Sharing Your Success Stories
Posted: April 4, 2013 Filed under: Leonardo, Lifelong Learning Programme, Mobility, Transfer of Innovation | Tags: award winning, education, leonardo, Leonardo Mobility, Lifelong Learning Programme, llp, opportunities, Partnerships, skills, Transfer of Innovation Leave a comment »We do really enjoy hearing from our projects, particularly when it’s good news! We have recently been sent updates by two colleges whose Leonardo achievements have been recognised with external commendations. We thought you might like to hear about them too…
Delivering Apprenticeships: Pride, Growth and Choice
Posted: March 11, 2013 Filed under: Apprentices, Leonardo, Lifelong Learning Programme, Mobility, Uncategorized | Tags: apprentices, leonardo, Leonardo Mobility, Lifelong Learning Programme, mobility Leave a comment »Pride: It’s day one of National Apprenticeship Week and we are proud to be supporting apprentices from across the country through the Lifelong Learning Programme!
Growth: This year’s National Apprenticeship Week celebrates a new era for apprentices, looking at how individuals develop through their apprenticeships and the impact this has on themselves, the employers and wider society. Read the rest of this entry »
International Women’s Day!
Posted: March 8, 2013 Filed under: Leonardo, Lifelong Learning Programme, Transfer of Innovation | Tags: International Women's Day, leonardo, Lifelong Learning Programme, llp, llpukecorys, Transfer of Innovation Leave a comment »On a day dedicated to recognising women’s achievements and addressing inequalities that remain across the world, we would like to share with you one of our Leonardo Transfer of Innovation projects, which focusses on bringing out potential in women entrepreneurs. This topic is highly relevant to the UK Government’s response to IWD this year, which focuses on supporting women in business. See http://www.number10.gov.uk/news/international-womens-day-2013/ for more details.
Supporting women entrepreneurs through technology
The Women’s Organisation, a Social Enterprise in Liverpool, are currently 16 months into their Women’s E-Business Enterprise Learning Project which aims to help women entrepreneurs to make better use of information and communication technologies (ICT) to improve their business competitiveness. Read the rest of this entry »
European Council commits to increase in funding for Erasmus for All
Posted: February 15, 2013 Filed under: Erasmus for All, Lifelong Learning Programme | Tags: #erasmusforall, EU 2020, EU Budget 2013, EU Multiannual Financial Framework, Europe 2020, European Council, Irish Presidency, Lifelong Learning Programme, YES Europe 1 Comment »Heads of State at the European Council have committed to an increase in funding for the Erasmus for All programme as part of the EU Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) budget negotiated in Brussels on 8 February.
The negotiations for the whole EU budget running from 2014 – 2020 , saw, for the first time, a proposed cut of over 3% for the seven year period. However, the importance of investing in education and training for future growth and jobs was clear, with a budget increase agreed for the future funding programme currently known as Erasmus for All. The European Council recognises the future programme as having high potential to contribute to the objectives of the EU 2020 strategy.
The EU budget must now be approved by the European Parliament for it to become law. MEPs are expected to vote within three months and may be given the option to vote anonymously, a procedure rarely used in the European Parliament, which could potentially affect it becoming law.
The Erasmus for All proposal itself is still under negotiation. The current Irish Presidency has core responsibility for reaching an agreement on the future funding programme within its six month term which ends in June this year.
Keep up to date and follow progress on the budget #EUbudget and Erasmus for All at @llpUKecorys
About me
I’m Rebecca Fothergill and I am part of the Communications team here at Ecorys. I coordinate activities on our national thematic networks which are forums for engaging practitioners and policymakers on the cross cutting themes of the LLP. I have an interest in European education and employment policy, in particular the equality of opportunities. I coordinated the Inclusion network, led by Ecorys, which will help to make the current LLP and future EU education and training programme more accessible.
European Language Label – Applications Open!
Posted: February 13, 2013 Filed under: Lifelong Learning Programme, Transversal | Tags: European, European Language Label, Lifelong Learning Programme, llp, transversal Leave a comment »The European Language Label (ELL) has recently launched the 2013 award for innovative language learning projects that encourage new initiatives in language learning.
Winning projects will be able to demonstrate creative thinking and lead to improved teaching provision and learner achievement.
Prizes will be awarded at a special ceremony on 26 September 2013, which is International Language Day. We blogged about last year’s winners in our showcasing languages for mobility, employability and economic growth post.
The European Language Label is part of the Transversal programme. In the UK it is run by CILT, the National Centre for Languages, on behalf of Ecorys.
How do I apply?
The deadline for applications is 21 April 2013.
You can apply online via the online application form or to find out more visit: http://www.cilt.org.uk/home/valuing_languages/european_language_label1.aspx
Addressing the skills gap
Posted: February 8, 2013 Filed under: Leonardo, Lifelong Learning Programme, Transversal | Tags: Changing Lives, Europe, european commission, leonardo, Lifelong Learning Programme, llpukecorys, Partnerships, Rethinking Education, Study Visit, transversal Leave a comment »Our funding opportunities cover a range of sectors; at the heart of all of them is learning. Learning, improving and developing skills are important not just to us as individuals but to our local, national, and transnational communities.
Whichever opportunity you are involved in, whether it is a Transfer of Innovation project, a Senior Volunteering project, or a Study Visit, you are either developing your own skills or working to improve those of learners and staff involved. Skills development is a key priority across Europe. The hope is that improving skills will help to increase employability and remove barriers to the labour market while stimulating economic growth. Co-operation has been highlighted by the European Commission in their Rethinking Education strategy as a path to address the skills gap while providing the innovation needed to boost the labour market.
Co-operation to enhance education
Many of our projects have already forged strong partnerships between academia and business as well as across regions and countries. As part of our Changing Lives series we spoke to one such organisation, Embrace Cooperation, about how they work to enhance education and training: Read the rest of this entry »
Looking at the lighter side of Active Ageing
Posted: January 30, 2013 Filed under: Grundtvig, Lifelong Learning Programme | Tags: active ageing, Ecorys, grundtvig, Lifelong Learning Programme, llp, Partnerships Leave a comment »Is laughter is the best medicine? It certainly seems to be for one of our projects. Health and Humour through the Arts for Seniors, or more often known by their snappy acronym, the HAHA project, looks at the lighter side of active ageing by focussing on humour techniques as a form of health education; using laughter as an antidote to stress and as an aid to promote relaxation and improve the self confidence and general well being of its participants. Recently I spoke to Norma Raynes from Intergen about the inspiration behind the laughter:
As the number of older Europeans increase, there is a need to find new ways of improving the quality of life of older learners and enhancing active ageing. The health benefits that laughter brings are well-known and I was interested in creating a project on this theme, whilst also finding out what promotes laughter in different cultures – so, the HAHA project was born.
Centralised actions, a closer look
Posted: January 24, 2013 Filed under: Centralised projects, Lifelong Learning Programme | Tags: Centralised action, european commission, funding, Isabel project, Lifelong Learning Programme, llp, llpukecorys, social media 1 Comment »You might be familiar with the majority of funding available through the Lifelong Learning Programme such as Leonardo Mobility, Transversal Study Visits or a Grundtvig Partnership, however there is also funding available through the LLP that is managed directly by the European Commission. This funding is often referred to as centralised actions.
Applying and running a centralised action can often be the next step for promoters that have run successful large scale co-operation projects such as Transfer of Innovation. Usually running over three years and involving at least three partners these centralised actions need an experienced and dedicated partnership to ensure a successful project, one that doesn’t just bring benefits to those immediately involved but also has a wider impact for all of Europe.
The Isabel project
One of these projects is the Isabel (Interactive social media for integration, skills bartering, empowerment and informal learning) project, funded by Key Action 3 to raise awareness, and enhance learning experiences, through Information Communication Technology. The Isabel project is co-ordinated by Roy Smith of MRS Consultancy in the UK, an experienced promoter who has worked on many projects funded by all actions of the LLP. It was this experience which was an incentive, and a help, during the project: Read the rest of this entry »
Supporting the UK…. part four
Posted: January 22, 2013 Filed under: Grundtvig, Leonardo, Lifelong Learning Programme, Transversal | Tags: Ecorys, grundtvig, leonardo, Lifelong Learning Programme, llp, Supporting UK, transversal Leave a comment »Each year we produce a series of publications showing how the Leonardo, Grundtvig and Transversal programmes provide funding for projects and activities all around the UK. These publications are sent directly to elected policymakers and key stakeholders to help raise their awareness of the good work done by the programmes in their country. This year, we would like to share them with you on our blog.
This is the final post of the series, looking this time at how programme funding is benefiting organisations in England.
Read our other posts on Supporting Wales, Supporting Scotland and Supporting Northern Ireland.
Supporting England
Since 2007, the Lifelong Learning Programme has awarded organisations and individuals in England over 90 million euro for projects and activities in the education and training sector. Read the rest of this entry »
