Newsletter022006 - page 1 of 51

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KIST-VET NEWSLETTER

Nr. 02/ 2006 Edition

“Education and Training is the Bridge to Success”

Welcome Message

Dear Friends of Vocational Education & Training,

first of all I would like to welcome you to our latest edition of the Newsletter. In

this issue I would like to focus on “Global Learning as a contribution to

Globalisation – Personality – developmental education within a world

community context”. Below are a few of my thoughts regarding this theme.

The world is constantly changing and those who are in the field of education

are now being placed in a position where they need to provide the people with

the necessary knowledge, skills & abilities, and understanding all of which will

necessitate the accomplishment of a globalised, networked, intricate and

complex world community.

The General Assembly of the United Nations declared 2005 to 2015 as the

international decade of ‘Educating for a Sustainable Future’. The aim over the decade is to anchor the

principle of sustainable development in national educational systems worldwide through educational

measures implemented at the UNO General Assembly in Rio de Janeiro and in Johannesburg under

„Education is the most effective means that society possesses for confronting the challenges of the

future. Indeed, education will shape the world of tomorrow. Progress increasingly depends upon the

products of educated minds: upon research, invention, innovation and adaptation. Of course, educated

minds and instincts are needed not only in laboratories and research institutes, but in every walk of life.

Indeed, access to education is the sine qua non for effective participation in the life of the modern world

at all levels. Education, to be certain, is not the whole answer to every problem. But education, in its

broadest sense, must be a vital part of all efforts to imagine and create new relations among people and

to foster greater respect for the needs of the environment.”

Source: UNESCO (1997) Educating for a Sustainable Future: A Transdisciplinary Vision for Concerted

In order to take on the challenge of globalisation in a socio-political, environmental and economical

respect, we must be able to integrate ‘Global Learning’ into our educational & training theories and

practises. The starting point of ‘Global Learning’ is the knowledge and the necessity of developing

human awareness in respect to a global ‘contract and responsibility’ in thinking patterns, values and

learning methods.

‘Global Learning’ finds the impetuses for education in a networked world.

Learners at schools, in youth groups or even in adult education will be in a position to find their own

individual and critical point within the complexities of the world community. To have an understanding

for the source of social and economic development, and at the same time to be able to have the

competences to a decision in all aspects of our daily lives (public, occupational, & private spheres).

Knowledge of facts and details is as important as thinking in association and as Cause-and-Effect.

‘Global Learning’ is the pedagogical answer to the requirements of a sustainable development of a

world community. Pedagogical thinking and action-orientated education must orientate itself on the