Europe enjoys a multitude of languages. Many children in Europe are multilingual. They grow up in border areas, their parents are bi-national or have migrants’ background. Development of multilingual skills needs support during development in early childhood. Kindergartens are ideal to support children in their linguistic skills. Simple games and toys help to enjoy different languages and to understand that all languages are valuable resources of European heritage. Kids2Talk, a Lingua Lifelong Learning project, develops and pilots linguistic games in Germany, Austria, Romania and Greece in order to support multilingual skills of children. Kids2Talk started in January 2008 and will end in December 2009.
Young people with migration background in Europe often face problems in school and during vocational training. In many EU member states migrant youth still ranks behind non-migrant youth concerning successful completion of school and training. Young migrants, however, have several valuable advantages: they are multilingual and multi-cultural. Bila-Train in practice developed and piloted bi-lingual initial vocational training courses for three vocational sectors: insurance broker (Turkish-German), mechatronic experts / automotive technicians (German-Romanian, Romanian-Italian) and legal assistants (German-Greek).
More than 50 percent of all EU citizens are bi-lingual. They live in border areas between two EU countries, they are migrants, have bi-national parents or used to life in another EU country and simply picked up the language. Support of bi-lingual speakers is a new field within adult education in Europe. Traditional languages courses normally concentrate on one language only. Bila-Learn develops and pilots bi-lingual language courses for bi-lingual learners in Europe. Within the project, mobile phones are innovative tools for grammar and vocabulary exercises.
Between 2003 and 2005 Bila-Train Analysis interviewed more than 1.000 experts, owners of enterprises and trainees in Europe on bi-lingual programmes for initial vocational training. Research was done in six EU member states. The result: there is a severe need for bi-lingual vocational training, but the number of existing programmes is very low. Bila-Train-Analysis was the starting point for projects such as Bila-Train in practice and Bila-Learn to support bi-lingual education and training for bi- and multi-lingual learners in Europe.
The number of EU citizens having problems with reading and writing has been increasing significantly during the last decade. Depending on statistics, between 7 and 11 percent of all Europeans have problems with reading and writing. Many adult illiterates attended literacy courses but without success. In a world of pictograms, signs and commercial symbols, many illiterates created their own system of written communication. Adult education providers often exclude illiterate adults due to the fact that most adult training courses rely on written and printed information. Alpha-Beta uses mobile phones and specific classroom modules to provide adult education serves to adult illiterate learners in Europe. Since 95 percent of all illiterates own a mobile phone, it is easy to reach this target group and to offer them innovative and challenging learning materials.
Today 40 percent of all European citizens are 55 years of age and older. In 2020, about 60 percent of all citizens will be 55 years and older. Thanks to medical progress, most seniors enjoy a longer, healthy and active life. Adult education providers for a long time have not been aware of the special needs of this new group of learners. Older people have other needs and demand other forms of learning than young people. Alpha-to-Omega developed and piloted ten learning modules for senior learners including elements of inter-generational learning. Products are available in German, English, French, Greece and Romanian language.
Refugees entering the European Union, displaced persons and irregular immigrants often are excluded from adult education provision. ENTER, a project of our Austrian associate Verein Multikulturell in Innsbruck, develops learning materials for adult education for these special target groups respecting their special needs and requirements. ENTER intends to reach out to groups who so far have been excluded from adult education provision. All materials will be low-key and free of obstacles to join in. There won’t be any need for any prior exposure to learning. All materials intend to motivate participants to continue with adult learning after completion of ENTER courses.
Young migrants in Europe still face problems when finishing school and searching for initial vocational training programmes. Mentoring can help them to overcome obstacles and barriers. Within the INTI-TANDEM project, 70 mentees with special needs received support to find vocational training assignments and to develop more positive prospective for life. In Stuttgart, IEIE teamed up with the local school board, Mercedes-Benz, the City of Stuttgart, the State Museum, Berlitz and media enterprises to successfully implement the project.
How do we communicate with the help of symbols, photos, pictograms and sign in public space in European cities and their multicultural social structure? How do public symbols influence our perception? DIGITED as an international research project is working with designers in Poland, Germany and other countries in order to create new ways of public perception in an urban habitat.