Vitebsk became the first Belarusian city to join the UNESCO Global Network of Learning Cities

To ensure a city thrives, improves, and becomes better, its residents must constantly acquire new professions and gain new knowledge. The UNESCO Global Network of Learning Cities was established to encourage the development of settlements by implementing lifelong learning practices. In such a city, everyone learns everywhere, which means maximum effort is put into promoting inclusive education, reviving family learning traditions, and all this is done using modern technologies. Essentially, a learning city takes education beyond traditional universities, creates new opportunities for career growth and changes in the employment sector, and helps develop the potential of the city's residents.

Currently, the project unites over a thousand cities worldwide that have become or plan to become learning cities, but a Belarusian city has joined the Global Network for the first time. The corresponding certificate was presented today to the Chairman of the Vitebsk City Executive Committee, Viktor Nikolaikin, at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Oleg Kravchenko, addressed the participants of the ceremony with a welcoming speech.

It is worth recalling that a few years ago, it was the Vitebsk region (along with the Minsk region) that became the first to present the pilot project "Learning Region: Education for All Generations." The project introduced citizens to the concept of a "learning region/city" and explained practices for organizing lifelong learning.

Among Belarus's neighboring countries, learning cities exist in Latvia, Lithuania, Russia, and Ukraine. They participate in international dialogue on policy, ecology, and experimental research, solve social inclusion problems, and build an economy based on new knowledge.

It is planned that other cities in our country will join the UNESCO Global Network of Learning Cities in the future.

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