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In February 2005, the European Commission gave a fresh boost to the Lisbon strategy

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in a move to create more growth as well as more better quality jobs.

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Education and training have a crucial role to play in implementing the strategy,

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and consequently a new integrated lifelong learning program is in preparation for the period 2007 to 2013.

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A program which should see much more generous funding.

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The proposal on the table is for 13.62 million euros, almost triple the current budget.

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To make Europe the most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economy

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means to invest more and better into education.

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And we need to invest more in order to achieve more real mobility.

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I think that integrated approach to educational programs which we propose for 2007 on period

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and better and more spending in this area means investment into knowledge-based Europe.

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The key elements of this initiative are the Comenius program for schools,

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Erasmus for higher education, Leonardo da Vinci for professional training and Grundtvig for adult education.

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And these programs have already proved their worth to many people all over Europe.

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Brussels, 2003.

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A hundred or so students from 30 countries taking part in the Erasmus program

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have been invited by the European Commission to receive a medal commemorating the one millionth Erasmus student.

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Rossen Dukov, a young Bulgarian student, has been selected to represent his country.

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Erasmus is the best memory of my life,

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from this period in Portugal,

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and I think that everyone should experience it for themselves.

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It's early 2005 in Sofia, Bulgaria.

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Rossen is back home.

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He went on the Erasmus program in 2001,

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six months at the University of Braganza in Portugal

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as part of his master's degree in graphic arts and visual communication.

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He was so taken by the country that he painted a series of landscapes.

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But after his return to Sofia, he had to put his talent for fine art to one side

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and concentrate on earning a living.

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With a university degree in his pocket,

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a year ago he set up his own multimedia communications company.

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At the moment, three years after my Erasmus period,

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I've been doing business.

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And actually, this experience,

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being in contact with people from other countries,

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and being in a different environment,

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helps you a lot when you start running your own company

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or starting to work somewhere else.

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And when you've gone through that, through Erasmus,

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it's a lot easier to keep in touch with your clients,

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and they feel a lot safer in what you do.

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CD covers for his musician friends,

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posters, commercial advertising, children's illustrations,

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and even concerts and music videos for his own hip-hop group.

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This young entrepreneur is certainly not short of work,

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and his creativity has been influenced by his European experience.

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For the time being, Rausen has chosen to stay in Bulgaria.

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He has everything he needs here to make a go of his career.

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His mother thinks so too.

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She started her own printing firm several years ago

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and regularly works for him.

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With his many different talents, there's no doubt he could find work abroad,

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but he seems more concerned about creating jobs at home.

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In 1996, the European network of second-chance schools was launched,

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an initiative backed by the Grundvig program,

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which aims to promote adult education.

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The 13 schools in the network are attended by young adults without qualifications

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who were locked out of traditional education

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and forced to go back to school.

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The school system is based on the idea

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In 1998, the largest of these second-chance schools opened in Cologne

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with more than 800 students.

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Alexander Schäfer, a language teacher,

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was full of enthusiasm about what was then a new educational experience.

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Alexander Schäfer, a language teacher,

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was full of enthusiasm about what was then a new educational experience.

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Very good.

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From the very beginning, these schools were, in effect,

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a laboratory for educational innovation.

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Rather than teaching in the traditional manner,

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it was all about giving a second chance to young adults using special methods.

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Group therapy, training in communication skills,

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and psychological and social support

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have always run side by side with lessons in new language learning techniques.

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Seven years later, in 2005,

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the students in the English class may be different,

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but Alexander still teaches there.

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The European cooperation has just begun.

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Seven years have passed,

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and we have carried out quite a few educational projects since then.

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We have already gained a lot of experience

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and gained insights that we could then integrate into our everyday life,

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into our pedagogical everyday life.

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In 2004, the Cologne second-chance school coordinated a project,

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also supported by the Grunwig program,

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on violence prevention and conflict resolution.

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A film made by the students themselves at the time

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is testimony to the work they did together.

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Partners in the second-chance school network

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began an exchange of teaching experiences in 1997,

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which is still going on.

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And through that, they have been able to complete

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several European projects supported by Grunwig.

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Today, these schemes have given European adults of all ages

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a new taste for learning

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and given them a second chance to find jobs and a place to live.

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In 2002, Alberto, a young Spanish agriculture student,

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was doing a placement in a small Irish aquaculture firm.

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Erwan and Tanguy, two French apprentice mechanics,

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were gaining work experience in a Dutch shipbuilding business.

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In 1999, the French government announced

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that it was going to introduce a second-chance school

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to the students of Grunwig.

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Erwan and Tanguy, two French apprentice mechanics,

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were gaining work experience in a Dutch shipbuilding business.

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Emmeline, an Irish history of art student,

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was working at the Guggenheim Museum in Venice.

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All four had something in common.

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Their professional training experience

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was supported by the European Leonardo da Vinci program.

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Three years later, in 2005, Guilia Fodor, a young Hungarian,

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was working in Bas-le-Duc in France.

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He's doing an apprenticeship

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with a patisserie catering business in the town.

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In an enlarged Europe, he's a perfect example

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of the new Leonardo da Vinci generation.

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The Leonardo da Vinci program is a great help for us,

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because it makes life much easier in France.

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The accommodation, everyday life is easier.

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It's very important for us to be here,

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and I think it's important for other young people

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to get to know France and Europe,

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to get to know the work ethic here,

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the people here, the life here.

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Dominique Cordel, Guilia's boss,

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has long been in tune with the European idea.

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He regularly hires apprentices from Eastern Europe.

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They have a much stronger motivation than our French people.

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Even a very motivated French person

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has something more.

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In my opinion, it can be felt

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that their life is harder up there.

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They really want to learn,

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and they are very motivated.

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Guilia's job is to prepare cooked dishes for customers.

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Here, he can learn new ways of cooking,

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ways of working with his colleagues and customers,

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which are not always the same as the way things are done in Hungary.

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What I have learned here

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is the effort to be precise,

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both in work,

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to serve the customers as much as possible,

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to see the satisfaction on their faces.

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I think that's what I have learned,

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and there are many things in my profession

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that I try to improve.

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For Guilia, getting a placement here was a real stroke of luck.

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Cordel is one of the most reputable firms in the region,

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and his boss, a former professional trainer,

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is well known for training the best apprentices in France.

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The most important thing is to transmit without knowing.

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The more we transmit, the more we will evolve.

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People who are stuck,

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who hide their recipes,

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who don't move forward,

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they are called to die.

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If we want to develop,

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if we want to open up to foreign countries,

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in this case to Europe,

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we have to transmit, we have to transmit,

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we have to know how to give to receive.

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With his European experience,

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Guila is now one of the young people

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who can put their training to good use

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on a job market which covers the entire European Union.

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Since 1995, more than 300,000 others like him

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have benefited from the Leonardo da Vinci program.

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In future, he may settle and find a job in Lorraine,

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unless, armed with all the know-how he's acquired in France,

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he decides to set up his own business back home

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or in any other EU member state.

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What exactly, when you're writing to them,

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what kind of information do you exchange?

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In 1998, the primary school at Newcastle West in Ireland

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became involved in a European partnership project.

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Teachers and pupils exchanged cultural, linguistic

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and educational experiences

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with schools in France, Holland and Sweden.

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The project was supported by the European Comenius program,

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which promotes European cooperation in education.

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In this school, Irish is the common language rather than English,

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but in the course of the exchange program,

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the children have also learnt to speak European.

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After two years of Comenius,

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I believe they know they are true Irish children,

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more than ever.

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But they also understand and believe

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that the world which exists out there in Europe

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is a vital part of their existence.

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Seven years later, in 2005,

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these children are looking back at their early childhood.

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They were four years old when this film was shot in their school.

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Today, they're 12, and some pupils, like Elaine,

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can recognise themselves back then.

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Their teacher is still working in the same classroom,

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but now the Internet is an everyday part of lessons,

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and European projects are a constant feature of the syllabus.

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Seven years of European programs have made one huge difference,

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and that is that we've moved from the 20th century to the 21st century.

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We've moved from an analogue century to a digital century,

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and with that, the European Commission and its programs,

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I believe, have also moved forward.

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Today, the school is still located in the Newcastle West Community Centre,

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but away from the major tourist centres,

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the digital world of the Internet and new e-learning technologies

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have opened up the doors to their European neighbours.

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The Comenius projects themselves have allowed teachers

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in every European country to realise

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that there is something greater than teaching.

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It's called learning.

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And Comenius, by its very essence of what it meant

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when it was way, way, way back then,

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has allowed children to become greater than themselves,

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greater than the country they belong to.

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It has allowed them to become part of a European family,

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to communicate with other children, speak with them,

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speak many languages, not the Tower of Babel, though,

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where they don't understand one another,

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but the Tower of Europe, where people are understanding one another,

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because Comenius has allowed children to be really, truly European.

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Since 2004, the school has been working on a new European project.

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By reflecting on the darker periods of their own history,

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such as the Great Famine or the violence in Northern Ireland,

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the students want to share with others

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their desire to live in a Europe without conflict.

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When we were in the famine, we were very poor,

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and now we're one of the richest countries in Europe.

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And it shows that if we all work together,

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that other countries can move forward from their past as well.

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In the past, wars would have affected Europe an awful lot,

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but now we can move on, war is over,

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and most countries don't have anything to worry about,

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and you can all live happily and all that kind of stuff.

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In Newcastle West, the Europe of the future is being built.

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A new school will soon stand here,

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inspired by the pupils themselves and their European experiences.

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In 2006, it will once again be one of the 10,000 schools

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which take part every year in a Comenius project.

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99% of our businesses and two-thirds,

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there are too many obstacles to becoming an entrepreneur

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or helping to create the conditions for...

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Pushing up employment means equipping people throughout...

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So I...

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To make Europe most competitive

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and dynamic knowledge-based economy

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means to invest more and better into education.

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And we need to invest more in order to achieve more real mobility.

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I think that integrated approach to educational programs,

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which we propose for 2007 on, period,

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and better and more spending in this area

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means investment into knowledge-based Europe.

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Which was seven years ago.

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Absolutely, yes.

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Awesome.

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Welcome, and let me thank you in Erasmus.

256
00:16:38,000 --> 00:16:40,000
How long since you've been here?

257
00:16:47,000 --> 00:16:49,000
Erasmus.

258
00:16:49,000 --> 00:16:52,000
It's the best memory of my life.

259
00:16:52,000 --> 00:16:55,000
I've stayed in Portugal during this period

260
00:16:55,000 --> 00:16:59,000
and I think this is something everyone should experience.

261
00:16:59,000 --> 00:17:01,000
Just for themselves.

262
00:17:26,000 --> 00:17:28,000
So now you're going to do it?

263
00:17:28,000 --> 00:17:30,000
Ah, but the other thing...

264
00:17:32,000 --> 00:17:34,000
Load.

265
00:17:34,000 --> 00:17:35,000
Load.