Lifelong Learning Days "Dni na ucheneto prez zelija zhivot"

The Lifelong Learning Days (LLL Days) started in Bulgaria as an initiative to promote the ideas and the key messages of the European lifelong learning concept. The LLL Days focus on informing specialists and the decision makers in general about the main documents of the European Commission and promote the European initiatives in the field of lifelong learning.

Each year during the LLL Days issues are organized focusing on the following aspects: new basic skills for all; advanced support for human resource development; new teaching, learning and evaluation methods; access to educational counselling and guidance; getting learning closer to home; intercultural learning etc.

During the LLL Days a floor is given to European practices, projects and exchange of experience. The different events also target the wide public – learners, students, pupils, employed and unemployed people, marginalized groups etc.

The national coordinator, main organizer and financing institution is the Sofia office of the Institute for International Cooperation of the German Adult Education Association (IIZ/DVV), in partnership with the Federation of Societies for Speading of Knowlege. The Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Labor and Social Policy are involved in the preparation and implementation of the event. Several universities, labor offices, NGOs (national and international), municipalities, trade-unions and the main employment organizations are also partners. Schools, media, learners, local interested groups, museums, local public administration, foundations, and international organizations participate in the event(s).

The LLL Days are the largest advertising campaign of the European LLL initiative. The very fact that the LLL Days have become a national forum is considered a great success by all partners. One of the main messages of this successful cooperation is: working together is innovative by itself! And the growth has been remarkable: While in year 2001 there were about 50 participants and co-organizers, in the years 2002 – 2005 they were between 120 and 150.

On the occasion of the LLL Days a national committee has been established, and subsequently a non-formal network of most of the key players in the field of education in Bulgaria has started working.

On 20th – 21st October 2005, the opening of the fifth LLL Days took place in Sofia. That year, a conference on “Democratic Citizenship: Human Rights and Intercultural Education in Bulgaria”was held. It was organized in the framework of the Communication Strategy for the Accession of Bulgaria to the European Union and as part of the national programme to mark the European Year of Democratic Citizenship in 2005.

The Bulgarian LLL Days have become part of the International Adult Learners Week movement and as such has participated in a Regional Learning Festival for South Eastern Europe, in a project on “Widening and Strengthening the European Dimension of the Lifelong Learning Week Movement” as well as in the IntALWE network.

Contact:

Maria Todorova
IIZ/DVV-Bulgaria
Knjaz Boris I, 147
1000 Sofia, Bulgaria

Tel.: + 359 2 9836543
Fax: +359 2 9836482
todorova@iizdvv-bg.org
www.iizdvv-bg.org

Lifelong Learning Days:
www.lifelonglearning-bulgaria.org