Grundtvig Award 2004 on Basic Skills/Key competencies
The second Grundtvig award goes to the project Educated Choices - Empowered Consumers
, co-ordinated by the Padgogische Akaedmie des Bundes
in Wien, with partners from Austria, Denmark, Germany, Spain, Sweden, Slovenia, Finland and England. This project created a handbook for adult educators with basic information about consumer issues and guidance on how to insert this into their teaching, and 7 teaching modules with advice on teaching strategies. The jury was impressed by:
- The way in which the project interpreted consumer education: it was not just about handing out information on consumer rights, but about putting consumption within the context of citizenship and sustainable development. It did not ask only how we should choose a product, but led to reflection on the impact of our choices on society, quality of life and the environment.
- How the project created materials for learners to be actively involved, including video clips to help learning in using the Internet, games and so on.
- The practical support for tutors - experts who want to improve their teaching and communication skills, tutors who want to include consumer education within their programme, people in other kinds of organisations who find themselves in a tutoring role. Thus the project´s work can be used in many different ways and contexts.
This was a challenging project involving a large number of partners who succeeded in creating a coherent set of materials which can be used across Europe and we applaud their achievement.
Winning project web site
