This Thursday (8 September), Minister of State Cornelia Pieper is opening an International Education Day in Berlin’s Allianz Forum building. At the Education Day, innovative ideas for promoting education abroad will be presented, exemplary digital learning projects will be recognized, and the potential for German companies and universities of future experts from abroad will be outlined.

During the main event at 5.30 p.m. Federal Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle will give an address on cultural relations and education policy. There will also be contributions from Minister of State Cornelia Pieper and Peter Gauweiler, chairman of the German Bundestag’s Subcommittee on Cultural and Education Policy Abroad, as well as a presentation on “How Computers are Changing School” by Prof. Peter Henning of the Institute for Computers in Education at Karlsruhe University of Applied Sciences. The speeches will be followed by a prizegiving ceremony for the winners of the Innovative Learning excellence initiative.

In the 21st century, education is key to Germany’s development as an important centre of industry, research and higher education. The Education Day is an opportunity for the Federal Foreign Office to celebrate the multifaceted potential of promoting education abroad, with a spotlight on the 140 German Schools abroad and vast numbers of highly qualified DAAD scholarship holders. It is also intended as a way of creating closer coordination amongst industry, politics and future experts from abroad. It will call attention to innovative, multimedia approaches to learning and foster discussion of the prospects for promoting education abroad.