The European discourse on sustainability has gained the centre of policy arenas and has spilt over all fields, including lifelong learning. Nowadays, it is no longer enough to have an outlook on the future of education, and we rather have to imagine the future of learning with sustainability as a polar star. Such was the spark that lit the debate for the LLLP webinar “Lifelong Learning for Sustainable Societies” , that took place on May 27th.   To be sustainable, education and training needs to have a broader focus, on transversal skills and on key competences. In our current landscape, lifelong learning is a fresh, positive and transformative force, as it enables learners to think laterally. Education should be appreciated by its own benefits , and yet there is too much focus on the education-employability link. To narrow the scope of education to employment ends would mean to undermine its primary function, which is personal development – hinted Prof Jonathan Michie from the University of Oxford in his keynote speech. The moment when we will get rid of this ballast will be the moment when our systems will turn sustainable. As such, lifelong learning is essential because it enables people to face contemporary challenges: in his vision, a sustainable education system is a system that allows all of its citizens to enrol in learning at all times. Looking at education through this perspective, it seems like the road ahead is still long. A lively panel discussion brought us to the question on everyone’s mind: what is Europe doing to make education systems sustainable, all the more in this crisis? The European Union is focusing on empowering teachers and trainers ( see here the Council Conclusions on Teachers and Trainers ). Ms Daria Arlavi, representative of the Croatian Presidency of the Council of the EU, stressed how important it is to have a forward-looking union that addresses the many challenges our educators are facing. Because, in her view, a sustainable education system is a system that addresses the needs of its pillar actors: teachers and trainers .   While it is difficult to predict where new technologies will bring us, and what pedagogical methods will be developed, it is essential that our education systems teach us how to learn. Dace Melbārde, Member of the European Parliament and Vice-Chair of the CULT Committee, chose to address the importance of key competences for lifelong learning to give meaning to “sustainable societies”. In her eyes, our collective efforts should go towards diversification of learning environments , with a renewed importance of non-formal education and lifelong learning , which are truly indispensable to foster one’s adaptability. In this, a sustainable education system is a system that does not let change lead us, but that enables us to be the leaders of change.   This is particularly obvious in the current health crisis, which rapidly turned into an economic and social emergency. But, if it is true that a crisis often accelerates existing problems, it is also true that it lets solutions surface more rapidly . Such was the focus of Ms Catherine Sustek, member of the Cabinet of Vice-President Schinas, as the current scenario is bringing the European Commission to reconsider its strategies. She updated the audience about the upcoming initiatives of the Commission, including the much-needed revision of the Skills Agenda and the European Education Area : a portfolio that, if it successfully puts the learner at the centre of the process, will invariably bring us closer to the idea of a sustainable education system.   2019 was the year when the whole world was made aware of the environmental disaster that lays ahead of us. According to Rilli Lappalainen, Chair of the Steering Group of Bridge 47 , environmental education is the biggest priority for curricula and must be reflected in education policies, too. The “leave no one behind” principle that made the top of EU jargon must be translated for climate justice and environmental education and thus climb the list of the European Education Area priorities. With this angle in mind, growing attention to adult education is needed: cooperation and intergenerational learning can be a crucial step to foster a “greener” education. In his view, a sustainable education system is a system that equips learners with the knowledge to face such immediate and potentially-disastrous challenges . To this extent, involving civil society organisations in the forward-looking discussions is a must.   The debate around a sustainable lifelong learning society is, by its own nature, adaptive. Participants and panellists to the webinar agreed that the first step shall be a truly multidisciplinary approach and representatives of the European institutions will put efforts to mainstream such an approach and promote it among EU Member States. Because mainstreaming sustainability in education “is the only way to save planet Earth and its people”. The Lifelong Learning Platform is excited to take the lead in the joint efforts to link sustainability and education. In fact, this webinar was the first step that will feed a year-long discussion and inform our work for the future months. For the full content of the webinar; please see the live recording .

The LLLPlatform runs anannual review of the Erasmus+ programme implementation amid beneficiaries and civil society organisations. Curious to know what beneficiaries of Erasmus+ think of the programme? Following the success of the Erasmus+ implementation surveys from previous years, the Lifelong Learning Platform ran its 2019 Erasmus+ Implementation Survey from 6 September to 14 November 2019. In the same lines as last year’s survey, only European level organisations were targeted and a total of 40 responses were collected. By targeting European networks exclusively the consultation aimed to gain views from stakeholders with a high-level of expertise and representing a large number of beneficiaries across the EU and at different levels (local, regional, national), as the vast majority of them have 5 or more years of experience working with Erasmus+ and its predecessor, the Lifelong Learning Programme. Thus, the Lifelong Learning Platform seeks to provide decision-makers with an evaluation – from the direct experience of beneficiary representatives – on what is working well, what could be improved and what is lacking in the current programme, and thereby provide reflections that can be useful for the successor Erasmus+ programme. Here are some key findings. While there have been some key improvements, still a lot needs to be done to make the Erasmus+ an includive programme. The new cycle will perhaps be the much shough-after opportunity to rethink the programme and make access to it surely universal. Read the report with the results

In these times many people want to help. And there is a lot to do! Despite the challenge, millions of volunteers across the EU show a lot of initiative, creativity and resourcefulness in finding solutions to support others. Are you currently volunteering?   Then let this voluntary commitment be recognised by assessing your competences! With us you can validate (identify, document, assess and certify) these new competences for free! You may even earn a digital badge like this one: Your volunteer activities make a relevant contribution to your personal development. You acquire a whole range of life skills which you may be able to use in the labour market at a later stage. No matter if you, for example, chat on the phone with senior citizens, give digital tutoring or build up a help network in your neighbourhood, you will always gain important experience and develop social, personal and organisational skills. For further information or to express your interest, please fill in this Google form and we will be in touch very shortly. This initiative is part of the European project Job Bridge . The Lifelong Learning Platform is a partner in this project.

We are happy to announce that the Lifelong Learning Platform, with the support of external experts from UIL UNESCO, EESC, Cedefop and the European Commission, has launched a new project to redesign the concept of lifelong learning! This project aims to create a true Lifelong Learning Glossary, that will collect agreed definitions, words, abbreviations or acronyms giving the term and its full name, or its contextual meaning. While many definitions of key terms exist, we feel that most of them have not kept pace with the extraordinary revolutions that education and learning are undertaking. Because of this, we are gathering information from organisations and institutions as well as individuals working in education and training about different terminologies and definitions used in the field. We would like to know the needs and the best ideas from stakeholders, to better understand the main issues regarding terminology. Through this survey , LLLP aims to have a better overview of which terms might be problematic for end-users due to several factors such as national context, different understandings of the word, etc. Please find the survey here and provide your answers by 30 June : this will help us lay the foundation for a better understanding of education and lifelong learning.

“Europe will not be made all at once, or according to a single plan.It will be built through concrete achievements which first create a de facto solidarity” Robert Schuman Seventy-five years after the end of the Second World War and seventy years after the Schuman Declaration, another dangerous spectrum torments Europe and the whole world, once again testing our capacity to respond jointly to the great challenges of the present time. The World Health Organization defines health as “a state of complete well-being physical, mental and social and not just the absence of affections and illnesses”. The health crisis we are experiencing violently affects all dimensions of the self. In Europe and in the world millions of people, millions of citizens see life more complicated, their income reduced, their jobs lost, their well-being suddenly shuddered. And they would like to see Europe proactively countering both the immediate and the long-term effects of this crisis.   When we greet the 70th anniversary of the Schuman Declaration in an effusive way, it is because we see the seed that bore fruit and allowed the construction of a more solidary and just Europe, despite the imbalances that remain and now, to a large extent, are worsening. Seventy years later, Europe cannot leave its citizens behind and needs to sow new seeds to nurture the path of progress and halt the violent impacts of the current crisis. At the Lifelong Learning Platform, we believe that the way forward lies in a ‘ learning Europe ’. As we hope it is now clear in every corner of the globe, learning does not manifest itself only in classrooms but is a fundamental part of our common living together. Learning for innovation, learning for our future jobs, but also learning from and with each other, learning for and from our personal development and learning to foster our values of solidarity, peace and democracy. We therefore call on decision-makers to take Europe forward on the basis of a renewed role for education and lifelong learning, to help lay the foundation for the Europe of solidarity that Robert Schuman so ardently aspired for.

At this point in time, it has become apparent that the COVID-19 outbreak is an unprecedented global public health crisis, a danger to social and economic cohesion across our communities. But it is also a threat to education and training systems’ stability and sustainability, a red flag for the need to upskill teachers, educators and trainers, and ultimately to massively invest in education and training. One might even say that, to some extent, it has led us to question the whole learning process at a pedagogical level, to the point that we are obliged to tell ourselves: we were not ready and we were not aware.   Read here the full statement

EU Member States are dedicating an ever-smaller share of their budget to education and training: unfortunately, this trend is well consolidated and alarming. Eurostat , the European agency dedicated to statistical analysis of EU Member States (and beyond), punctually publishes statistics about education and other sectors: its reports are of particular interest because they evoke a precise picture of countries’ investments in different budget areas.   At the LLLPlatform, we have compared the same study Eurostat publishes every year with the aggregated data of post-crisis Europe and found out what we feared: European countries seem to view education and training as an easy-to-cut budget item, despite the fact that most of them have not been implementing fiscal consolidation measures for a while, in the aftermath of the debt crisis. This was confirmed partially by the ET Monitor 2019 published in September at the European Education Summit ( see here LLLP’s reaction ). At the same time, such a trend goes against the view on the importance of investment in education expressed by several Member States at the joint meeting of EU education and finance ministers last November.   The role of education in times of crisis cannot be overstated: it is thanks to virtual and distance learning that our education systems keep on functioning during the COVID-19 outbreak – and this kind of learning needs more than promises. The very implementation of the European Green Deal and of the new Digital plan will depend on a clear political will to invest in education.   2009 – 2013 This early report from Eurostat helps us set the context. In 2009 the average EU budget for education was 5.5% . It then decreased to 5.4% in 2010 and 5.3% in 2011. In 2012 it went further down to 5.2% of the total national GDP, while in 2013 it stagnated. In times of crisis and expenditure-based austerity, education and training were amid the sectors to suffer the most, notwithstanding a general recovery in the economy. This is part of a global trend where public institutions rely on the private sector to fill the gaps in sectors it is no longer willing to keep ( see this UNESCO paper on the consequences of privatisation for the education sector). It is worthwhile to note that in 2013 there has been a change in the classification of the sector . 2014-2018 In 2014 , Juncker’s Commission settled in. The new President announced that education would be a vital part of their European programme, and stated that MSs could be convinced to invest in education programmes thanks to their high return-on-investment rate. However, Eurostat studies show that, at that time, the EU average was slightly above 5.0% . During these years the downward trend consolidated, and this is all the more worrisome because the total level of GDP in Europe rose well above pre-crisis levels. Europe is richer than ever, and yet the percentage of funds allocated to education and training keeps on decreasing.   In 2015 , over €721 billion of general government expenditure was spent by the Member States on education. This expenditure is equivalent to 4.9% of the EU’s GDP . ‘Education’ is the fourth largest item of public expenditure, after ‘social protection’ (19.2%), ‘health’ (7.2%) and ‘general public services’ such as external affairs and public debt transactions (6.2%). In 2016 , despite the pull of countries such as Finland, Denmark, UK and Belgium, countries from the European periphery started the downfall. Italy, Ireland, Bulgaria and Romania are well below the threshold of 4% of their GDP, marking a clear division with northern and central Europe. We learn that this trend not only affects education and training, but it is a much broader trend that sees disinvestment in all social areas. In fact, this study published by Eurostat reminds us that investment in the social sector was rising pre-crisis and steeply decreasing after 2009. However, once the crisis ended, social investment never really recovered and one could argue that policy measures based on expenditure cuts have continued even without fiscal consolidation needs.   In 2018 , even virtuous examples like Denmark, Finland and Sweden reduced their share of investment in education and training. Sweden is the EU country that spends the most on E&T (6.9%) but Denmark saw its share of GDP in education and training fall from 7.9% in 2012 to a staggering 6.4% in the span of seven years. Countries like Romania and Ireland are perilously close to the threshold of 3%, which is unlikely to sustain the needs of a healthy public education system.   Takeaways To sum up, the average expenditures on education decreased constantly from a share of 5.5% of GDP in 2009 to only 4.7% in 2018, despite the claims of the European Commission and national governments. We are talking about a 17% disinvestment since 2009. While we should not forget that the absolute amount of money destined to education and training has increased , it is the percentage over GDP that gives the real measure of the importance of our sector to European countries. And our sector has never been this irrelevant.   Data source: Eurostat ; Elaboration: Lifelong Learning Platform The breakdown of the data by countries gives us an even grimmer image. Only three countries have increased their percentage of investment in education: Belgium (+0.1%), Sweden (+0.1%) and Croatia (a very positive example with +1.7%). On the other side of the scale, most countries have registered a decrease; amid the most staggering lie Cyprus (-1.2%), Slovenia (-1.2%), UK (-1.4%), Ireland (-1.5%), Portugal (-2.0%) and Lithuania (-2.6%). This trend is extremely worrying and the shrinking of funding undermines education in all of its sectors and forms. It undermines the personal development of individuals, it undermines the availability of skilled workers on the labour market, it undermines the wider benefits of learning, and it undermines our very society as we know it. Decreasing the percentage destined to education and training means that public expenditure cannot keep up with the dynamic pace and the countless transformations that education is currently experiencing, at the risk of leaving behind those who cannot afford higher costs. By the same token, this trend reflects the increasing privatisation and commodification of education in our continent, that will eventually and inevitably widen the economic and social cleavage in Europe. Current trends of investments are moving from “education & training” to “skills” provision to further support this market approach where skills are understood as a product to sell rather than intangible and invaluable knowledge.   The Lifelong Learning Platform vehemently opposes the diminished share of investment in public education and the increasing tendency to treat education as a marketable good: we will not stop asking the European institutions and the Member States to increase their expenditures in education at European, national and local level. European education and finance ministers have already spoken the truth about the value of such investment, and we now ask them to translate their acknowledgement into robust and concrete commitment.

The Lifelong Learning Platform has decided to postpone the launch of registrations for its Annual Conference “Lifelong Learning for Sustainable Societies” to be held on Zagreb on 27-28 May. Because of the outbreak in COVID-19 across all Europe, the LLLPlatform has decided to postpone the launch of the registrations until the end of March, when the Steering Committee will be assessing the situation again. This also applies to the timing of the General Assembly 2020, initially foreseen for 26-27 May 2020, in Zagreb. The whole membership including LLLP staff thanks you for your understanding.

In 2018, LLLP joined a consortium of 5 organisations to start a new project called TaMPADA , which will be implemented until 2021. Partners are now launching its first achievement: an Evidence collection toolkit and framework for tracking and monitoring the progress of disadvantaged learners. This is designed to be of great use to adult education training providers in showing evidence of quality design, implementation and impact of adult education. The TaMPADA tool can be integrated into quality assurance processes that enable providers to best meet the needs of disadvantaged learners. The TaMPADA tool has been developed following extensive research by partners in the following areas: Existing tracking and monitoring systems within adult education systems across Europe – through desk-based research and focus group activity with experts in adult education Focus group and desk-based research on the impact and advantages of participating in adult education, beyond accreditation, that are of particular relevance to disadvantaged and harder to reach learners: ‘soft skills’ and broader social outcomes Focus groups held with disadvantaged learners themselves to ensure that the design and content of the framework and tool best meets their needs and would be of most advantage to them to use The TaMPADA Evidence collection toolkit and framework comprises: A comprehensive learning outcomes index – against which the provider can plan and the learner can self-assess; A framework for planning tailored programmes designed to meet the needs of the disadvantaged learners, supporting adult education providers to use, collect and assess learner data throughout and beyond their learning, including post-course progress tracking and destination monitoring. You can freely access and download the toolkit here . Moving on, the TaMPADA consortium will be working towards a Manual of recommendations to enable inter-institutional working to better meet the needs of, and track the progress of, disadvantaged learners. This will be launched later this year.

On February 17-18 DIMELI4AC partners flew to Pallini (Greece) to discuss the work done in the past few months and decide on the next steps towards the implementation of the DIMELI@SCHOOL programme. DIMELI4AC is an Erasmus+ KA2 project which aims to promote the development of digital media literacy (DML) and critical thinking skills among students aged 10 to 15 with the support of their parents, teachers and schools. After concluding the initial research stage and finalizing a Competence Framework, DIMELI4AC partners have been hard at work to develop teaching and learning materials for students on the topic of digital media literacy. The resources, which will eventually become part of a comprehensive implementation pack for schools, cover six crucial topics within the framework of digital media literacy education: Each Module will contain a minimum of three resources : A PowerPoint presentation : to easily present the topic in class Teachers’ notes : to guide teachers in planning DML classes Pre- and post-assessment : to evaluate students’ understanding and issue Open Badges All resources will become available before summer on the DIMELI e-learning platform , where students, teachers and parents will be able to access the files and communicate with each other through the forum. Stay tuned! Until the end of the year, DIMELI4AC partners plan to focus on the next two crucial resources: An interactive game for students which will allow them to test their knowledge and, after obtaining an Open Badge for each of the six modules, receive the overall DIMELI Open Badge; An Implementation Pack for schools , containing all necessary resources to implement the DIMELI4AC programme in their classrooms (including teaching and training materials, GDPR consent form templates, promotional material etc.) Despite Athens’ public transport strike, DIMELI4C never stops! After a pleasant and productive two days, DIMELI4AC partners are looking forward to the months to come and to the opportunity to test their training materials before the project final conference, which will take place in Brussels (Belgium) in the spring of 2021.

On February 14th, the LLLPlatform was awarded by Trusted Jobs as the 2nd best employer in Brussels! The ceremony took place in the context of the POLITICO Job Fair ad was hosted by Trusted Jobs, the new social enterprise that allows employees and trainees to rate their employer, thus giving employment a new democratic dimension. For the first time, people working in EU Affairs got to have a say on their working conditions and can improve the work culture in the sector of the EU. We invite you to review anonymously your work experiences in EU Affairs, including your current job. The 2020 Trusted Jobs Ranking gives recognition to organisations with the best working conditions. It encourages others to improve their work culture and has the ultimate goal to create better jobs for all. The LLLPlatform is very happy to see that its efforts in creating a healthy culture and a learning work environment have been recognised.

LLLP has just launched a survey on the EU Education and Training (ET2020) framework! The survey aims to gather the views of education and training stakeholders on the ET2020 framework, feeding into a short study that LLLP will publish as own initiative with a “shadow report” for the ET2020 Monitor. LLLP has selected five countries to target: Slovenia, Ireland, Austria, Romania & Portugal and three specific areas of the framework to assess: early school leaving , inclusive education , and adult learning . The survey is available here (only in English) and takes around 10 minutes to complete. The survey has a first section about policies on inclusive educationin general (including feedback on EU initiatives such as the Paris Declaration) and then questions specifically on adult learning and early school leaving (respondents can choose to answer on both topics or only one). LLLP aims to hear from a variety of stakeholders including civil society organisations, formal education institutions, social partners and local/regional authorities. The deadline for responses is 15 March. Only 1 response per organisation is possible. Share it around and do not hesitate to get in touch with us for further info!