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EACEA National Policies Platform
Belgium-German-Speaking-Community

Belgium-German-Speaking-Community

8. Creativity and Culture

8.5 Developing cultural and creative competences

Last update: 28 November 2023
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  1. Acquiring cultural and creative competences through education and training
  2. Specialised training for professionals in the education, culture and youth fields
  3. Providing quality access to creative environments

Acquiring cultural and creative competences through education and training

In the main policy document of the German-speaking Community, the Regional Development Concept (Regionales Entwicklungskonzept, REK), the project Future Competence Creativity (Zukunftskompetenz Kreativität) has been defined for the third implementation phase, that is for the legislative period 2019-2024.

The project considers creativity a major competence considering the assumption that a majority of the jobs which today’s students will have to work in in the future have not been invented yet. The projects aims at three different sectors: cultural education in schools, cultural education out of schools and culture and creative economy.

As far as cultural education in schools is concerned, the major focus is put on the programme Culture makes School (Kultur macht Schule). For further information on this programme, please consult 8.4 - Promoting culture and cultural participation, Reducing obstacles to young people's access to culture. This programme is going to be evaluated and adjusted, where necessary.

As far as cultural education out of school is concerned, a detailed concept is going to be produced for the first time.

A major culture education provider is the Music Academy of the German-speaking Community (Musikakademie der Deutschsprachigen Gemeinschaft).

Over and above that there are specific training courses for experts in the areas of education, culture and youth

  • Nursery and primary teacher training at the Autonomous Higher School (Autonome Hochschule, AHS)
  • Projects such as Prima Canta (project by the Music Academy, Födekam, Autonomous Higher School and the German-speaking Community).

 

Specialised training for professionals in the education, culture and youth fields

The only Higher Education Institution of the German-speaking Community of Belgium, the Autonomous Higher School, is responsible for organising and implementing specialised training offers. The specialised training programme is renewed on an annual basis and is targeted at teaching and education staff of primary and secondary schools, of the specialised training institutes, of the part-time classes (Teilzeitunterricht), of the Institute for Training and Further Education of Medium-Sized Businesses (Institut für Aus- und Weiterbildung des Mittelstandes, IAWM), of Kaleido as well as at other employees active in the field of teaching and training.

The focus points of the specialised training programme is determined by the Commission on Specialised Training, which is composed of representatives of the Center for Remedial Training (Zentrum für Förderpädagogik, ZFP), representatives of the Institute for Training and Further Education of Medium-Sized Businesses, representatives of the external evaluation, representatives of the Department Pedagogy of the Ministry of the German-speaking Community as well as of representatives of the different school systems.

The specialised training programme includes the support of young teachers during their starting time in the job, the inner-school further teacher training and further training offers to support the competence of leading classes as well as the personal, educational, social, pedagogical and subject-specific competences.

There are also specialised counsellings for specific subjects (Fachberatungen). These counsellings aim to support teachers and nursery school teachers in their daily work and to improve the quality of teaching. The first subjects for which these counsellings were available are German, Mathematics and French, later History, Geography, Music and Art were added.

In the education field, several special qualifications are offered, such as Foreign Language Didactic French (Französisch Fremdsprachendidaktik), Special Needs Education (Förderpädagogik), Pedagogical Certificate of Competence (Pädagogischer Befähigungsnachweis) and Teaching Qualification in Pedagogy (Lehrbefähigung Pädagogik).

 

Providing quality access to creative environments

The Decree of 16 December 2003 on the Promotion of creative Studios (Dekret vom 16. Dezember 2003 über die Förderung von kreativen Ateliers) enables the Government to fund up to one creative studio per municipality in the German-speaking Community (see also 8.2 - Administration and Governance).