Theo Van Malderen

Senior Executive of SoCiuS, Flemish
Centre for Adult Education, currently responsible for:

• follow-up and promotion of the EU-programmes, and particularly the Socrates programme,  among Flemish organisations dealing with non formal adult education ;
• coordinator of the Grundtvig 2 project NAILS - Needs Analysis In Learning Surroundings, which aims at developing a range of effective tools for establishing and analysing the needs of adult learners in education (7 EU-countries are involved in the project);
• coordinator of international exchange and training programmes and projects within the framework of the Cultural and Cooperation Treaties of the Flemish Community with a wide range of European countries and South Africa
• coordinator of the "policy project" with South-Africa (2003-2005) which develops models for strategic planning at local level in South Africa in areas as culture and adult education.

Theo Van Malderen is also former coordinator of the Cultural Contact Point Flanders (until spring 2002), the official National Agency for the
EU-programme "Culture 2000". He is fluent (understand, speak, read, write) in English, Spanish, French and in German (understand, read, write).

Possible contribution: Theo Van Malderen´s contribution to EAEA could be summarized as follows :

• participation in and input into the policy process at different levels concerning issues related to lifelong and lifewide learning (accessibility of provisions, needs detection, counselling and guidance, accreditation of
  prior learning,…) ;
• promotion of EAEA and dissemination of its products (website, newsletter, project outcomes, public statements,….) in Flanders and beyond ;
• cooperation regarding existing and new EU-projects run by EAEA ;
• contribution to organisational development of EAEA, i.e. by stimulating potential and new EAEA members to become fully involved and by assessing future decisions of the Board on its real consequences for the members, especially in the new and candidate EU-member states;
• collaboration regarding service delivery of EAEA, such as training initiatives organised by EAEA, communication through the internet and other(electronic) media ;
• maintaining good contacts with the link offices ;
• international cooperation with third countries in the southern hemisphere;
• practical assistance to EAEA secretariat in Brussels (five minutes walk from SoCiuS office).