Brussels, 07/05/2007 (Agence Europe) - The launch of the programme for life-long education and training will take place in Berlin on 6-7 May, at a conference organised by the federal German minister for education and research, with the support of the European Commission. The programme, which is planned for the period 2007-2013, will have a budget of €6.79 billion. It will be divided into four sub-programmes: - the Comenius programme (13% of the budget: €906 million), which will go to cover needs in terms of teaching and skills acquisitions in preschool and school education up to the end of the second cycle of secondary education; - the Erasmus programme (40% of the budget: €2.788 billion), which benefits students and higher education teachers; - the Leonardo da Vinci programme (25% of the budget: €1.743 billion), for professional and vocational education and training; - the Grundtvig programme (4% of the budget: €279 million), for those involved in all forms of adult education. These four sub-programmes are supported by a transversal programme, on the basis of the following four areas: (1) Political cooperation and innovation in the field of life-long education and training. (2) Promotion of the study of languages. (3) Development of content, services, educational methods and innovative practices based on ITC. (4) Distribution and exploitation of results, supported under the programme.
The new Jean Monnet programme, which benefits university education and research into European integration throughout the world, adds to these programmes. Bursaries and subsidies will be granted to people and projects under each of these programmes. The objective is to support the transnational mobility of the citizens, to promote bilateral and multilateral partnerships and to improve the quality of education and training establishments and systems, in order to make them into a globally-recognised benchmark quality.
In the course of the conference, prizes for life-long education and training will be awarded to the best three projects carried out in the context of each of the former programmes: Comenius, Erasmus, Leonardo da Vinci, Grundtvig, Jean Monnet and Lingua. (gc)