On 19-20 October the annual Education, Training and Youth Forum was organised by the European Commission in Brussels, in cooperation with the Lifelong Learning Platform and the European Youth Forum.
Before the actual Forum, for the first time the Commission convened a Meeting with Civil Society Organisations where successful projects were presented. As part of the Forum there was also a Networking Village where projects were showcased.
The Forum’s opened with a welcome by Jens Nymand-Christensen Director-General for Education and Culture at the European Commission, and a video message by Jean-Claude Junker. The programme consisted in several TED talks about different key stakeholders in the field if education and youth policies and their implementation. A Panel discussion on Enhancing inclusion, fundamental values and active citizenship: the role of education, training and youth work followed, where Jagdish Gundara, President of the International Association of Intercultural Education and already keynote speaker at the Forum on Intercultural Learning and Exchange in 2013, gave a thorough overview on the practices and research related to intercultural dialogue.
The following day was dedicated to workshops. EFIL’s Advocacy Coordinator Elisa Briga attended the one on ‘Empowering teachers and trainers for better learning outcomes’. Relevant actors in the field were also attending, such as representatives of the School Unit at DG EAC, e-twinning, ETUCE.
The outcomes of workshops were then shared in Plenary and political conclusions were drawn by representatives of the three EU institutions: Tibor Navracsics for the European Commission, Silvia Costa for the European Parliament and Claude Meisch for the Council’s Presidency.
On 23 November 2015, Council and Commission have adopted the 2015 Joint Report under the ET 2020 strategic framework for European cooperation in education and training. The Report, which sets new priority areas and identifies concrete issues for further cooperation in education and training up to 2020, is the outcome of the ET 2020 mid-term stocktaking to which the Stakeholders’ Forum made an essential contribution.
For more information: elisa.briga@afs.org