Springboard towards a Better Future
ERSTE Foundation and Caritas are committed to support people which find themselves in difficult social or economic circumstances since many years. Thanks to the funding provided by the KomenskýFond of ERSTE Foundation hundreds of people in Austria and Central Eastern Europe have been supported to improve their career prospects by participation in education and training programmes.
Against this background Caritas and ERSTE Foundation organized the conference „Springboard towards a Better Future – Challanges for a Socially Sustainable Education System”. The aim of the conference was to promote exchange and knowledge-transfer between experts, practioners and and expert audience and to strengthen networking among them.
On main focus of the conference was to analyze the actual situation concerning education of socially disadvantaged children and young people which are facing marginalization and poverty because of their family background.
Society became more and more heterogeneous during the past years but our education system remained more or less the same. Schools lack new methods and concepts to prepare socially disadvantaged children for their future live.
The following topics were adressed during the conference:
- How can the educational system promote equal opportunities among all members of society?
- Who benefits from better social mobility within the education system ?
- How can education and the education system support marginalized children in an approbriate way ?
- What can be done to reduce poverty caused by poor education.
To underline the aim of the conference Jan Amos Komenský, the philosopher and theologian shall be quoted: “It is to educate people comprehensively in each phase of live and in every perspective whereby an improvement of living condition can be gained”.
More than 60 participants participated in the conference, among them social worker, teacher, directors of schools experts on migration/integration and social policy.
A documentation of the conference including speaches and results of working groups is available.
