On September 10th a group of representatives of Chisinau municipality, involved in developing ALE Centre in Chisinau (CMIEA) organised a study visit at Abendakademie in Mannheim (Germany). The group included Vice Mayor of Chisinau in charge with social issues, 2 representatives of Chisinau Directorate for Education, Youth and Sports (DGETS) as well as 2 staff persons from CMIEA, the director and coordinator. The aim of the study visit was to learn from Abendakademie in Mannheim strategies and approaches in developing a city-supported Adult Education Centre, as community key institution of further education. Mannheim is a sister-city for Chisinau and cooperation between the Abendakademie (https://www.abendakademie-mannheim.de/) and CMIEA started in February 2023, when the first workshop was conducted in Chisinau.
The program from September 9-16 a. c. included a wide variety of topics from cooperation of the ALE Centre with city structures and stakeholders to planning and implementing recognized and new programs, from financial cooperating with educators and celebrities for delivering must-have as well as innovative educational activities, from using verified models to experimenting and looking into newest challenges. The fourth day was dedicated to reflection on experiences learned and outlining experiences for implementation in Moldova by CMIEA.
A special aspect of the visit was a dialogue with the newly elected Mayor of Mannheim who paid a visit to Abendakademie and interacted with Moldovan guests, emphasizing the interest for consolidating the cooperation between Mannheim and Chisinau. Also, culmination of almost one-week interaction was signing a memorandum of cooperation between Abendakademie in Mannheim and Chisinau Municipal Adult Learning and Education Centre to continue mutual exchange and possibly even to pilot some online courses.