Thomas Fischer

LOCATE aims at building platforms of local community learning, media and participation to help develop community capacity and stimulate innovation, entrepreneurship and capacity for change by encouraging the discovery and use of untapped potential from within communities and territories.

The European Map of Intergenerational Learning (EMIL) is a collaborative network of members working together to support intergenerational learning taking place across Europe. Established in 2009, the network uses the existing expertise of partner organisations already working in the field to create a learning network for others involved in bottom-up as well as top-down intergenerational programmes and initiatives and across Europe.

Summary of the Learning Café on 'Social Inclusion and Economic Cohesion', which was conducted during the Final Conference of DISCUSS at the Ludwig-Maximilians-University in Munich, Germany in October 2015.

Social Inclusion can be described as the “provision of certain rights to all individuals and groups in society”, such as Education and Training (E&T), employment, adequate housing, health care, participation in sports and cultural activities etc. Social Inclusion is also a “term that can be used to describe a series of positive actions to achieve equality of access to goods and services, to assist all individuals to participate in community and society, to encourage the contribution of all persons to social and cultural life and to be aware of and to challenge all forms of discrimination. By ensuring that the marginalised and those living in poverty have greater participation in decision-making which affects their lives, will allow them to improve their standard of living and overall well-being.”

Economic Cohesion in turn, often used in combination with Social Inclusion “is an expression of solidarity between the Member States and regions of the European Union. This means balanced and sustainable development, reducing structural disparities between regions and countries and promoting equal opportunities for all individuals.”

e-Hoop aims to create a universal, dynamic and adaptable e-learning environment able to offer free personalised training solutions to all learners regardless of their learning, cultural and social background.

The main aim of Bazaar is to promote language learning and at the same time the exchange experiences, knowledge and ideas amongst adult learners with a migrant background. Bazaar stands for ‘Learn and Exchange at the Market Place’ and is co-funded by the Lifelong Learning Programme of the European Commission.

The educational approach is based on the key concepts of learner centricity; informal learning; learning embedded in everyday contexts; social inclusion, community and citizenship. By these means Bazaar tries:

Q4I means Quality for Innovation, and is the core concept around which a number of European institutions and networks have joined forces to create an easy to use approach to quality management for innovative schools. The developed model identifies the core dependencies that schools should address before and during innovative processes.

Q4I is an easy to use approach to quality management for innovative schools. The developed model identifies the core dependencies that school should address before and during innovative processes. The Q4I model is based on seven Areas of change and four Engines of Change. The Q4I Focus Areas are:

Life transitions are challenging because they force us to let go of the familiar and face the future with a feeling of vulnerability. Most life transitions begin with a string of losses: The loss of a role; person; place or sense of where you 'fit' in the world. TEAL (Transitions into Enterprise for Adult Learners) responds to these challenges which all partners (UK, Spain, Germany) face by providing adult learners with new pathways to re-engage with learning and improve their knowledge and competences to consider making a transition into enterprise e.g. from unemployment or redundancy.