Stephen Vella, deputy director of MCAST's Institute of Art and Design, recently attended a five-day seminar on "The different systems of adult education in Germany and Europe, with special focus on vocational training", in Regen, Germany. The in-service training was fully funded by the Comenius 2.2 grants and was organised by the Volkshochschule und Bildungszentrum für den Landkreis Regen.

The main aim of the seminar was to understand different adult education systems used in Germany and partner countries. The seminar was attended by 20 participants from 10 European countries.

It was noted from what all the participants had to say that there seems to be a financial problem around Europe to sustain vocational training and lifelong learning. Various methods of management, financing and marketing were discussed. The participants agreed that the time is ripe to make better use of joint resources, while building a network between competitors.

Herbert Unnasch, director of VHS, stressed the need to form European alliances between different institutions and different companies to share experiences and prepare strategies which will guarantee a better future for the European vocational training providers. The EU is still growing and borders are now open between East and West, leading to globalisation in the labour market and greater mobility.

Dr Norbert Heigl discussed ways how vocational institutions should invest in ideas to create communication methods with companies. Hella Krusche provided the participants with relevant information on methods to develop strategies for transnational co-operation projects.

Other matters, like training trends, new technologies, meeting with trainers and benchmarking were also discussed during the seminar.