Launch of White Book on Lifelong Learning in Luxembourg

The National Agency for the European Lifelong Learning Programme, ANEFORE, and the Ministry of Education and Training in Luxembourg, have worked together for more than a year to produce a white book on “Defining a Lifelong Learning Strategy for Luxembourg”. This process has involved consultations with all major stakeholders. The result is a stocktaking of the current situation under seven headings: provision, access, quality, competences, mobility, certification, and guidance counselling. The white book concludes with a proposal for a strategy.
The launch of the white book took the form of a 2-hour conference on 10 June 2012, which was attended by 80 key stakeholders, most importantly Luxembourg’s Minister of Education and Training, as well as various directors of ministries, trade unions, chambers of commerce and industry, and of education institutions. The conference was opened by the Director of ANEFORE, Ms Karin Pundel, and the keynote speech on “The Importance of a Strategy for Lifelong Learning” was given by Mr Arne Carlsen, Director of the UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning (UIL). Mr Carlsen spoke about the development of the concept of lifelong learning, its implementation in Europe, the justification for a strategy, the role of major stakeholders, state, enterprises and social partners, and key elements of strategies in other European countries.
Mr Carlsen’s keynote speech was followed by a presentation on Luxembourg’s upcoming Lifelong Learning Strategy, by the Minister of Education and Training, Ms Mady Delvaux-Stehres. In her presentation the Minister referred to inspiration from UNESCO in relation to the social dimensions of lifelong learning, and commented that Luxembourg in its first steps had focussed primarily on the economic dimension. For more information please visit http://www.s3l.lu/default.aspx.