Within the framework of CohesionLab#EU, 15 future workshops on Europe for pupils and 5 training sessions for multipliers are taking place throughout Germany. The measure is co-financed by the Directorate-General for Regional Policy and Urban Development and the Beisheim Foundation and is free of charge for the participating schools and multipliers.

Future workshops at schools

First of all, the young people deal with central developments in Europe and the world that will take place in the next decades: fundamental changes in the economy and society through digitalization and demographic change as well as climate change and its effects on urban and rural regions.

In future workshops, students learn about EU cohesion policy as a tool for European integration. They deal with the long-term challenges of rural regions in the EU and develop innovative and ecologically sustainable solutions in groups for real problems that occur in these areas. These solutions will be transformed into a business plan and finally tested with political decision-makers for their feasibility.

Training for multipliers

Part of the project are also five training courses, which provide basic knowledge on current European policy issues and build on an interplay of theory and practice. Various materials and methods, such as the Future Workshop, are presented and used as examples. The aim is to convey the complexity of Europe in a playful and vivid way in the classroom.