BEST Institute for vocational training and personal training GmbH
November 2018

Press release – Project Courage

It was a fruitful kick off meeting for the COURAGE project (Discover and Use Your Skills and Civil Courage – a new way of empowerment for young disadvantaged adults in Europe), an ERASMUS + Key Action 2 project in the field of adult education (project number: 2018-1-UK01-KA204-048016).

The five partners, Bridging to the Future (UK), BEST institute (AT), CREFOP (RO), BBB (DE), and LoPe (NO) gathered in Birmingham to start implementing the activities which refer to Civic courage as a basic skill to be addressed.

Recent reports and studies, as well as daily media reports, show that verbal and physical violence, different forms of aggression – often against weak members of society – are increasing, leading to escalating incidents and conflicts in everyday life, as well as on the internet (cyber violence, hate comments, mobbing etc.). These challenges have brought a need for more holistic and multidisciplinary approaches, especially in terms of basic skills provision.

The project is based on the need to extend the conceptual and practical understanding of “basic skills” by civil courage awareness, skills and competences young people will require for active democratic participation as responsible and well-rounded citizens in times of societal changes. Respective professionalisation of adult educators (active at schools, training centres, career service organisations etc) will build on new (non-school) learning concepts, environments and activities, in order to enable educators to better reach their learners.

The project, starting in September 2018 and lasting two years, will deliver for the beneficiaries a Self-study manual, a Case Box and Civic Courage Showcases along with policy recommendation for stakeholders in the field and policy makers.

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