This seminar is the centrepiece of the United Kingdom’s (UK) contribution to the Council of Europe 2005 European Year of Citizenship through Education/ Année Européenne de la Citoyenneté par l’Education.  It aims to share the UK’s expertise in developing policy and transforming it into practice for citizenship education, with policy makers and practitioners from across the Council of Europe’s 46 member states.

The specific aims and objectives of the seminar are:

• to showcase current policies and practices in citizenship education from across the UK (England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales)
• to share UK education for citizenship developments with policy makers and practitioners from across Europe
• To learn from the experiences and practices in citizenship education of other countries in Europe
• to contribute to the aims and objectives of the 2005 European Year of Citizenship through Education/Annee Européenne de la Citoyenneté par l’Education
• to provide the opportunity and impetus to develop new networks in citizenship education and strengthen those already in existence.

The seminar consists of presentations, interactive workshops, question and answer sessions and group discussions.  There will also be an information market where non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and groups will display resources and materials.  Those facilitating it will be practitioners and policy makers with considerable experience of all aspects of citizenship education within and beyond the UK.  The main language will be English: however, provision will be made for interpretation of plenary sessions into French.

WHO SHOULD ATTEND THIS SEMINAR
It is hoped that every Council of Europe member state will identify two participants – one leading policy maker and one leading practitioner – who can use the learning from the seminar to build capacity in citizenship education in their own contexts.  However, the seminar is also open to other participants.

Participants will have particular interests and experience in citizenship education in the formal and informal education sectors.  Policy makers include those at national, federal and local level from government departments, government agencies and other appropriate institutions.  Practitioners include school leaders, teachers, teacher trainers and young people, as well as representatives from NGOs, international agencies, the media and researchers.

The UK will meet the seminar costs (excluding travel to and from the conference venue) of two participants – one policy maker and one practitioner – from each Council of Europe member state.  Other participants, dependent on numbers, will need to meet their own costs.