Day (IDD), 29 Sep-across Europe on the occasion of the Intercultural Dialogue Day (IDD), 29 Sep-across Europe on the occasion of the Intercultural Dialogue Day (IDD), 29 Sep-across Europe on the occasion of the Intercultural Dialogue Day (IDD), 29 Sep-
tember 2011. This month we are focusing on East and Central Europetember 2011. This month we are focusing on East and Central Europetember 2011. This month we are focusing on East and Central Europetember 2011. This month we are focusing on East and Central Europe ....
AFS Czech Republic, also involved in the Freezebook, one ofthe most successful IDD events in 2011, held two IDD initia-tives in Ceske Budejovice and involved volunteers, host fami-
lies and host students from Chile, Brazil, Portugal, Italy, Germany.Workshops were organised at schools in Ceske Budejovice on the subjectof intercultural education, followed by a discussion with students on thistopic. A promotional stand with information about IDD was set up and vol-unteers talked to people passing by about intercultural dialogue and AFSprogrammes (hosting, sending, volunteering).
HUNGARYHUNGARYHUNGARYHUNGARY
AFS Hungary held a big all day long IDD event on 29 September in Sopron. Exchange student inthe Sopron chapter, coming from Finland, Thailand, Italy, Germany, Turkey, Japan, Mexico, Chileand Hong Kong, each had their own tent, where they presented their country, language, habits
and traditions, supported by their host families. Additionally, there was an AFStent, where Hungarian volunteers promoted the AFS programmes.Special guests were the Ambassadors of the home countries, who were firstwelcomed by the Mayor in the Budapest City hall and then attended the open-ing of the event.The programme was multi-coloured, with music, traditional food, Hungarian,Turkish and Thai dancing, a wall with messages for the world, language les-sons with a humoristic tone, a story-teller, and a karate demonstration! During
the day, students from dierent schools had the opportunity to join in the ac-tivities and also share their thoughts about intercultural learning.
SLOVAKIASLOVAKIASLOVAKIASLOVAKIA
The AFS volunteers in Slovakia organised their IDD eventin Nitra in the afternoon of 29 September. Volunteers,host students and people from the bilingual Spanish Gym-
nasium were dancing in the streets. During the dances volunteers hand-ed AFS promotional material to people passing by, and oered themhomemade cakes. Some people also joined in the dances!
ROMANIAROMANIAROMANIAROMANIA
Recently launched partner development eorts in Romania by EFIL havetriggered initiatives in the frame of International Dialogue Day in thecountry. Youth For Future 2006 (YFF), one of the organisations contacted by EFIL,celebrated the IDD together with the International Day of Senior Citizens declared by UN.The event was called ’Culture and Wisdom: values over time’.Youth for Future organised a round table where they brought together representatives ofseveral local organisations and representatives of organisations from Bucharest as MrsCristina Balan, Director of the UN Information Center in Romania, Mrs Daniela Stanculescu,Adviser of the General Mayor of Bucharest, Hunedoara County School Inspectorate, thelocal television Kpital and the press . Among the participants there was greatdiversity:elderly people, minority representatives, local council representatives and Romapeople!During the events all participants presented stories about projects held during the year with the elderly. Moreover,volunteers from Germany and USA shared how the elderly are treated in their home countries and participants tried
to find some similarities between the dierent realities presented. During the event volunteers played traditionalsongs and dances but also presented an international repertoire of songs. The trainers played games for groupsocialization and at the end each of the participants had the opportunity to tell to the others something thatimpressed them about the life of an elderly person. After the event, the group visited a nursing home and thevolunteers performed the music show there.A special thank you goes to Nicoleta Cindea from Youth for Europe forsupporting IDD through this event.
Preparatory team for EFIL’ s Volunteer Summer Summit 2012 in Latvia
In 2008, the European Year of Inter-cultural Dialogue, EFIL’s VolunteerSummer Summit was born, with afirst edition in Vigy, hosted by ourMember Organisation in France, AFSVivre Sans Frontière. Who wouldhave thought that five years later, theevent has matured so much in sizeand quality, and has become the not-to-be-missed volunteer event of theyear in the AFS network. The Sum-mit’s popularity has grown year after
year, and the event has become theultimate meeting and learning placefor volunteers of all ages, a chance tomeet with volunteers from 30+ coun-tries, attending workshops oering awide range of topics, sharing experi-ences and enjoying each other’scompany, the great location and thesummer sun.
After the beauty of rural France in2008, oriental Turkey in 2009, Hun-gary’s Balaton Lake in 2010 and sun-ny Portugal in 2011, EFIL’s 5th Volun-
teer Summer Summit is setting upcamp in Latvia!
While volunteers all over Europe arewaiting for the application process tostart, in the Brussels oce of EFILpreparations are in full swing. We’reglad to announce that the SummerSummit 2012 preparatory team hasbeen put together. After a remarka-bly smooth application process dur-ing this year’s VSS in Zmar, Portugal,we are particularly happy that GertLucas from AFS Germany has agreedto be the IT manager of the teamonce again. With experience as train-er in the Portugal edition of VSS,Balazs Lato from AFS Hungary willbe responsible for the trainers teamnext July. Another member of EFIL’sEuropean Pool of Trainers (EPOT),Sigrún Tinna Sveinsdóttir of AFS Ice-land will be in charge of the organisa-tion of the VSS plenary sessions.From AFS France, Joshua Fitoussi
joins the prep team as PR manager.
Joshua has been involved in previousSummits as support team membersand participant.
From our host organisation AFS Lat-via, we are happy to welcome in theteam as the AFS Latvia oce liaisonperson Ieva Ribena, the host organi-sation’s National Director, and AnitaTropa, AFS Latvia’s Volunteer Coor-dinator, who will be the support teamcoordinator. From EFIL’s oce, stamember Inga Menke once again willbe the main VSS coordinator, assist-ed by Gizem Bayer, EFIL intern fromAFS Turkey with previous VSS partic-ipation and other volunteering expe-rience.
The preparatory team is looking for-ward to another successful and wellattended edition of EFIL’s VolunteerSummer Summit 2012! Stay tunedfor more information.
The venue of Evian-les-Bains (France) with a spectacu-lar view on the Geneva lake hosted a motivated group of24 AFS support people from 19 countries, includingmost of EFIL Member Organisations, as well as Thailandand USA.
The packed three-day programme focused most of all
on issues related to conflict management in the partici-pant support. The content touched upon understandingconflict as a learning opportunity, dierent conflictstyles and the intercultural context in conflict situations.Next to that several agenda points concentrated on oth-er aspects of support work, starting from induction for
new sta, through sharing practice on dierent casesand the online Support Module, finishing with the topicof keeping up the motivation and balance as support co-ordinators. The working methods were quite diverse andinteractive, giving the group lots of sharing space, prac-ticing through role plays/case work and acquiring rele-vant knowledge from the input.
Huge thanks are deserved by the preparatory trainerteam of the event which consisted of the true experts inthe field: Christine Delattre from AFS Belgium Flanders,Eunice Neta from AFS Portugal and Katya Bagdasarovafrom AFS Russia, assisted by Izabela Jurczik-Arnold
from the EFIL side. They worked tirelessly both in thepreparation phase and during the event itself, making ita great experience for the participants. A real woman-power team!
The big gratitude goes also to AFS Vivre Sans Frontière(AFS France) who carried the hosting responsibility inthe project – communicating with the venue and co-ordinating the logistics arrangements. The group willcertainly remember not only the lake view but also the
personalised trip to the Ripaille castle, with the localwine and food!
It is widely known by now that four new Part-ner Organisations in south eastern Europe –based in Serbia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatiaand Slovenia – have recently joined the AFSnetwork. At the EFIL General Assembly in Junein Vienna, Austria, all four of them were ocial-ly granted aliate EFIL membership status.
EFIL, with the support of the new Partners inthe four countries, has developed a promotion-al flyer, which can be down loaded from theEFIL website following the link: http://www.efil.afs.org/new-member-development/promotional-material/. AFS Partner Organisa-tions worldwide are hereby invited to print anddistribute the flyer to promote these attractivenew destinations among their volunteers,
schools, families and potential future pro-gramme participants.
For more information about the Partner Organ-isations, please use the mail addresses on theflyer.
EFIL’s annual “PD meeting”, bringing together the Pro-
gramme Directors of the member organisations of EFILto discuss all kinds of programme related matters, hasbecome an important feature on the activity calendarevery year. The dates of the 2012 Programme Directorsmeeting have been confirmed for 12-16 March. The host
of the meeting willbe the developingorganisation(hopefully soon tobecome an AFSpartner organisa-tion – see else-where in this edi-tion of EFILife) in
the beautiful cityof Krakow, Poland.
Traditionally, we welcome to the event not only the Eu-
ropean partners but also all the relevant programmesta from AFS organisations around the world. Theprogramme of the event is still in the making but it will –as always - combine a range of operational issues withsome training components. Being in Krakow, we will alsouse this opportunity to get more acquainted with thegrowing partner organisation in Poland, planning furtherdevelopment steps together.
The call for registrations, including more informationabout the agenda will be published in early January.The group will be lodged in the very heart of the Krakowold town, at a hostel called "Brama" (see http://www.bramahostel.pl/?id=&lang=uk)
Stay tuned for further information in January!For more: [email protected].
Interkultura SerbiaInterkultura SerbiaInterkultura SerbiaInterkultura Serbia is the youngest of allAFS organisations but is growing fast witha solid structure. Exchanges started in2007 when two Serbian students received
scholarships to go on a year exchange. In 2008 a groupof enthusiastic returnees set up the organisation in Ser-bia, that became part of the AFS network in 2010.
The number and the quality of exchanges, programmesand activities have been increasing ever since. In 2010
Serbia hosted its first year programme students fromTurkey, New Zealand, Russia, Chile and Mexico andin 2011 more countries were added: Italy, Ger-many, Finland, Thailand and Paraguay. Onthe sending side, 10 Serbian studentshave left on the year programme. andmany students have been involved inclass exchanges with Italy, Turkey andRussia.
UG Interkulturni susreti u Bosni i Her-UG Interkulturni susreti u Bosni i Her-UG Interkulturni susreti u Bosni i Her-UG Interkulturni susreti u Bosni i Her-cegovinicegovinicegovinicegovini (Intercultural meetings inBiH) is active since 2002 and becamepart of the AFS network in 2010.
It has two local chapters (in Banja Luka and Sarajevo)with more then 35 active volunteers. Since 2002, ISUhas sent around 100 participants abroad in the AFS stu-dent exchange programmes mainly to Germany, Italy,France, Russia, Austria and Turkey.
AFS Hosting in BiH started in the school year2009/10 with 3 students from Turkey, fol-
lowed by hosting students from Germa-ny, Poland and Czech Republic in
2010/11 and 2011/12.
GlobusGlobusGlobusGlobus----Association forAssociation forAssociation forAssociation forIntercultural LearningIntercultural LearningIntercultural LearningIntercultural Learning was
founded in 2000 by enthusi-astic AFS participants and vol-unteers of the former AFS Yugoslavia.
First AFS exchanges were launched in 2003 and theorganisation became part of the AFS network in 2010.The number of sending and hosting students have in-creased to ten and eleven in 2011. Volunteers aregrouped in 4 local chapters: Zagreb, Osijek, Rijeka, Split.
The story of Inter-Inter-Inter-Inter-kultura Sloveniakultura Sloveniakultura Sloveniakultura Slovenia
started in 2007 when
former Slovenian AFSexchange students re-launched theprogramme.
The first step was to send three high school studentsto spend a year with families in Belgium, Italy andUSA. AFS Slovenia became part of the AFS networkin 2010. There are two local chapters in Slovenia: onein Ljubljana and the other in Maribor, where most ofthe AFS activities take place.
Good progress with partner development inPoland
The size and the quality of the inter-cultural exchange programmes withPoland are increasing and we areyet a few steps closer to having anocial AFS presence there.
Since 2004 AFS organisations havebeen cooperating with an estab-
lished organisation in Krakow, Po-land, called the Father SiemaszkoFoundation. The exchanges startedfirst with AFS Germany, to soon
spread to other AFS organisations,both with sending and hosting oper-ations. Today, 21 Polish participantsare abroad on an AFS school pro-gramme (year and trimester) and 5are hosted in Poland. The AFS Part-ners involved in this cooperation are
Germany, Italy, France, Turkey, Aus-tria, Switzerland, Bosnia and Herze-govina, and Belgium (Flanders).
EFIL, from the European level, hasbeen supporting this pro-cess for several years, with aparticular boost of develop-ment taking place as from2011.
In November 2011, Paul Claes(EFIL Secretary General)and Izabela Jurczik-Arnold(EFIL Training, Projects and
Programmes Director),spent a few productive daysin Poland, supporting thefuture developments there.Next to the planning meet-
ings with the sta and volunteers ofthe Polish organisation in Krakow,the visit included also a trip to War-saw to meet with representatives of
the Ministry of Education, the Polish-German Youth Cooperation organi-sation, and with Gerardo Biritos, theArgentinian Ambassador in Polandwho is an AFS returnee.
Meeting with some of the Polish volunteers(Global Citizens)
With Gerardo Birritos - Ambassador ofArgentina to Poland
It goes beyond the scope of thisarticle to summarise all the positiveoutcomes of the visit but whatcounts the most for the AFS net-work is that we have agreed on acalendar of strategic developmentfor the upcoming two years, withthe view of announcing the estab-lishment and ocial presence ofAFS in Poland by the time EFIL will
hold its next General Assembly inBelgrade, Serbia, in 2013. We alsohave a clear plan of growing thenumbers of exchanges with eachupcoming year, in particular on thehosting side. The plan includes thestart of exchanges with non-
European AFS organisations, whichhopefully will materialise already forthe upcoming cycle.
The future of AFS in Poland looksvery promising - there is certainly ahuge potential in this country ofamazing historical and cultural herit-age, as well as significant size. If anyPartners (particularly those outside
Europe) are interested in starting acooperation with Poland, please ap-proach EFIL. The plans for 2012 and2013 are in the making!For more information: [email protected].
Upcoming seminar in Romania
Workshops contest: and the winners are...
Congratulations to Dunja Zivanović (AFS in Serbia) and Haris Buljubasić (AFS in Bosnia and Herzegovina) whoCongratulations to Dunja Zivanović (AFS in Serbia) and Haris Buljubasić (AFS in Bosnia and Herzegovina) whoCongratulations to Dunja Zivanović (AFS in Serbia) and Haris Buljubasić (AFS in Bosnia and Herzegovina) whoCongratulations to Dunja Zivanović (AFS in Serbia) and Haris Buljubasić (AFS in Bosnia and Herzegovina) whowon the contest for the Best Workshops!won the contest for the Best Workshops!won the contest for the Best Workshops!won the contest for the Best Workshops!
Both winners will have the opportunity to participate in the seminar “Youth mobility for intercultural competence” inRomania, 5-11 February 2012, and facilitate their workshops, involving the other participants. The workshops will aimat introducing AFS volunteer work and organisational structures to the new volunteers in Romania and Bulgaria. Theworkshops create opportunities to learn by sharing good practices with more experienced AFS volunteers from oth-er countries.
Attached to the seminar in February, a second feasibility visit to Bulgaria and Romania is planned, involving meet-
ings with interested people and organisations, potential future volunteers who can help with the development ofAFS structures in Romania and Bulgaria.
A special thanks goes to all the volunteers who participated in the contest, your contributions were greatly appreci-ated.
For more information, contact Stefania at the EFIL oce ([email protected]).
Partner News In each edition of EFILife, we dedicate some space to partner news, including
personnel changes as well as relevant events that have taken place over the past
month.
In AFS HungaryAFS HungaryAFS HungaryAFS Hungary, Anett Deaver-Miklos is passing onthe National Director’s seat to Rita Bangáné Jarecsnias of the 1st of January 2012. Rita has already startedher work in the Budapest oce in November, workingtogether with Anett, ensuring a smooth handover.You can read more about Anett’s farewell elsewhere inthis edition of EFILife.
Rita has several years of working experience in the
financial sector, and has lived in The Netherlands andPoland. We warmly welcome her and look forward tomeeting her at the AFS World Congress in Bangkok,Thailand, in February 2012.
AFS HungaryAFS HungaryAFS HungaryAFS Hungary
From AFS DenmarkAFS DenmarkAFS DenmarkAFS Denmark comes the news that Ms Lis Jensenhas joined the team in the oce in Copenhagen as thenew Programme Director. She will also be the PartnerDirector Deputy. Lis is not unfamiliar with AFS, as someyears back she has worked as a sta member on thehosting team.
More news from AFS Denmark: Bjarke Rix Rasmussen
has decided to step down from his role as Chair of theBoard of AFS Denmark. At its meeting of 15 November,the Board unanimously elected Ms Amalie Ferdinand asthe new Chair.
AFS SwitzerlandAFS SwitzerlandAFS SwitzerlandAFS Switzerland welcomes Grégoire Singer asthe new French/Italian Region Support Coordina-tor. Grégoire has worked in the field of interna-tional cooperation and migration policies, includ-ing a year in Kosovo.
Alexandre Brunner, the Hosting Support Coordi-nator has left AFS Switzerland after nearly 4years, to start a new professional challenge.Amanda Felber joins the team as the new HostingSupport Coordinator. She brings along her expe-rience in customer care, intercultural conflicts andtheoretical deepening into the sociology of com-munication, social anthropology and humanrights.
AFS NorwayAFS NorwayAFS NorwayAFS Norway has informedthe network that Thomas Ka-gnes has left AFS to pursueother opportunities. MinaNorstrøm has started herwork as the new ProgrammeAssistant. She will be workingclosely with Hilde Hustad onrecruitment and admission.Annette Wol who will workas Support Coordinator, bothsending and hosting, has nowstarted full-time at the ocein Oslo.
AFS NorwayAFS NorwayAFS NorwayAFS Norway
On 11-13 November, in Florence, the 64th General Assembly of Intercultura (AFS ItalyAFS ItalyAFS ItalyAFS Italy) took place.
Intercultura bid farewell to Francesco Favotto as the Chair of the organisation. Three directors were elected to theBoard, who met later in the day and in turn elected Marco Magnani as the Chair and Michela Mariani as the Vice-Chair.
Intercultura further announced that it will be running a new pilot programme this coming cycle in collaboration witha well known art institute of (Massa) Carrara, located on the Tuscan seaside. The focus of this pilot program is“sculpture”. A total of at least 10 students (worldwide) is necessary to run this programme. Partner organisationswho are interested in recruiting for this programme are asked to contact Diana Maratea, Intercultura’s Hosting Co-ordinator.
The deadline to receive applications is 1 April 2012. Intercultura will decide on this date whether or not to proceedwith the programme, basing its decision on the number of applications received. Note that Intercultura will continueto run its traditional Summer Homestay programme (same age range and programme dates, in a dierent area ofTuscany, the main focus being the Italian language and family life).
AFS ItalyAFS ItalyAFS ItalyAFS Italy
G r é
g o i r
e S i n
g e r
A m a n d
a F e l b
e r
I was an AFS student, a 12 timeshost-sister, a local chapter presi-dent then Board member of AFS
Hungary, before I became the National Director in 1999.At that time Elisabeth Hardt and Patrick Worms wereleading EFIL.
AFS Hungary has benefitted enormously from its EFILmembership, right from the beginning - and EFIL couldalways count on us. We have been sending a high num-ber of volunteers to EFIL training events, and we active-ly participated in all EFIL activities. In 2010 we hostedEFIL’s Volunteer Summer Summit in Hungary. Thanks to
the dedicated hardwork of hundreds ofvolunteers support-ed, I am leaving be-hind a strong, volun-
teer-driven organisa-tion, with growinghosting numbers,high quality and fi-nancial stability.
Between 2007 and 2011 I wasalso sitting on the EFILBoard and I had the privilegeto contribute to the develop-ment of EFIL together withmy fellow Board Members. Ithas been a real pleasure towork with Secretary GeneralPaul Claes and be supportedby a capable secretariat inBrussels.
I am a proud European citizen, and it's heart-warming tosee a strong EFIL playing an increasingly important rolein its member organisations’ life and within the globalAFS network. My husband is American - so you see, Itake intercultural and life-long learning very seriously. :)I will be living in the USA from January 2012 - but I don't
want to say goodbye, I just want to say thank you to allthe colleagues, volunteers and friends within EFIL andAFS!
Wish you a wonderful Holiday Season and a successful2012!
On 12-13 November 2011 representa-tives from each chapter of AFS
Vivre sans Frontière gathered at theRésidence Internationale for theConseil Fédéral to discuss FrenchKaléidoscope.
French Kaléidoscope, for-merly the “ImpactProject” is AFSVSF’s strategicplan for “Growthwith Quality”. Theproject is based onthe previous Con-seil Fédéral where
we formulated “ourdreams for AFS”: “In2014, ASF VSF is arecognized stakehold- er forthe quality of its educational project,its programmes, and its expertise inintercultural learning for young peo-ple, families, and schools” and “AFSVSF, carried by the competences ofits enlarged network of volunteers,is an innovative association, capableof adaptation, which chooses toblend lasting growth, conviviality,and social diversity.”
The name “Kaleidoscope” was cho-sen by vote by the AFS volunteersat November’s Conseil Fédéral andwas the result of one of many inter-active parts of this conferencewhere AFS experimented with anew meeting method, aiming at themaximization of the participation ofas many volunteers as possible.
The project has been designed withfour dierent themes:
The first theme of Kaléidoscope,
Intercultural Learning Expertise, willclarify, present, and lay out a plan toattain AFS’s national and interna-tional educational objectives for thebenefit of its volunteers, employees,and participants (including the stu-dents, their families, homestay fami-lies, and the schools). It will focus oncommunicating the status of ICL
Expertise through the “Cultures sansFrontières” newsletter, on creating a
library of intercultural educationresources, and on developing a net-work of researchers willing to con-
tribute to AFS’s un-derstanding of theintercultural expe-rience. We willalso asses andrevise the actualcurriculum ofeach of our au-diences.
The second theme, School Relations,will focus on supporting schoolspartaking in the AFS experience by
creating guidebooks for the accom-paniment of foreign students wel-comed on an exchange, as well as ofthe French students returning fromone. Moreover, the schools will beaccompanied by an AFS volunteerknowledgeable of the EducationNationale system, as AFS strives forits recognition. We also plan to cre-ate a teacher’s network for which
we will organise several eventsincluding a seminar about the AFS
VSF partnership with schools andworkshops on dierent aspects ofintercultural education. Finally, wewill develop ICL workshops forclassrooms to reassure our expertiseon ICL and non-formal education.
The third theme, Volunteer Develop-ment , will focus on enlarging the
network of volunteers and reassur-ing their knowledge of interculturaleducation. This will be done by en-larging the network of trainers aswell as by oering training sessionsonline. The satisfaction of the volun-teers will be ensured by annual eval-uations and by giving them the op-portunity to live an intercultural ex-perience through an exchange witha volunteer from another country.AFS VSF will also work on develop-ing new methods for expanding intoregions currently lacking AFS volun-teers. Finally, in order to maximizevolunteer participation, AFS propos-es a wider use of volunteer-drivenworkgroups on strategic topics anda congress in 2013 to evaluate theKaléidoscope project and prepare2015-2017’s strategic plan.
The fourth theme, Social diversity, will open the opportunity to live anintercultural experience to more stu-dents by creating a new scholarshipstrategy and developing contacts
with businesses interested in ourobjectives.
Overall, Kaléidoscope will enlargethe number of homestay families, ofvolunteers and of departing stu-dents, as well as increase our notori-ety and intercultural expertise.
Brazil… the countrythat I had onlyseen in coeecommercials andfootball matcheson television. Theopportunity to goto Brazil first cameup at the EFIL Pro-gramme Directorsmeeting last springin Maribor,
Slovenia, when AFS Brazil’s Programme DirectorMarcos Felipe suggested to Interkultura Serbia tosend a volunteer to their AFS oce in Rio de Janei-ro for an internship. So here I am, I have been in Rio
for two months now and I will stay here until 1 April2012.
Rio is an amazing city, and I find the people herevery laid-back, enjoying every second of their lifewhile dancing samba, going to Ipanema beach orsimply smiling allday. A week after Iarrived I travelledup north, to a citycalled Fortaleza,where the localchapter organisedthe 40th NationalConvention of AFSIntercultura Brazil. Iwas representingmy own organisa-tion, InterkulturaSerbia, and showedup in the Serbiannational costume. I
have been here for only one month but it already feelslike home. I go to the oce every day, working togetherwith the people in the programme division, and learn thePortuguese language. As I have not been on an AFSexchange myself when I was in high school, since AFSdid not exist in Serbia at the time, this internship helpsme to understand and grasp the great values of AFSprogrammes, and I also get to know more about theoce perspective of AFS organisations, which will bemost valuable once we will establish our own oce inBelgrade, Serbia.
As the result of goodcommunication andcooperation be-tween the AFS or-ganisations in Serbia
and Brazil, and alsothanks to the Diver-sity Scholarship ofAFS International,Brazil and Serbia aregoing to exchangetheir first studentsnext year. This will
be a great chance to further promote exchanges be-tween our two countries and – hopefully – to send morestudents in the years to come.
I find it impressive that so many people all around theAFS world share the same ideals and goals - to oer
intercultural learning opportunities to young people andprovide them with the necessary support by local volun-teers and host families. During my time here in Rio, Iintend to learn as much as possible, meanwhile enjoyingthe Brazilian way of life! I’m looking forward to someexciting months ahead of me, thanks to the wonderfulhospitality of the great people of AFS Brazil!
Erasmus for all
A communication from the Europe-an Commission on the new fundingprogramme for Education, Training,Youth and Sport has been released:http://ec.europa.eu/education/erasmus-for-all/index_en.htm
The proposal from the Commissiondoes not envisage a separate youthprogramme focused on the promo-tion of participation and non-formal
education as it has been in the pastdecades, but a sector- ErasmusYouth Participation- which address-es these aspects inside the broaderprogramme, where formal educationis predominant. Only one National
Agency will manage all the pro-grammes in each EU country.
An increased budget – 7% of thetotal budget (19 billion Euros) - willgo to the programme for youth. Thisadds up to 1 billion euros, as com-pared to the budget of 885 millioneuros for the current programme,Youth in Action. With three key ar-three key ar-three key ar-three key ar-eeeeaaaassss ooooffff aaaaccccttttiiiioooonnnn - learning mobility oflearning mobility oflearning mobility oflearning mobility of
individuals, cooperation for inno-individuals, cooperation for inno-individuals, cooperation for inno-individuals, cooperation for inno-vation and good practices, sup-vation and good practices, sup-vation and good practices, sup-vation and good practices, sup-port for the policy reformport for the policy reformport for the policy reformport for the policy reform - thestructure of the programme whichso far always included several dier-ent actions, has been simplified.
There’s a pan-European approach,with the programme opening tocandidate countries and partnersfrom other non-EU countries(especially neighbouring countries).
But there’s a general feeling thatthere’s no strong link to the LisbonTreaty article 165(2) which sets thebasis for the EU to support youthexchanges and participation of
young people. The proposal fromthe Commission is based on theneeds of the labour market, and theaspect of active European citizen-ship and participation is not stronglyaddressed.
A Serbian enjoying the Brazilian way of life!BY NEMANJA STANCIC, INTERKULTURA SERBIA, INTERN AT AFS BRASIL
Key concepts such as the role ofyouth organisations, youth work,volunteering and non-formal educa-tion don’t get the expected atten-tion (only non-formal learning ismentioned). The legal regulation isvague and broad compared to thecommunications establishing theprevious programmes, although bysetting only the main principles, this
provides more flexibility. The factthat there is no mention of a directfinancial support to youth organisa-tions, who have always been theones implementing the programme,worries EFIL. However, the Commis-sion arms that specific calls forproposals will be issued periodicallyto allocate something similar to thecurrent administrative grants. Underthe action ‘policy support’, whichprovides support to dialogue withstakeholders, there will be a sub-action 'partnerships with EuropeanNGOs' which will provide a 'flexiblesupport to the multiannual work
programme proposed by a Europe-an Youth NGO, including activitiesconceived by it, to enable it to de-velop a European dimension in itsactivities and fitting with the objec-tives of the EU Youth Strategy'. Thismeasure, being flexible, is anywaynot enough because it hinders thesustainability of the activities ofyouth organisations. Hopefully, train-
ing for volunteers will still be fi-nanced, under the action ‘learningmobility’.
We’ve noted that under the sector“Erasmus Schools”, there’s no men-tion of the Comenius Individual Pu-pil’s Mobility programme. In the re-port accompanying the communica-tion it is stated that individual pupilmobility will be mainstreamed andprobably financed, together withclass exchanges, in the frame of spe-cific projects under the action
‘cooperation for innovation andgood practices’, sub-action
‘strategic partnerships’. ErasmusSchools will also finance sta mobili-ty and IT-platforms. Great opportu-nities could come up for EFIL and itsmember organisations by the sub-action ‘strategic partnerships’ sincecooperation between schools andyouth organisations will be support-ed.
The proposal of the European Com-mission is on the table and im-portant decisions will be taken dur-ing 2012 in the co-decision process.It is now up to the European Parlia-ment and the Member States to de-cide if and how they will re-shapethe proposal, including allocation ofbudget. One of the remaining ques-tions is which budget will be allocat-ed to each action and sub-actionand what will be the implementationrules of the programme. These areexpected to be developed in 2012-
The proposal of the European Commission somehowignores the position of the European Parliament and theonline public consultations which gathered civil society'sopinion. Both underline in particular that youth-relatedprogrammes like Lifelong Learning and Youth in Action,which bear low cost per beneficiary and therefore havehigh eciency, should be maintained as separate pro-grammes in the next Multi-Financial Framework and
that they deserve a stronger investment.
EFIL supports the European Youth Forum campaign fora separate youth programme focused on the non-formaleducation of young people, youth work and the supportto the wide range of youth organisations:www.whereareyouthgoing.eu. You can help us advocating for an independent youthprogramme supporting youth organisations:www.facebook.com/whereareyouthgoing?sk=app_190322544333196
EFIL cooperates on Advocacy for the new programmewith European stakeholders in the field of Educationand Training in the frame of the Civil Society Platformon Lifelong Learning (EUCIS-LLL). In this arena, 30stakeholders adopted a common message on the‘Erasmus for all ‘ programme which welcomes the budg-et increase and the simplification but also addresses themain issues like the lack of recognition of civil society
organisations, the focus on employability and the barri-ers of access to the programme by disadvantagedgroups and small organisations. For the ocial pressrelease, please follow the link: www.eucis-lll.eu/pages/images/stories/LLP/30-stakeholders-messages-eramus-for-all.pdf. Press contact: Audrey Frith, EUCIS-LLL, onbehalf of the coalition, [email protected]
pean Year of Volunteering (EYV)has taken place in Warsaw (30 No-vember – 2 December), on the occa-sion of the last month of Polish Pres-idency in the EU. Poland is, rightlyso, quite proud of such responsibilityand is happy to host celebrations ofactivities widely practiced in thecountry, such as volunteering.
The Closing Conference was thefinal event of the EYV, following sev-eral others which have taken placeduring 2011, and hosted 200 partici-
pants, mostly leaders of their re-spective volunteer organisations. Itwas not an “operational” meeting,but it mainly focused on the presen-tation of the final document calledPAVE (Policy Agenda of Volunteer-ing in Europe), the legacy of thisEYV2011, which has been drafted asa project of the EYV Alliance Steer-ing Group. PAVE is composed of sixchapters that have been developed
by working groups of representa-tives of the EYV Alliance members.EFIL was present in the workinggroup ‘Quality of Volunteering’ withAnni Siltanen (AFS Finland) and inthe working group ‘VolunteeringInfrastracture’ with Hanneke Boode(AFS Belgium Flanders).
EFIL endorsed PAVE and so did theEuropean Youth Forum which alsoreleased a Resolution on the rights-based approach to volunteering dur-ing its last Council of members inNovember.
The Chapters of PAVE were thesubject of six dierent panel discus-
sions, which represented the heartof the Conference: Policy Recom-mendations, Quality Volunteering,Legal Frameworks, VolunteeringInfrastructure, Recognition Tools,Value of Volunteering. I was ableattend 3 of these. All were interest-ing, but I felt that the economic val-ue of volunteering was stressed toomuch, while EFIL first of all believesin its social value.
The organisation was superb.Among the guest speakers at theconference there were both mem-bers of the European Commissionand important ocials of the Polishand other Governments. Social en-tertainment too was well planned,including a ceremony awarding themost outstanding Polish volunteersof the year, in a quite amusing loca-tion: an old factory, refurbished tobecome a cosy music and dinnerplace, with stages for artists, openyards for chatting and bars forPolish beer!
A member of the EU Commissionwelcomed everyone to 2012, Euro-pean Year of Active Ageing (I feltmuch involved!) and 2013, EuropeanYear of European Citizens (a topicclose to EFIL’s heart). Attending theconference was a nice experience,confirming that volunteers are a sig-nificant resource for Europe tocount on!
Policy develpments in EuropeThis compilation is based on information collected by EFIL from the daily newsletter “Europolitics – the European aairs daily” and
from the European Youth Forum's "Youth Policy Watch", a bi-weekly bulletin. You can subscribe to the Youth Policy Watch directly
from the Youth Forum website: http://www.youthforum.org and [email protected]
Enlargement
EU welcomes Croatia!EU welcomes Croatia!EU welcomes Croatia!EU welcomes Croatia!
On 9 December 2011 the heads of state and government of the EU and Croatia signed the Accession Treaty at theEU summit in Brussels. The signature marks the successful end to 6 years of negotiations and launches the proce-dure for Croatia to become the 28th member of the European Union.
Croatia will become a full member on 1 July 2013 when all 27 current EU countries and Croatia have ratified the Ac-cession Treaty. Also, Croatia will hold a referendum on its accession in early 2012. After joining the European Union,Croatia - with its 4.5 million inhabitants and representing 1% of the EU’s territory and population - will have 7 votesin the Council, out of a total of 352.
Until the accession, Croatia will be an observer, without speaking rights, in most of the Council and Commissionworking parties, committees and meetings. Thus, Croatian representatives will be already involved in the decision-making progress and get acquainted with the working methods of the EU institutions.
The President of the European Council, Herman Van Rompuy, stressed how each new member joining the Unionhelps reconfirming the EU founding values and its will to go on. Moreover, he emphasised the role that the EU plays
in the world being “the most prosperous, socially-minded, secure and free continent on earth”.Ivo Josipović, the President of Croatia, and Jadranka Kosor, Croatia's Prime Minister, stated their strong belief in theneed of “more Europe” to make joint eorts in a spirit of solidarity to overcome EU’s current problems.
During the ratification period, Croatia's progress in implementing the treaty will constantly be monitored by theCommission, presenting reports every six months until 2013.
EU Council decision on Serbia’s candidacy bid postponed untilEU Council decision on Serbia’s candidacy bid postponed untilEU Council decision on Serbia’s candidacy bid postponed untilEU Council decision on Serbia’s candidacy bid postponed untilMarch 2012March 2012March 2012March 2012
The member states’ heads of state and government agreed, on 9December, to put o their decision on Serbia’s EU candidacy biduntil the March 2012 EU summit. The 27 member states’ leaderswill take a decision following the Council’s approval in February.
Serbia has to prove, in the meanwhile, the credibility of its com-mitment by achieving further progress in the implementation of
the agreements and engaging positively with the EU’s policeforce (EULEX) and the NATO mission (KFOR).
However, the EU Council recognised Serbia’s eorts to meet thecriteria set for the stabilisation and association process. Moreover,Belgrade reached a satisfactory level of cooperation with the In-ternational Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) inthe last years and re-engaged in the dialogue with Kosovo, withthe integrated borders management (IBM) agreement concludedon 2 December.
MontenegroMontenegroMontenegroMontenegro
After having been granted the ocial candi-date status a year ago, Montenegro will openaccession negotiations in June 2012 as ap-proved during the EU summit.
Even though the Commission assessed on thegood progress made by Montenegro, thecountry will still have to progress in the im-
plementation of reforms, especially on thearea of rule of law, fundamental rights, thefight against corruption and organised crime.While the Council will monitor on Montene-gro’s progress, the Commission was tasked toprepare a framework for the negotiations andinitiate the screening of the acquis commu-nautaire, the body of EU law, with Montene-gro.
The International Volunteer DayThe International Volunteer DayThe International Volunteer DayThe International Volunteer Day ---- 5555thththth DecemberDecemberDecemberDecember2011201120112011
On the European Year of Volunteering and the 10thAnniversary of the International Year of Volunteers,the 5th December celebrations took place for theInternational Volunteer Day in many countriesaround the world. This event is an opportunity tocelebrate the millions of volunteers for their com-mitment for the benefit of society worldwide.
On this occasion, the United Nations Volunteers
(UNV) programme published the first State of theWorld’s Volunteerism Report (http://www.unv.org/fileadmin/docdb/pdf/2011/SWVR/English/SWVR2011_full.pdf).
The Report is expected to promote a better under-standing of volunteerism, enhance recognition, fa-cilitation, networking and promotion of volunteer-ism worldwide. The State of the World’s Volunteer-ism Report shows that, in most societies around theworld, volunteers make significant contributions toeconomic and social development.
Youth
Thessaloniki European Youth Capital 2014Thessaloniki European Youth Capital 2014Thessaloniki European Youth Capital 2014Thessaloniki European Youth Capital 2014
http://www.thessaloniki2014.eu On the 18th November, the city of Thessaloni-ki (Greece) was awarded the title of Europe-an Youth Capital for 2014, after a hard com-petition with the other candidates: Heraklion
(Greece) and Ivanovo (Russia). The “European Youth Capi-tal”, now at its sixth year, is a joint initiative of the EuropeanYouth Forum (YFJ), the largest platform of non-governmental youth organisations in Europe, and the Euro-pean Commission.
A city awarded the title of European Youth Capital, has theopportunity - during a year - to receive visibility for itsyouth-related cultural, social, political and economic activi-ties.
After EYC 2011 Antwerp (Belgium), EYC 2012 Braga(Portugal) and EYC 2013 Maribor (Slovenia), Thessaloniki isnow invited to invest in youth and youth organisations. Thecity built a strong application by and together with youngpeople, stressing the will of establishing sustainable projectsfor activities that address young people’s challenges bybuilding on existing structures.
Education
Eurostat report on Trends in European education during 2000Eurostat report on Trends in European education during 2000Eurostat report on Trends in European education during 2000Eurostat report on Trends in European education during 2000----2009200920092009
Eurostat, the statistical oce of the European Union, has recently published a report (Statistics in Focus) on Trendsin European education in the decade 2000-2009. The report presents the main characteristics of European educa-tion and training systems and underlines the major trends at each educational level concerning enrolments, educa-tion expectancy, teacher characteristics and graduates.
What appears from this interesting and brief report is that the number of children attending pre-primary educationhas significantly raised and 17 are the average years that student dedicate to education. The number of students incompulsory education has fallen perceptively in many countries, especially in Eastern Europe. While women are
dominant in the teaching professions, particularly in the primary education, men are relatively more in vocationaltraining. As regards students, they stay longer in tertiary education and the number of graduates has sharply in-creased.
The full report (12 pages) is available at: http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/cache/ITY_OFFPUB/KS-SF-11-054/EN/KS-SF-11-054-EN.PDF
We welcome your contributions! If you would like to subscribe to (or unsubscribe from) this newsletter,please contact the EFIL Secretariat at [email protected]
Reproduction of texts and pictures is authorised provided the sources are quoted.
To receive further information about EFIL, please check our website www.efil.afs.org
EUCISEUCISEUCISEUCIS----LLL Seminar on ValidationLLL Seminar on ValidationLLL Seminar on ValidationLLL Seminar on Validation
On 12 December EUCIS-LLL organised a seminar aimingat discussing recognition and validation of non-formaland informal learning In view of the upcoming EuropeanCommission’s proposal for a Council Recommendationon this topic, beginning of 2012.
EUCIS-LLL member organisations and other stakehold-ers in the field of Education and Training gathered to
tackle the issue of validation, a top priority on the Euro-pean agenda.
The EU Commission’s proposal will underline howrecognition of these two types of learning (1) fostersmobility inside the EU, (2) provides benefits to thewhole economy by stimulating competitiveness andgrowth, (3) allows savings on money and time other-wise spent to get formal education diplomas, and (4)provides to the beneficiaries educational and personalbenefits.
Other tools have been developed as regards this topic,such as the European Guidelines for the Validation ofNon-formal and Informal Learning; the European Inven-
tory on Validation of Non-formal and Informal Learning(http://www.cedefop.europa.eu/EN/news/18338.aspx)and OBSERVAL (www.observal.org), the online obser-vatory on validation of non-formal and informal learn-ing.
EUCISEUCISEUCISEUCIS----LLL public presentation of the European In-LLL public presentation of the European In-LLL public presentation of the European In-LLL public presentation of the European In-stitute on Lifelong Learningstitute on Lifelong Learningstitute on Lifelong Learningstitute on Lifelong Learning
On 9 November, the European Civil SocietyPlatform on Lifelong Learning (EUCIS-LLL)publicly presented the outcomes of thefeasibility study - launched in 2010 - on thesetting up of a European Lifelong LearningInstitute on European level.
EUCIS-LLL promotes European-wide coop-eration among civil society organisations, especiallythose active in education and training, and aims to givevoice to citizens on lifelong learning issues and to pro-pose concrete solutions. In this perspective, the Euro-pean Institute of Lifelong Learning would be the tool tosupport the development of lifelong learning and givecivil society the opportunity to participate in decisionmaking processes regarding European policy in educa-tion and training.
Concretely, the Institute will consist in an onlineknowledge portal (good practices, research, forum)and face to face encounters (conferences, seminars,training session). It would be open to all stakeholders inthe field, thus bridging the gap of dialogue betweenresearch, practitioners and policy makers.
