Global Partners

International Projects

·        South Africa:

A four-year project funded by Danida/The Danish Foreign Ministry. Curriculum development and capability improvement of project- and dialogue-orientated teaching in South African metropolitan universities. Close cooperation with a South African NGO (NACCW) and with the South African Ministry of Social Services (1999-2003).

·      Europe:

a)     For more than a decade, we have contributed to an international master’s degree appointed “Best Practice example among Masters in Europe” by the European Community. Together with 27 other institutions of higher education in Europe, we provide students with an opportunity to study along with others from throughout Europe and invite students to conduct comparative studies, researching in the field of social professional practice and social policy within a European context. The course is designed to deepen the students’ understanding of European institutions, policies and frameworks for studying comparative issues of social professions. We cooperate with The Council of Europe as well as the European Union. The course language is English (1995-2006).

b)     Participation in a major European research project: Care Work in Europe – current understandings and future directions. The European Commission as part of its Fifth Framework Programme funded the project, and the involved research partners were Denmark, Hungary, Netherlands, Spain, Sweden and the UK. The project comprised care and pedagogical work for children, adults with severe disabilities and elderly. The overall objective was to contribute to the development of good quality employment in caring and pedagogical services responsive to the needs of rapidly changing societies and their citizens. More specific objectives included: comparing different understandings of care and pedagogical work; identifying conditions necessary for the development of employment that is both of good quality and sufficient to meet growing demand; and contributing to the development of innovative approaches, both in care work and cross-national research (2001-2005).

c)      In-service training of all pre-school teachers in Lithuania under the title “Democratic Pedagogics”. The project was primarily carried out in the cities of Vilnius, Kaunas and Klaipeda in a close cooperation with the Lithuanian Ministry of Education and Research and The University of Pedagogics in Vilnius. The whole content of pedagogic as well as the concept of the project was developed by one of our partners. Two teachers were practically part-time employees in the project during the whole period and stationed in Lithuania. The Danish “Egmont Foundation” funded the project in close cooperation with the American “Open Society Foundation”. The result of the project was establishment of five Egmont Centres for in-service training in Lithuania (1992-2002).

d)     In a three year programme funded by the European Union we assisted in developing a new social worker/social pedagogue programme at the Volgograd Pedagogical University. Curriculum development, training the trainers, on-the-job-training and many other methods were used (1999-2001).

e)     The Volgograd experience was subsequently spread to six other Russian universities (Astrakhan, Ekatarinburg, Ulianovsk, Saratov, Smolensk and Barnaul). The project was funded by the European Union and carried out in cooperation with partners in Germany and The Netherlands (2002-2004).

f)        As part of a programme monitored by “Save the Children Denmark”, staff from Alpha International contributed with post-graduate training of pre-school teachers in Kosova. Furthermore, we were in charge of the development of a training programme for the pre-school teachers aiming at improving their practical and analytical competencies in connection with supervising students in practice placements in the pre-school settings (2002-2003).

·       China:

Supported by The Regional Council and The Danish Ministry of Education and Research we have recently initiated cooperation with three universities in East and Central China. One aim is to assist China in building up a curriculum and a tangible university practice in the field of social education. The Danish profession “social-pædagog” (translated to “social educator”) does not exist in China, but the demand is increasing. Project perspectives are to establish one or more Danish campuses in China and bringing to Denmark Chinese bachelor students within the following professions: teachers, social workers and social educators (2005- ).

·       Worldwide:

Under the title “Danecult” (Danish Society, Education and Culture), we have developed an internationally orientated module in English open to students from other universities worldwide. The module is hosted by the partner in CVUalpha training teachers, but also attracts students from other professions (1998- ).