The European Union has two funded programmes in the field of
education and languages, Socrates and
Leonardo da Vinci.
Socrates
The Socrates programme 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 - for ICT and open and distance learning
With the exception of Erasmus, these actions are administered in
the UK by the British Council. Full information about the
Socrates programme can be found on the British Council
website.
Eurydice
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 includes:
Leonardo da Vinci
A European Community programme which aims to support national
training strategies through funding a range of transnational
partnership projects.
These projects are 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. For further
information visit the Leonardo di
Vinci website.