Belgium (Flanders)

2004
In 2004, Adult Learners Week activities are organized during the entire year in Flanders, Belgium. The organizer of the Flemish ALW, the Training and Alignment Information Service (DIVA) has decided to promote adult and lifelong learning not only by celebrating a week of learning, but organizing events and promotional happenings sensitizing adults for learning around the year. 

DIVA is a partnership between four departments (Education, Employment, Economy and Culture) of the Ministry of the Flemish Community. DIVA has been established to highlight and promote lifelong learning. The broad and cross-cutting dimension of lifelong learning is stressed and made visible through the fifteen projects DIVA is jointly administering. The projects are providing a transparent system of counseling and advice on adult education, through setting up comprehensive databases including information on adult education and training and a call centre, stimulate the cooperation and exchange of training providers to create a harmonization of procedures and a recognition of qualifications, and sensitize adult learners. The Flemish Adult Learners' Week (De Grote Leerweek) is one of the projects coordinated by DIVA.

Background...
As an expression of their commitment to non-formal adult education, the Ministry of Culture of the Flemish community of Belgium embarked during the 1970s on a series of promotional campaigns to support organisations active in non-formal adult education. These campaigns are widely recognized as the precursor of what much later came to be known as the Flemish adult learners week. In 1996 finally the Flemish Centre for Adult Education (VCVO), inspired by the festivals already taking place in other countries as well as by the European Year of Lifelong Learning, took the initiative to organise for the first time an adult learners week ("'Week van de volksontwikkeling") in Flanders. Aiming at making people aware of the importance of taking part in both education and society, promotional activities such as the dissemination of posters and TV spots were used to announce the diverse events organized at local level. The overall theme was captured by the slogan "Take Your Chances" and was illustrated by means of a logo: an octopus with outstretching arms.

Two years later in 1998, the second adult learners week was organized by VCVO, this time with the help of publishing a brochure with the title of  "Non-Formal Adult Education Makes a Difference", of which 2000 copies were distributed. A conference on "Information & Communication Technologies in Non-Formal Adult Education" was organized, and a press conference was arranged to make the media, the providers of non-formal adult education and other education providers aware of the importance of non-formal adult education. As in the preceding year, a logo was used to transmit the central message of the festival: a surfer. Following these two festivals, the activities in the year 2000 concentrated on publishing activities around the launch of International Adult Learners Week.

For the first finally this year, it was the Flemish Ministry of Education which assumed the overall responsibility for organizing adult learners week and covered all financial costs. The week was supported, however, by all adult education providers, including what has meanwhile become the Support Centre for Non-Formal Adult Education (SoCiuS - the former VCVO). An information day took place on 22 October, and a conference was opened on 26 October 2001.