Introduction |
Funded programmes
The European Union has two funded programmes of in the field of education
and languages:
Socrates spans the entire breadth
of education. It comprises eight parts, or "Actions", which aim to improve
quality and strengthen the European dimension in education. These include:
- Comenius for school education.
- Erasmus for higher education.
- Grundtvig for adult education and lifelong learning.
- Lingua for the learning of foreign languages.
- Minerva: Information and Communication Technology and Open and Distance Learning.
With the exception of Erasmus, these actions are administered in the UK by the British Council. Full information can be found on their web site by clicking here
Since 1995 the Eurydice Network has been an integral part of Socrates. Created in 1980, Eurydice is an institutional network for gathering, monitoring, processing and circulating reliable and readily comparable information on education systems and policies throughout Europe. Major documentation produced includes:
- Eurybase, an online database of information about European education systems
- Foreign language teaching in schools in Europe (2001)
The UK Eurydice Unit's Eurofocus series includes the following briefing:
Foreign Language Teaching in Member States of the European Union (2002)
Leonardo da Vinci is a European Community
programme which aims to support national training strategies through funding
a range of transnational partnership projects aimed at improving quality,
fostering innovation and promoting the European dimension in vocational
training. Measures include the development of language competences in
a vocational setting. Responsibility for the administration of the programme,
in the UK is shared between several different organisations, but information
will be found on a dedicated web site at www.leonardo.org.uk/.
