The Irish Adult Learners'Festival organised by AONTAS from February 4th to 8th 2008 proved to be a resounding success with hundreds of events running throughout the country. STARs were awarded to eleven projects at the opening ceremony in Dublin Castle celebrating the range and diversity of adult education activities.

On February 4th at the opening of the National Adult Learners´ Festival AONTAS celebrated the achievements of adult learners across the country with the prestigious AONTAS STAR Awards. Standing for Showcasing Teamwork, Awarding Recognition, awards were made to eleven projects at local, regional and national level. The Awards ceremony is a very special event in the adult education calendar and this year the number of nominations increased from 46 in 2007 to 131. The range and variety of the projects seeking awards reveals a real enthusiasm for lifelong learning in Ireland, and a tremendous commitment by those responsible for the delivery of the adult and community education service to the provision of a high quality and flexible service to adult learners throughout the country.

The winner of the Nationwide Award was a project called Integrate Ireland Language and Training. The project is based in Dublin but has developed outreach centres throughout the country and works primarily with refugees and newcomers to Ireland. It provides language training through classes which are highly communicative with learners engaged in real world tasks from the beginning. For example, in a class based on the theme of education, learners may find out about the education system in Ireland and tasks could include writing a note to their child´s teacher, role playing a parent teacher meeting, researching available courses or joining the local library. The success of the project can be attributed to the involvement of a wide range of service providers and agencies including education , health and social services.

In keeping with its work of ensuring that adult and community education remains firmly on the political agenda AONTAS invited the education spokespeople from all political parties including the Minister for Lifelong Learning, to participate in a Questions and Answers debate chaired by an experienced broadcaster from the national radio and television service RTE. This proved to be a great success giving AONTAS the opportunity to highlight key issues for adult learners such as finance, childcare and study supports as well as key issues for the sector including resources, structural development and the need for consistent upskilling of the workforce. Throughout the week hundreds of events were held in every county in Ireland and local and national media highlighted many of these. The Adult Learners´ Festival is now well established as a key promotional event.

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(InfoNet)