Form a group of four students and do the activities suggested.
PRE-READING
1. Before reading discuss the following.
a) Have you ever heard about EU programmes?
b) What do they deal with?
c) Is your school involved in any of them (or has been in the past)?
d) Can you mention any specific EU programme?
2. Have a look at doc.1 and find out:
a) what type of text you are going to read;
b) where it is taken from;
c) which topic it deals with;
d) reasons for the programme name.
| Doc. 1 - Leonardo Da Vinci |
This programme, adopted for a period of five years (1995-1999) had a key objective of supporting the development of policies and innovative action in the Member States, by promoting projects in the context of transnational partnerships which involve different organisations with an interest in training.
The programme had a total budget of 620 million ECU for the five years and was open to the 15 Member States, the 3 States of the European Economic Space and progressively to Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Lithuania, Latvia, Romania, Poland and the Slovak Republic.
The adoption of the Leonardo da Vinci programme also represented a rationalisation of Community action in the area of vocational training, providing the basis to enhance the value of the acquis. Leonardo da Vinci facilitated the taking forward of initiatives successfully developed under COMETT, PETRA, FORCE, LINGUA and EUROTECNET and added new dimensions.
The programme came at a time when the White Paper on "Growth, Competitiveness and Employment" forcefully emphasised the crucial importance of vocational training as a key factor in combating unemployment and strengthening the competitiveness of European enterprises.
The programme aimed at responding to the demand for new skill needs which are generated by the evolution of our societies and tackles concretely the problem of employment in Europe which is also the priority target of the White Paper "Teaching and Learning - Towards the Learning Society", approved by the Commission on November 29, 1995.
The Leonardo da Vinci Community vocational training action programme, introduced in 1994, is now entering its second phase, which will run from 1 January 2000 to 31 December 2006.
Promoting a Europe of knowledge is central to the implementation of the programme, which seeks to consolidate a European co-operation area for education and training.
The programme actively supports the lifelong training policies conducted by the Member States. It supports innovative transnational initiatives for promoting the knowledge, aptitudes and skills necessary for successful integration into working life and the full exercise of citizenship, and affords scope for links with other Community initiatives - particularly the Socrates and Youth programmes - by supporting joint actions.
The broad lines of this second phase are set out in the Council Decision of 26 April 1999 (OJ L146 of 11 June 1999), which affirms the need to develop quality, innovation and the European dimension in vocational training systems and practices through transnational co-operation.
Multi-annual Community calls for proposals are planned for the periods 2000-2002, 2003-2004 and 2005-2006. The calls will set up the annual deadlines for the submission and selection of proposals and will specify particularly the priorities for these calls.
A set of documents is available to promoters who wish to submit a proposal under the Leonardo da Vinci programme. They are:
- the Council Decision;
- the call for proposals;
- the general guide for promoters;
- the five specific guides, each dealing with one of the individual measures: mobility (which concerns transnational mobility), pilot projects, promotion of language competencies, transnational networks and reference material;
- the application forms;
- the administrative and financial handbooks.
From http://europa.eu.int/comm/education/leonardo.html.
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READING
3. Read doc.1 and complete the table with the missing information.
VOCABULARY
4. Give the Italian equivalent for the red words in doc.1.
SPEAKING
5. Organise the information you have gathered to prepare a presentation for the whole class. Use visual aids (transparencies, PP slides etc.) to make it more interesting.