Centre for further education

 Head: PhDr. Jan Beran, Ph.D.

The activities of the CFE were focused on organizing and conducting accredited training courses, implementing grant projects, and consulting and publishing services. The Centre cooperated MU faculties, Ministry of the Interior, regional Pedagogical Centres, and foreign institutions.

On the basis of an agreement signed between Masaryk University Brno and the Institute for Local Administration in Prague, which is an institute of the Ministry of the Interior of the CR for the training of state administration employees, courses focusing on special professional qualifications continued.

The Centre has good facilities for its activities at its office at Komenského Square, where it moved in 2000, and in its training centre in Šlapanice, the reconstruction of which was completed in 2001.

Educational courses

The largest client group were state administration employees. Eight hundred employees of local, district, municipal, and regional bureaus took part in three-week special professional qualification courses organized as day or residence courses. Important events included a national seminar for the human resource officials of the Regional Offices, with the participation of a Deputy Minister of the Interior.

The second most numerous group were teachers of foreign languages and information technologies. Twenty-seven courses were held for 779 teachers.

With the support of Austrian and German instructors, 25 short courses were held attended by 580 teachers.

Specialization courses in Student Counselling were commenced; 55 student counsellors have enrolled in this four-semester course.

In cooperation with the Faculty of Informatics and the Ministry of Education CR, two regional seminars were on issues relating to SIPVz were held.

For MU faculty employees, a three-month distance training course was organized in cooperation with the Centre for Distance Education of Palacký University in Olomouc.

University of the Third Age

UV3 is a new activity of the Centre. It is now completely responsible for the organisation of this project originally managed by the Department for Education of the MU Rector's Office. In this academic year, its programmes were attended by 700 students.

Summer holiday activities

During the summer holiday, a Czech language course for Austrian teachers was held.

Counselling and service activities

The CFE provided support and information to teachers applying for study stays abroad.

Development programmes

Of the "Support for the Development of Educational Programmes for Teachers and Other Education Activities" programme of the Ministry of Education, CFE was responsible for the following projects:

• Specialization studies "Student Counselling"
• Written and oral German examinations
• Preparation of non-certified teachers of English at the 2nd level of basic schools
• Preparation of non-certified teachers of German at the 2nd level of basic school
• Preparation of non-certified teachers of English at the 1st level of basic school
• Preparation of non-certified teachers of German at the 1st level of basic school

The "Distance Education in Specialized Professional Skills: General Part" project was prepared for the Ministry of the Interior of the CR.

The LEONARDO project for German for special purposes, NL/98/I/74058/PI/III.1a/I VT started in 1999 was completed in May.

CFE worked as a partner organisation in the THEG 5 part of the THENUCE project.

Research organized by the Ministry of Education

The CCE took part in the MoE research project LS20007 "Support of Teacher's Work", headed by the ÚVRŠ, FoE, Charles University, Prague.

International Cooperation

The Centre continued its intensive cooperation with partners from abroad not only in the area of methods for the teaching of foreign languages, but also in the field of schools management and preparation of schools for the entry into the EU. In cooperation with its Austrian and German counterparts, the CFE organized the participation of 68 Czech teachers in short-term courses and of 44 teachers on two-week courses.

The CFE's partner institutions helped organize, both as sponsors and trainers, a 4-semester course to train "the trainers" for secondary schools German teachers. Some of the activities were also organized with the support from US and the UK institutions.

The CFE was a co-organiser of the international exhibition Herzliche Gruesse held under the auspices of the German and Austrian Embassies in cooperation with the Goethe-Institute, the Bosch Foundation, the Austrian Cultural Institute, KulturKontakt, and Brno University of Technology.

Publication activities

For participants in its courses, CFE published supporting methodological materials in print runs of a thousand copies. In cooperation with KulturKontakt in Vienna, the Centre published 6 volumes of methodological materials for the use of participants in seminars with foreign lecturers.

Education Centre

When the Education Centre opened in September after the reconstruction, it offered its clients classrooms well-equipped with modern audiovisual technology. The facility is used not only by CFE, but also by other facilities of Masaryk University.