A GROUP of seven adult learners from the Beara peninsula have returned from an Erasmus exchange to Slovenia.
BY HELEN RIDDELL
The trip, was facilitated by the Beara Centre of the Cork College of Further Education and Training (FET) in a bid to forge links with and build an awareness of other European cultures.
Maggie Moloney, a resource worker with the Beara FET explained that while the Erasmus programme is more commonly associated with second and third level institutions, it is open to all ages.
‘Adult education centres throughout Europe participate in the Erasmus programme – we call it the university of the third age. Adults whose children are raised find they have more time for themselves to undertake further education and training.’
A group from Slovenia had previously visited West Cork earlier this year, which Maggie said was a huge success.
The Beara group visited Ormoz, a small town in north-east Slovenia, an area famous for its vineyards and a winemaking tradition that’s thousands of years old. Maggie explained that classes taught in Ormoz are similar to Beara.
‘The school is much like our own Further Education and Training Centre in Castletownbere, hosting classes in English language, crafts, cooking, sustainability, and computer skills.’
With the Erasmus programme between Beara and Slovenia having an ethos on sustainability, the students who took part had all previously taken part in courses that had a link to sustainability, a subject which Maggie teaches, and were accompanied by another Beara tutor, Karolina Spencer, who teaches a course on upcycling and recycling textiles.
The Beara group met with fellow students in Ormoz and also the local community.
‘We met a group of older women who make crepe paper flowers which are so lifelike, and they taught our group how to make these flowers, with no common language between them,’ says Maggie.
‘They didn’t speak any English, just by demonstration, and as they were making them, they sang traditional Slovenia harmonies to us.
‘A big part of Erasmus is intercultural learning to show people how you can communicate and enjoy time together when there isn’t a common language.’
Maggie said the visit to Slovenia allowed the group to explore learning opportunities and to encourage them to take up initiatives and challenges. ‘Learning never ends. There’re always more to discover, new languages, technologies and ways of life.’
