ONCE UPON A TIME IN...EUROPE

INSTITUTO DE ENSINO SECUNDARIO "CAMPO DE SAN ALBERTO" - SPAIN

I.E.S “Campo de San Alberto”, in Noia is a public secondary school with approximately 500 students divided in the following: Compulsory education (12-16 years), Post obligatory studies (16-18 years), Vocational study courses (health, electronics and administration) and Adult education. There are three different levels in adult education: Level I (for those who can't read and write), Level II (equivalent to primary school level) and Level III (similar to obligatory secondary education).
We have been working with these levels for 22 years. Adult students are, mainly, elderly retired people, housewives, adults who had to leave school early and also students with diverse handicaps: young students with no basic qualifications, learners with disabilities, immigrants, and emigrants from Noia who returned mainly from Central Europe. The institution has participated in several Comenius and Grundtvig projects. There are 77 staff members. Teachers and students reside in various municipalities around Noia.

SECOND CHANCE SCHOOL OF VOLOS - GREECE

The Second Chance School of Volos is a public school which comes under the Ministry of Education, Lifelong Learning and Religious Affairs, through the General Secretariat for Lifelong Learning and it offers a certificate that is equivalent to the junior high school certificate.
Second Chance School of Volos offers intensive lower secondary school courses to adults who have not finished basic education and do not have the necessary qualifications and skills to adapt to modern vocational requirements. Anyone aged over 18 who has dropped out of school is now able to complete its compulsory 9-year education and continue with the Unified Lyceum, Technical Vocational Educational Institutes and post-gymnasium IEK and to attend certain vocational training courses.
The curriculum addresses and reflects the current social and economic priorities and needs of the labor market. Emphasis is placed upon the acquisition of basic skills and the development of personal skills and abilities. In particular, the acquisition of general knowledge, the use of new technologies, the learning of a foreign language and career counseling improve significantly the access to the labor market.
As we follow an open and flexible curriculum, we have the opportunity to implement various projects and workshops in a local, national and European level. Our school participates in the Greek Network for School Innovation and in the Network of Second Chance Schools in Greece. We also participated in the European pilot project "Mind Mosaic" and in the Grundtvig learning partnership “Ways of attracting adults to keep learning” (2008-2010) and we are currently involved in the Grundtvig learning partnership “We are different, we are similar...we are Europeans!” (2010-2012). Our experience clearly shows that collaborative projects with a European dimension are the best means to achieve our goals, to help our students broaden their horizons and adapt to current socio-economic and cultural changes.

ISTITUTO STATALE DI ISTRUZIONE SUPERIORE "GALILEO FERRARIS” - ITALY

The organization is a vocational school in Caserta, a city of about 80000 inhabitants, located in an urban area of about 300000 people, very close to Napoli. The school has more than a thousand students, with courses both for adults and for students from 14 to 19.
The audience comes generally from disadvantaged areas and/or from low level and uneducated social classes. Caserta is located in Campania, a region in the South of Italy with an high rate of unemployment, that has points of the 48% among women; many companies have moved away towards easier and cheaper labour markets and this has caused a huge growth of unemployment; many fired people take advantage of social helps, but these helps have a fixed duration that normally is two years. In this CONTEXT our school is very precious, since it gives an opportunity of requalification and reeducation, in a field that is very popular. Most of our students belong to the weakest part of the society, where there are very few cultural and economical means. Half of them are women that try to help the economy of the family or that, too often, are the only support for it.
The role the school plays in this territory is also fundamental on another basic side, since our institution provides future possibilities that are different and alternative to the opportunities offered from criminality. It is overall well-known that in the South of Italy there is a strong presence of criminal associations that find a fertile soil in a place where it is so hard to get a job.
Moreover many migrants and disabled students attend our courses. Often the school organizes also italian courses for migrants that just arrived in Italy, escaping from wars, or at least impossible social and economic conditions in their lands.
And also we have a special eye for disabled people, there are many teachers that are specialized in disabilities and that help students with special needs to find their role in the society. The school was born only six years ago, therefore no project exchanges have been carried out.

AQUILONIS D.O.O. - CROATIA

Aquilonis can help with defining of educational needs, for individual, group or entire organization.
Aquilonis offers a range of traditional quality courses in the area of business and information technology, and personal development, but also the ability to create specialized courses to match different needs. This education comes in the form of lectures, seminars and workshops. We can help develop a plan of education, monitor the results of education and evaluate the efficacy of investing in them.
Building a system for electronic learning, ie learning with the help of computers and networks is our specialty and our main aim is to teach people to optimally use them. In the construction of educational systems Aquilonis strongly relies on opened and free tools.

ERENKOY ZIHNIPASA PRATIK KIZ SANAT OKULU - TURKEY

Erenkoy Zihnipasa Pratik K.z Sanat Okulu is non profit organization. The staff size is over 20. Our students number is over 900. We have adult learners, especially women over 50. Our school is active in educational and cultural activities..The educational activities include art, sculpture, drawing, designing clothes, teaching English, painting ceramics and cooking. Our aim is to teach them to facility their inclusion in the labor world.
We also work with retired people providing them with a chance to be active in the society and share their experiences, as the same time than they learn new things. Also we have disabled students. We help them to develop their skills and to integrate themselves in the society.
With this project, we expect a large cooperation and involvement of the school communities in its activities. This will lead its participating members (teachers, students, directors, parents,etc) to improve their language skills, and the use of modern technologies as well as their competence to work in group and their knowledge about other cultures.

SLAGELSE SPROGCENTER (SLAGELSE LANGUAGE CENTER) - DENMARK

Slagelse Sprogcenter (Slagelse Language Center) is a public language-education institution for adults (430 students from 18 to 60 years) located 80 km west of Copenhagen.
Slagelse Sprogcenter teaches Danish language and culture for foreigners following the official programme established by the Ministry of Integration which consists of 3 different tracks of Danish education:
Danish Education 1: Students who don’t know how to read and write in their mother-tongue
Danish Education 2: Students who have a short school background from their home-country
Danish Education 3: Students who have a long school background from their home-country
Each education ends with an official competence exam.
Besides the ordinary language classes the language school also provides other activities such as adult language education based on reading, individual lessons taught directly at the work place, Mathematics, IT and social science for young students, Danish education for traumatised refugees, job activity projects in cooperation with job placement agency and internships.

MIEDZYNARODOWE TOWARZYSTWO SWIADOMOSCI KRYSZNY - POLAND

Our activities involve promotion of regional culture, tolerance, professional and unprofessional creativeness, healthy life-style, tourism, activating elder people by stimulating their personal intellectual and physical skills development. to start new cooperation with the organizations and institutions working with adults, mostly elderly people in order to create a project aimed on experience exchange of instructors in the field of implementing artistic tools and methods in activating and integrating activities for seniors. we would also like to create the environment – platform for common activities of international groups of learners, based on artistic forms (book reading, theatre, photography, story telling, performance etc.) via ICT communication and personal meetings in order to prepare an international seniors festival in one of the partner’s country.
Activities:
• reading and commenting books.
• regional tourism, promotion of our region and country in our partners/¨ country
• artistic activities (music, theatre, story telling, performance etc.)
• creating festivals

SOCIALGEST, CONSULTADORIA EM ECONOMIA SOCIAL LDA - PORTUGAL

Socialgest is a Social Consultancy company created in 2001 and is specialized in training and consultancy for the third sector and is a member of Euclid Network. The services Socialgest develops in institutions of social solidarity are as follows:
Professional training: adapted to the different realities of the institutions and in diverse areas of work: Gerontology, Management, Health, etc.
Social consultancy: for the creation of Private Institutions of Social Solidarity, implementation of Quality Manuals, Conception of social equipments, economic feasibility studies, elaboration of performance evaluation programmes, pre quality diagnosis and implementation of quality evaluation systems.
Lares.socialgest: it is an on-line website in which you may find all social responses for the elders, with information about old age
homes, day centres, third age universities, etc.
Socialgest works closely with the Association of Third Age University Network (RUTIS), being one of RUTIS best sponsor.
Socialgest will offer it’s now how on the area of training and consultancy as well as may use its contacts with RUTIS for future dissemination of the project.
All operational and financial management will be consistent with the assigned tasks during the project lifetime.
• motivating our learners to improving and practical usage of English (breaking the barrier of speaking)
• improving ICT skills of learners
• activating and integrating our learners through artistic activities
• exchange of professional and personal experience

JAFNRETTISHUS - ICELAND

Equality Centre / Jafnrettishus is a private NGO founded in April 2008 in Hafnarfjordur, Iceland. The main goals of the organization are:
- Promote equality and work on its implementation
- Raise awareness and help the more sensitive parts of society (discriminated by race, faith, sexual orientation, etc) and the “silenced” parts of society (women, children, immigrants, disabled, etc.)
- Empower the sectors of society who are otherwise neglected and enable them to find help, defend themselves or negotiate equality.
In addition to the main goals, Equality Centre carries out many tasks that are often brought to light thanks to visitors of the Equality Centre seeking help, whether it be speaking on legal issues or lobbying for immigrants and women.
The aforementioned goals and activities are implemented through a variety of ways:
- Integration activities for foreigners (interactive and innovative learning of Icelandic language, organizing cultural events, presenting ‘Iceland’ in terms of culture, history, people, providing constancy)
- Monitoring and analysing equality issues in the country and acting on its implementation
- Speaking up and advocating issues of immigrants, especially women, in media, public events, governmental institutions, decision making bodies, etc.
- Equality Centre offers Icelandic language courses and activities specifically geared toward immigrants for improved opportunities and results, particularly in the work field. So in this project, our students will learn each book in two languages, Icelandic and English, so they will be able to know about other cultures, and it will add to their vocabulary and their involvement in society.
- Providing interpretation services for various industries (governmental organizations, municipalities, individuals, private companies)
- Equality Centre raises awareness of many issues within the Icelandic society: immigrants, cultural differences, tolerance, refugees, etc.
- Equality Centre is always focused on helping foreign women and their children, as experience and personal connections of the staff allow it to be done successfully.
- Equality Centre involves itself in international cooperatives in order to gain knowledge, learn ‘best practice’ examples and be able to solve local problems more effectively.