During the first week of October, a large group of cultural managers and volunteers descended upon the town of Lousada in Portugal for the first 5-day pilot course of the SPAR Project.

The courses aim was to strengthen the competences of culture volunteers in sparsely populated areas to provide available and involving arts and culture opportunities for the local communities with an added value for civic participa-tion, community bonding and local identity, targeting the wider European sector of voluntary arts and culture associations.

These courses allowed volunteers and culture managers to develop transversal skills and key competences, especially “learning to learn”, "social and civic competences", "sense of initiative and entrepreneurship", and "cultural awareness and expression”. At the same time the course give the participants some references on how to apply these key competences and add new skills to organise enlivening arts and culture opportunities in the local communities with an added value for civic and democratic participation, community bonding and local identity.

The target groups for the courses were:

• Course A - managers in amateur art and voluntary cultural associations working on a part-time or full-time basis, paid or voluntary, including directors, coordinators, consultants, counsellors, and other management staff.
• Course B - volunteers providing culture guide services on a part time basis, as volunteers referring to the involved associations of voluntary arts and culture.

In total, the course was attended by 32 learners and volunteers and also 10 tutors or managers from UK, Denmark, Hungary, Poland and Portugal. The courses were arranged parallel to gain benefits from shared experiences between the group of managers and volunteers. The two groups of participants share some common lectures, plenum meetings, excursions, and joint social and cultural activities.

The pedagogical approach included blend of lectures, trainers’ presentations, plenum discussions, workshops, small group works, and individual learning.

The courses also included visits to cultural associations in Lousada and Porto, to show the participants some examples of best practice:

• Conservatório de Música do Vale do Sousa (music school)
• Jangada-Teatro (theatre company)
• Casa da Música (government body for music)

The aim of the courses was to strengthen the competences of culture volunteers in sparsely populated areas to provide available and involving arts and culture opportunities for the local communities with an added value for civic participation, community bonding and local identity, targeting the wider European sector of voluntary arts and culture associations.