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EACEA National Policies Platform
Czechia

Czechia

Glossary

Last update: 28 November 2023

Career counselling: represents an institutionalised system of advisory services, designed to help individuals decide on their professional and educational path at any stage of their life. This package provides services both for individuals who have not yet entered the labour market, and also job seekers who are looking for work, as well as for those who are currently employed.

Critical thinking: is a careful and considered decision on whether we accept or reject a claim, or whether we forego any judgement of it. Critical thinking also involves a degree of certainty with which we accept or reject a particular claim.

Cultural continuity: Cultural continuity is understood to be the creative preservation and transmission of cultural heritage, which is considered to be a set of tangible and intangible values, works and cultural relations, which originated in the past but whose origin and meaning contribute to the creation of contemporary cultural and social values.

Education for sustainable development: Is a prerequisite for the acquisition of the type of ways of thinking, decision-making and behaviour by the individual, which lead to sustainable behaviour in his/her personal, professional and civic life.

Emancipated use of the media: This means a type of approach to the media that will enable their instruction and, therefore, also their safe and effective use.

Employment: is defined as the number of people involved in productive activities in the economy. This concept includes both employees and self-employed persons.

Employability: is understood to be a form of specific active job adaptability, which enables workers to identify their career opportunities and to exploit them

Environmental education, training and awareness: Training, awareness and education are provided in such a way as to promote thinking and activities that are consistent with the principle of permanently sustainable development, and which encourage awareness of responsibility for maintaining the quality of the environment and its individual components, and of respect for life in all its forms.

Environmental literacy: This covers the knowledge, skills, disposition and behaviour of an individual to enable him/her to make competent decisions and to act in situations relating to the environment at a local, regional and global level. An environmentally literate person makes informed decisions regarding the environment, is willing to act upon these decisions to improve the quality of life of other people and participated in civic life.

ERYICA (European Youth Information and Counselling Agency): The European Youth Information and Counselling Agency is an independent European organisation, composed of national youth information co-ordination bodies and networks. It aims to intensify European co-operation in the field of youth information work and services.

Formal education: is education which is provided in educational institutions, whose function, aim, content, means and methods of assessment are defined and specified in the legislation. A typical educational institution is the school. Formal education includes consecutive levels and types of learning, which are either intended for the population as a whole (e.g. mandatory basic education), or for specific groups (e.g. secondary and tertiary education). Completion of this education is generally confirmed by a certificate. The outcome is a certain level of education.

Healthy lifestyle: is a healthy way of life, which leads to minimising the risk of disease.

Information youth network in the CR: consists of youth information centres, which are independent workplaces providing children and young people, as well as other interested members of the public, with information and services that are primarily related to the life of the younger generation.

Informal learning: can be understood to be a process of spontaneous acquisition of knowledge, skills and competencies from everyday experience of work, the family and leisure activities. It also includes self-learning, where the learner is unable to verify the results of learning. Unlike formal and non-formal education, informal learning is unorganised, generally unsystematic and not coordinated through institutions.

Intercultural dialogue: is seen as an open and respectful exchange of views between individuals and groups from different ethnic, cultural and linguistic backgrounds and historical conditions, based on mutual understanding and respect.

Intergenerational dialogue: serves to ensure that demographical changes were not only perceived to be a conflict and competition for resources between the younger and older generation. The aim is to improve contacts between different generations and to ensure that all groups benefit from these contacts. This helps to reduce barriers and prejudices between different groups and promoted intergenerational respect and solidarity.

Inter-religious dialogue: In the context of religious pluralism, dialogue means any type of positive and constructive inter-religious relations with individuals or communities that belong to another religion, a dialogue that seeks mutual understanding and mutual enrichment, with full respect for truth and the freedom of both parties.

Key competencies: represent a set of knowledge, skills, abilities, attitudes and values that are important for the personal development and success of every member of society. Their selection and conception are based on values that are generally accepted by society and on generally shared ideas about which competencies contribute to an individual’s education, to a happy and successful life, and to strengthening the function of civil society.

Leisure time: is a period when a person carries out the activities he/she wants, at a pace that allows him/her to relax, without any intention of being productive for the benefit of society. Leisure time is also a period outside work, liberated from overtime work and commuting to the workplace.

Leisure-based education in the youth field: Provides participants with leisure time activities focusing on different areas. The term “education” refers to both education and training. Interest education takes place in school facilities for interest education, particularly in leisure centres, after-school centres and school clubs. Leisure centres are also involved in additional care of gifted children, pupils and students, provide for the organisation of competitions and exhibitions in collaboration with schools and other institutions. The objectives, content and outcomes are usually closely linked to all types of school education and are guaranteed by the State as part of the school system.

Memory institutions: This term refers to archives, museums, libraries, research institutes and universities, whose goal is to protect and display documents from our cultural heritage. These facilities tend to the national memory and also create new sources of information on cultural events at a local and a national level.

National Coordinator of the information system for youth in the CR: In the CR, the national coordinator is the National Information Centre for Youth, the specialised department of the National Institute for Further Education, which provides methodological assistance for issues concerning the construction and operation of the IYN.

National network of environmental education centres: Is a joint programme run by the Ministry of Environment and the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports and administered by the Association of environmental education centres, Pavučina, in close cooperation with the Czech Union for Nature Conservation. The programme was launched in 1999 to stabilise the development of existing, and to initiate the establishment of new environmental education centres in the Czech Republic

New media technologies: This is a type of public communication based on the internet, which enables a far greater degree of interactivity: the recipient is able to actively participate in the form of a media product or in menu selection and at the same time the (media) product is better able to respond to user requests.

Non-formal education: Usually takes place outside the formal education system and without additional recognition by the competent body or institution does not generally lead to the acquisition of a level of education. Non-formal education focuses on the acquisition of life skills and training for active citizenship and includes both individual and group learning using a collective approach. It is self-contained and focuses on the learning process and on experiences and activities based on the needs of the participants. A necessary condition for non-formal education is the participation of a professional facilitator, trainer or manager.

Non-organised youth: young people who have not committed to regular participation in organised activities and are not associated with the organisers of these activities as members of the same organisation.

Organised youth: registered individual members of non-governmental non-profit organisations or registered visitors of youth centres and other facilities working with children and youth, who are involved in regular activities or traditional one-off activities at these facilities.

Political literacy: Helps people to become politically conscious and active. It focuses on developing those skills that help individuals to observe and explain social phenomena in political terms. Political literacy is more pedagogically focused on the development of political thinking, than on fostering knowledge of political institutions.

Public space: is broadly defined as a part of the life of each person which is distinguished from both the private and the public sector.

Risky behaviour: is the type of behaviour which results in a demonstrable increase in health, social, educational and other risks to the individual or to society.

Self-awareness: is a cognitive component of the self-concept of the individual’s “I”, as an image of oneself, one’s personality and its components. It is the cognitive aspect of man’s relationship to himself.

Self-concept: is a summary of opinions of oneself, of ones place in the world. It is a summary of feelings through which we experience satisfaction or dissatisfaction with ourselves, greater or less self-confidence, self-esteem and influence on others. Self-concept is also an awareness of our personal characteristics, albeit distorted or stylised, but always with the intention of making a certain impression on others.

Self-organisation: expresses the continuous process of organising complexity and creating order. Organised complexity with internal order thus becomes both the creator and the creative processes. The system therefore performs the processes – it organises itself – which in turn enable the existence of the system.

Self-regulation: is a person’s ability to manage their voluntary actions; conscious efforts to achieve the established goals; also the adoption of social norms, which then become part of the self-regulatory system of the individual.

Social activation service: are field or outpatient services provided to families with a child whose development is at risk due to the impacts of a long-term critical social situation, which the parents are unable to overcome without help and which presents further risks which threaten his development. The service covers the following basic activities: educational and motivational activities; mediating contacts with the social environment; social therapeutical activities; assistance in the enforcement of rights, legitimate interests and in dealing with personal matters.

Structured dialogue with young people (SD)

SD at EU level:

Structured dialogue with young people and youth organisations serves as a permanent forum for joint reflection on the priorities for European cooperation in the youth field, its implementation and evaluation.

SD at the national level (equivalent to SD at the EU level):

Structured dialogue with young people and youth organisations serves as a permanent forum for joint reflection on priorities for cooperation in the youth field at a national level, its implementation and evaluation.

Sustainable development: Permanent sustainable development is development enabling current and future generations to retain the possibility of satisfying their basic needs while at the same time preserving biodiversity and the natural function of ecosystems.

Young people with fewer opportunities: are young people who are disadvantaged in comparison with their peers, because they face one or more situations and obstacles such as social barriers, economic barriers, disability, educational difficulties, cultural differences, health problems, geographical barriers, etc. In certain contexts, these situations or barriers prevent young people from having effective access to formal and non-formal education, trans-national mobility and participation, active citizenship, empowerment and social inclusion.

Young people’s initiative (or youth initiative): is a project where young people participate actively and directly in activities of their own devising and which allow them to develop their initiative and creativity. The project is initiated, created and implemented by young people themselves. Young people’s initiative projects help to develop the personalities of young people and brings changes that benefit the general public (and in particular the areas where these young people live).