Wyndham City Council wins prestigious UNESCO Learning Cities Award 2021

Wyndham City is delighted to announce it is the proud recipient of a UNESCO Global Network of Learning Cities Award.

The biennial UNESCO Learning City Awards encourage, recognise and reward UNESCO Global Network of Learning Cities (GNLC) members who have demonstrated significant progress in enhancing education and lifelong learning opportunities for all.

Wyndham is one of three Councils in Australia that are members of the UNESCO Global Network of Learning Cities.

The membership was awarded to our City because UNESCO acknowledged Council’s commitment to building a Learning City and helping residents improve their learning outcomes through lifelong learning.

Wyndham City Mayor Cr Adele Hegedich said: “Wyndham is honoured to receive the UNESCO Learning City Award. It is testament to our active collaboration with the community that we have been recognised with this award.”

“Council has dedicated time and effort to build our reputation as a Global Learning City and this award gives recognition and validation to our work.”

Wyndham’s Learning City portfolio holder, Cr Jasmine Hill said: “As Council’s Learning City portfolio holder, I am honoured that Wyndham has been conferred this prestigious UNESCO Learning City award in 2021.”

“Our learning community has demonstrated the commitment, perseverance and resilience in learning especially in the last two years over the pandemic period.”

“We have witnessed that our learning community can adapt to change, learn new skills and take advantage of opportunities. This year, Council has adopted the Resilience Wyndham Strategy 2021 to ensure our learning systems are now more resilient against future shocks.”

“Wyndham’s Learning Community Strategy has lifelong learning goals and priorities at its heart and encourages the community to pursue formal and informal learning opportunities, regardless of age and background.”

David Atchoarena, Director of the UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning, said: “I warmly congratulate the UNESCO learning city of Wyndham for the outstanding progress made in providing lifelong learning opportunities to its citizens. In a rapidly changing world, it is essential to give all citizens a chance to continuously develop themselves and contribute to solving local and global challenges. Lifelong learning is key to this endeavour.”

At the Learning Cities conference in Yeonsu, South Korea, on 29 October, Wyndham City showcased its Learning City projects and Cr Hill presented on ‘Technology – enhanced learning for a healthy population’.

Wyndham joins neighbouring municipality, the City of Melton, as the only other Australian recipient of the award.

Join the FREE online UNESCO Fifth International Conference on Learning Cities:https://www.learningcities2021.org/

For more information on Wyndham’s Learning City go to: https://www.wyndham.vic.gov.au/services/wyndham-learning-city