Europe Direct Karlovac and the Public Institution Regional Development Agency of Karlovac County, in cooperation with numerous partners, organized a three-day celebration of Europe Day. The birthday of the European Union is celebrated every year on May 9. as a reminder to preserve lasting peace and unity, in memory of the historic "Schuman Declaration" from 1950. Europe Day 2023 is a sign of the European Year of Skills, in other words, focusing on lifelong learning and acquiring new skills, which was the main reason for organizing a series of lectures and workshops, as well as a quiz on knowledge of the European Union. We present an overview of how it all looked.
Three-day celebration, 09.05. we started in cooperation with our partner "Kinoklub Karlovac" with a screening of the Bulgarian film "Shelter", which was followed by an analysis of the film and a round table, and Boris Bakal gave a lecture on film art to students of the 3rd grade of Duga Resa High School, majoring in media technicians. CinEd was also presented - the European professional training program for teachers, professors, educators, pedagogues and interested professionals to teach children and young people about current issues that we encounter every day through film. As part of the project, the online platform https://www.cined.eu/collection is also active, which provides free access to a curated collection of top European heritage and contemporary art films with Croatian subtitles.
After that, in cooperation with the City Library "Ivan Goran Kovačić" Karlovac, in the Department for Children and Youth, students of the 4th grade of Grabrik Elementary School participated in a workshop called "Awareness and training of life and social skills through play" led by librarian Gabrijela Vine . The inspiration for conducting the workshop came from the books "Exercising Life Skills" by Jelena Bićanić and "Children's Games for the Development of Social Skills" by Deborah M. Plummer. Through the games Send it on!, Five and Joker, Pyramid of Life and Fear of School, we practiced the skills of cooperation, careful observation, memory, concentration, non-verbal communication, overcoming fear, empowerment and many others. In order to successfully advance in the education system, and later compete in the labor market, it is desirable to acquire good and sovereign mastery of both life and social skills from an early age, and these students experienced all this through play, the simplest way of learning.
On Wednesday 10.05. the central event marking Europe Day was organized in the newly opened Nikola Tesla Experience Center, where we hosted students from the Polytechnic in Karlovac and high school students from the Karlovac Gymnasium and the Karlovac Economic and Tourism School. Why them? It is precisely because high school students and students are the group that will soon enter the labor market that is why a lecture on lifelong learning and the presentation of vouchers was held in front of the Croatian Employment Service, Regional Office Karlovac.
With the education entitled "AI panic? - let's talk about artificial intelligence", Kinoklub representatives: Ksenija Sanković and Lucija Ćeškić continued to promote media literacy, given that it deals with content creation and technical conditions, as well as critical thinking, and artificial intelligence is currently a very popular topic. Within the topic of artificial intelligence, the results of the evaluation of workshops on media literacy of young people prepared and processed by prof. Martina Vičić Crnković from Karlovac Gymnasium.
The quiz "How well do I know Europe" was prepared by prof. Margareta Kulaš from Karlovac Gymnasium, which took place online via the Kahoot platform, and the three most successful couples also won prizes.
After the quiz on knowledge of the European Union, a guided tour through the interpretation center dedicated to Nikola Tesla was organized for all participants.
On Thursday, 11.05. in the "Ivan Goran Kovačić" City Library, we finished celebrating Europe Day with an educational workshop for preschool children called "EU and I". By recognizing the flags and coloring them, the children learned what the European Union is, how many members it has, how many years the Republic of Croatia has been a member, what other countries are in the EU, and what each country is known for.
We can conclude that with this three-day celebration of Europe Day, we put skills in the spotlight, because investing in education and training is crucial for the future of every individual. The European Year of Skills will be a new impetus in achieving the social goals of the EU by 2030, according to which at least 60% of adults should be trained every year, and at least 78% should be employed.
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