Adult Learners' Festival 2010
The Adult Learners' Festival: 22 - 26 February 2010
The Adult Learners' Festival 2010 took place from 22 - 26 February 2010. The theme of this year's Festival was 'Better Together' - where we showcased collaborative practice amongst stakeholders in the sector.
Last year over 250 events took place around the country. This year we had 350! Tahnk you to everydodu who organised an event and contributed to the visibility of Adult and Community Education in Ireland.
During the Festival AONTAS promoted a different theme each day:
Monday 22nd - Celebrate Learning: Including the STAR Awards Ceremony for Adult Learning Projects.
Tuesday 23rd - Green Learning (included events which encourage learning about anything from the environment, sustainable living, gardening or organic food)
Wednesday 24th - Learning Communities - launch of 'Beyond the Classroom' - a series of programmes about community education. We also worked with libraries and other community organisations to run events on this theme on that day.
Thursday 25th - Learn at Work - built on our existing links with IBEC, ICTU, SFA, Abbott Ireland and other organisations with a focus on learning at work. These organisations promoted workplace learning, and organised events themselves as well as supporting their members and employees to participate.
Friday 26th - Lobby for Learning - highlighted the key policy challenges for the sector.
AONTAS provided:
- Ideas for events or activities that you can organise
- Contacts for people in your area who are organising events or who have organised events in the past
- Resources - our 'Event in a Bag', promotional material which you can use for your event
- Support and Advice - we can help you promote your event, and our Information Day on January 20th will help you plan your promotional activities for the Festival.
- Copies of the AONTAS Information Booklet, containing the most up to date information about adult learning in Ireland.
"Better Together!"
The STAR Awards 2010 - February 22nd
AONTAS received 109 nominations for the Star Awards.Thank you to everyone who nominated a project! In the current climate its even more important that we continue
to showcase the value of the sector in responding to the needs of individuals, communities, society and the economy. The awards are judged by an independent panel of judges. The winners in each category will be announced at a special ceremony on Monday February 22nd. 2010 is the European Year of Combating Poverty and Social Exclusion, and projects which showcase the role of adult learning in responding to these issues will also be highlighted.
Festival Supporters
The AONTAS Adult Learners' Festival ran for the third time from February 2nd to February 6th 2009, with over 250 events taking place. Collaboration is a key theme for next year's Festival and AONTAS is working closely with a number of organisations on the development of next year's festival.
The Festival receives financial support from the following organisations :
- Department of Education and Science.
- FETAC, the National Awarding Body for Further Education and Training
- ICTU ,The Irish Congress of Trade Unions), through their Union Learning Network,
- TUI , The Teachers Union of Ireland
- ASTI , Second Level Teachers Union
- Bluebrick.ie This project represents 14 institutes of technology including DIT.
