A UNESCO report for the International Institute for Educational Planning setting 2015 targets to improve access to basic high quality education concentrated on school drop outs. This is not the only report affirming the benefits of non-formal learning being introduced to formal settings, to make learning opportunities more flexible to students.
National Treasures is a partnership that aims to bring State Institutions together with NGO’s all efficient in their work with young people experiencing educational obstacles and also who possess an ability to support young people who are excelling in a specific field. We view National Treasures as being a ‘true inclusion’ project rather than merely a project which supports young people with fewer opportunities, we want to embrace all young people, those with obstacles as well as those who have no obvious difficulties.
Partners involved in this project believe that through interaction of multiple organisations in our project, we can have greater effect on the young people our agencies support than the sum of our individual effects. This synergy concerns both the recognition of non-formal education activities in formal settings as a methodology for inclusion, and also the opportunity to transfer methodologies which are effective in one country to the other partners.
This partnership composed of five organisations – Everything is Possible (coordinator) and The Hope Learning Trust in the UK, ACER Brasil, IFALL in Sweden and Westide Circus in Australia – is funded by the Erasmus+ programme of the European Commission.
National Treasures has four objectives:
- Cross sectoral co-operation, to improve the quality and promote the recognition and use of non-formal methodologies in formal education settings
- Increased capacity within partner organisations through the fostering of co-operation between five educational establishments and their local networks
- The professional development of educators and guidance staff, achieved through international mobility and exposure to alternative education systems.
- The promotion of non-formal transnational learning through offering young people with educational obstacles and those who are gifted and talented a way to gain personal skills and benefit from cultural/thematic exchange with other international groups using youth exchange and EVS.
