UCC celebrates launch of UNESCO Institute of Lifelong Learning

27 Sep 2018

This Thursday at UCC we celebrated the launch of the UNESCO Institute of Lifelong Learning Videos that are a result of a collaboration between Cork a UNESCO City of Learning, and UIL, the UNESCO Institute of Lifelong Learning, in Hamburg.

UCC is a proud partnere within this project team along with CIT and Cork City Council. This ongoing partnership demonstrates UCC's commitment to UNESCO's Sustainable Development Goals, the "SDGs" an ongoing commitment which is foregrounded in the university's new academic strategy for The Connected University.

Our University is committed to welcoming all members of the community and opening our doors to learners at many different stages. How better to showcase this engagement and participation than through the co-creation of these videos that will travel around the world? These videos are created to inspire many other cities to follow the example of Cork and develop their own commitment to lifelong learning, to plan for learning, to encourage accessibility to learning, to celebrate learning in all its many forms.

The success of this project shows the impact of our City of Cork working together to produce world-class content for a global audience. The Connected University connects the city to the world, engaging with private enterprise, creativity and innovation, from the local to the global in a cycle that brings the global back here to make a profound local impact.  The launch of these videos is taking place here in UCC as part of Cork's Learning City day and I hope that we will continue to work sucessfully in our partnerships both locally within Cork and also globally in the Lifelong Learning Community.  This simultaneously local and global work exemplifies the work of connected learning communities throughout the city and the world.  Our university is part of that.

University College Cork remains committed to Cork as a Learning City, supporting events such as these that offer a platform globally for integration, participation and communication of the UNESCO's Sustainable Development Goals, a celebration of education in its multiplicity of forms.

Image include L-R Denis Barrett, Cork Learning City co-ordinator. Dr Orla Murphy Digital Humanities UCC, Prof. Patrick O'Shea, President UCC, Aoife Hegarty, PhD candidate UCC, Lord Mayor of Cork Mick Finn, Siubhan McCarthy Lifelong Learning Festival Coordinator, Dr Seamus O'Tuama, Director of Adult and Continuing Education.