NEXUS – UIL Newsletter - Vol.7 No.1 April 2012

NEXUS – UIL Newsletter - Vol.7 No.1 April 2012.
Foreword
The power of learning and education can transform people’s lives by developing knowledge, skills and competences that enable them to develop their full potential, and also to live wealthier and healthier lives. Moreover, the values taught and practised in educational settings have a significant impact on whether learning acquired there will lead to peace, democracy, sustainability, tolerance, respect for others, intercultural understanding - or not.
UIL’s involvement and action during the first quarter of 2012 focusses on a plethora of value-based learning and education activities that are being dealt with through advocacy, research, capacity-building and networking. In order better to serve Member States, UIL is organising its activities in three programmes in 2012 i.e. literacy and basic skills, adult learning and education, and lifelong learning policies and strategies. This sharpened profile of the Institute will be reported on in coming issues of NEXUS. Arne Carlsen, Director, UIL.
International directory of lifelong learning policy and research established
The UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning (UIL) has created an online International Directory of Lifelong Learning: Policy and Research. The Directory is a compilation of over 200 governmental departments, institutions and agencies involved in lifelong learning policy and research from 98 UNESCO Member States. These entries have been selected from a total of 268 initial entries proposed by the National Commissions for UNESCO of Member States.
The Directory will serve as a tool to collect information, foster exchange and galvanise regional and international collaboration on lifelong learning policy research and practice...
60 Years of UNESCO Institute in Hamburg
On 24-25 May this year the UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning, UIL, will be celebrating the 60th anniversary of UNESCO’s presence in Hamburg. The anniversary celebration will highlight the Institute’s impact on education policy and programmes throughout the 60 years of its work focussing on lifelong learning, adult learning and education, and adult literacy in all world regions.
What was then the UNESCO Institute for Education was established in Hamburg as part of UNESCO’s commitment in post-war Germany. Now, as UNESCO’s resource centre in lifelong learning, UIL conducts and collates research through its extensive networks to make a case for the achievement of literacy as the foundation of lifelong learning and for the promotion and improvement of youth and adult learning and education as integral parts of lifelong learning. The Institute has had a central advocacy role in promoting the latter by organising the last two international conferences on adult education (CONFINTEA), which take place every 12 years, most recently in Belém, Brazil, in 2009 (CONFINTEA VI).
The international lifelong learning community is cordially invited to attend the anniversary celebrations that will start on 24 May with public lectures on lifelong learning in cooperation with the University of Hamburg, and a dinner reception at UIL’s newly-renovated premises. On 25 May there will be a series of workshops for international or global networks and projects.
60 Years of UNESCO in Hamburg: Public events
The international lifelong learning community and the wider public are cordially invited to attend two public events in cooperation with the University of Hamburg. The first will be a public lecture on “Responding to Global Challenges through Lifelong Learning” on 24 May (see provisional programme). The second event is an international expert seminar on “The Role of Universities in Promoting Lifelong Learning” on 25 May (see provisional programme).
To register for either event, please send a message to uil@unesco.org no later than 30 April.
Arab States - Lifelong learning as a key to social transformation and education in the Middle East and North Africa
Rapid technological changes and the speed of social transformation in the Middle East and North Africa region are confronted with the limits of the existing education system to deal with the needs of youth and adults. Can lifelong learning provision respond to social developments and match demands for a skilled and competent workforce in the labour market?
Against this background, and with the support of the German Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs, UIL and the UNESCO Category II Regional Centre for Education Planning (RCEP) co-organised a Preparatory Seminar from 17 to 19 January at RCEP in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates, on Developing Capacity for Establishing Lifelong Learning Systems in Selected MENA Countries, with participants from Egypt, Kuwait, Palestine, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates.
Key outcomes of the Seminar were proposals on thematic policy and strategy for establishing lifelong learning systems, and on the content of a capacity-building workshop to be held in the region in late 2012.
Videos and PPT files of the Seminar proceedings can be found at http://www.rcepunesco.ae/.