Creating a New Historical Perspective: EU and the Wider World ...

cluding 180 researchers from 45 universities, CLIOHRES.net. From 2008 the
History Network has taken the name of CLIOHWORLD, its work emphasising
the development of certain areas of History learning and teaching.
The objective of the History Networks is to use the remarkable opportunities
presented by the creation of the European Union, its expansion and consolidation,
to put into contact the different national traditions and historiographies,
with the view of renewing the way history is learned, taught and studied.
Tuning and History Networks
Thanks to the Tuning project, the History Networks have been able to contribute
to establishing common reference points for history programmes at all levels
and have gained much knowledge about the diverse roles occupied by history
graduates in different countries.
In the Tuning project, the History group found that history studies give excellent
preparation for a variety of careers. Civil service and administration, foreign
service, personnel management and journalism, international organisations, international
relations, communications are all areas in which history degrees provide a
strong basis for careers. History training provides both general culture and understanding
of how the world has developed. To receive a history degree, young people
must learn to write, speak and use information and communications technology
effectively. They often have knowledge of at least one other modern language, and
many, optimally, of an ancient language as well. Those who choose to study history
are normally interested in people, in politics, in the way the world works.
They normally have training in some related subjects such as geography, philology,
anthropology or economics. They are able to place human events in a
chronological framework and they are aware of the importance of changing cultural
and political contexts. They are well equipped for becoming aware citizens
and gaining personal satisfaction from their education.
Many of the competences explicitly formed in history training are useful in all
walks of life and are valued by employers. These include the ability to use documentation
critically, to retrieve information from a variety of sources and to use
documentation to compose critically founded and coherent narratives. Historical
training enhances the capacity for analysis and synthesis, and provides a good
basis for multicultural understanding. Historians learn to avoid anachronistic
thinking when studying the past. This provides excellent training for seeing issues
from different points of view in the present as well.