In the simplest terms, the Grundtvig Programme was a funding programme that’s part of the European Commission. In fact, it was included in the Lifelong Learning Programme. Its main goal was to make education in Europe more sufficient and effective by providing help to myriads of adult learners who wish to become more competent in certain fields.
The programme was open to everybody, but the majority of its projects were mainly oriented toward groups of older people. The Grundtvig Programme has funded a number of different activities, including foreign language learning, learning of basic skills, parental education, and so on. In this very first blog post of ours, we will try to explain why the role of this programme was so significant for adult learners.
Why Does Grundtvig Programme Matter?
The Grundtvig Programme has funded a number of projects that have contributed greatly to a decrease in the number of unemployed people. That’s because one of the main reasons for such a high rate of unemployment among older people is the fact that they are not competent in particular fields, such as computer skills, for example. Projects funded by the Grundtvig Programme were often focused on helping people gain knowledge in these areas.
Their work, however, was not only beneficial for learners. Apart from students, many teachers also benefited from these projects. The reason being is that they were often associated with different practices where practitioners share their personal experiences and provided innovative ideas for learning. After all, nowadays, many people consider traditional studying methods a bit boring.
The introduction of creative practices has certainly made a difference. It is not surprising that this programme is actually named after the prominent Danish teacher and philosopher Nikolaj Frederik Severin Grundtvig. According to his beliefs, the school was a great place for people to learn new things. However, the best way for someone to learn something was to live their life. The Grundtvig programme projects rely solely on this idea, as you will soon find out in our upcoming blog posts.
Many of the projects funded by the organization were great for non-native speakers, as well. At the beginning of our article, we mentioned that the programme supported myriads of activities, including ones associated with foreign language learning. Therefore, many foreigners could also take part in a number of projects that can help them acquire the necessary skills in certain areas. Most of the time, the creative learning methods included:
- eLearning
- Inquiry methods
- Outdoor activities
- Mind mapping
Further Information about the Lifelong Learning Programme
As mentioned at the beginning, the Grundtvig programme was part of the Lifelong Learning Programme. The latter was the educational and training programme of the European Union which was active during the period between 2007 and 2013. Its main objective was to promote high-quality lifelong learning and to help the EU make education systems more efficient. It consisted of six sub-programmes, as follows:
- The Erasmus programme
- The Leonardo da Vinci programme
- The Comenius programme
- The Transversal programme
- The Jean Monnet programme
- The Grundtvig programme
What Else Will You Find on Our Blog?
Now that you know more about the Grundtvig programme, you are probably wondering what kind of information we will present in our blog. The truth is that we will do our best to make our content as diverse as possible. We will dedicate a separate post to one of the most successful and well-known projects of the Grundtvig Programme. Of course, we will also highlight some of the other successful projects.
We believe that this information will help you understand why this programme has been so praised during the time it has been active. In addition to all this, we will try to be extremely detailed in each article. We are aware of the fact that many people have never heard of Grundtvig, and our goal is to help these people learn as much as possible about it. All in all, the information published here will focus on the different projects of the Grundtvig programme and their impact on people.