Description: AONTAS is the National Adult Learning Organisation - a voluntary membership organisation which promotes lifelong learning, adult and community education since its establishment in 1969. AONTAS is funded by the Department of Education and Science. Membership includes over 600 organisations, networks and individuals.

Since 2007 AONTAS has co-ordinated the Adult Learners' Festival - a national celebration of adult learning which showcases the benefits of adult learning as well as highlighting some of the challenges experienced by adult learners and the organisations which support them. The Festival includes over 200 events in local communities throughout Ireland which are supported through an intensive advertising and promotional campaign.

By participating in this project, AONTAS hopes to share the experience of organising the Festival in Ireland, but also to learn from our European colleagues about how the Festival can become a sustainable initiative in the future. Specific learning needs in this context include the engagement of sponsors and partners, developing relationships with mainstream media, and building the capacity of local providers to play a more active role in the development of the Festival. AONTAS proposes to involve those directly involved in the co-ordination of the Festival at regional and national level in this project, in order to develop future plans for the Festival.