The « Pestalozzi », Training programme for Education Professionals (teachers and teacher trainers) is a Council of Europe activity. It was set up in 1969 within the framework of the European Cultural Convention and is aimed at teachers of primary and secondary schools of the 49 signatory States (teachers, head teachers, school inspectors, educational advisers,  teacher trainers and pedagogic textbook authors etc…).

The « Pestalozzi » Programme is managed by the Division for the European dimension of education within the Directorate General IV “Education, Culture and Heritage, Youth and Sport” of the Council of Europe and by a network of National Liaison Officers (NLO) in the signatory States.

In the framework of this programme around 25-30 training events (from 3 to 5 days) are organised annually in Strasbourg or in member states, reaching a total of about 1000 European education professionals every year.

The aims are:
– to train education professionals to become multipliers for Council of Europe values;
– to develop the necessary transversal attitudes, skills and knowledge for sustainable democratic societies;
– to promote and model an appropriate and effective pedagogy;
– to initiate, follow up and monitor a cascading process on the national level;
– to network education professionals – as a key profession – across Europe into a community of practice around the principles and values of the Council of Europe.

The different themes of the European workshops are closely linked to the Council of Europe priority projects, particulary in the field of education, e.g.:

• the education for democratic citizenship and Human Rights
• teaching remembrance – education for the prevention of crimes against humanity
• the education of Roma/Gypsy children
• intercultural learning and social integration practices at school
• pluralism, diversity, citizenship
• European dimension in history teaching
• intercultural dialogue conflict prevention 
• gender equality for a functioning democracy
• responses to violence in everyday life in a democratic society
• making democratic institutions work

  The National Liaison Officer (NLO) in each signatory State distributes the List of European Workshops within the « Pestalozzi programme » with their deadlines. This list is issued twice a year in May and December and is also available on the Web site of the Council of Europe. The European Workshops also give rise to the publication of a pedagogical product written by the Director of the European Workshop.

  You can find a full list of contact details of the NLO here and the list of training activities for 2016 here.