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Enhanced employability and entrepreneurship for adult learners
Start date: Jun 1, 2015, End date: May 31, 2016 PROJECT  FINISHED 

The International Academy (IA) works with adult learners in two main areas: • through courses in modern foreign languages, British Sign Language and English as a Foreign Language (including some CLIL elements); and • through European projects (e.g. large partnerships through the Lifelong Learning Programme and Erasmus+, in-service training workshops). The IA has identified a need to enhance and increase its offering in modern foreign languages and in entrepreneurship, as these are topics which are likely to increase learners' internationalisation and mobility opportunities, as well as providing increased employment opportunities. This project involves two participants in mobility activities. One is an experienced MFL teacher and the other is an experienced project manager who has also worked as an EFL teacher. Each participant will attend a workshop in a relevant target area (Spanish language and entrepreneurship) to enable them to increase their existing skills and refresh any areas where they are currently less confident. Pre- and post-mobility dissemination and evaluation activities have also been planned to ensure that the learning outcomes of the mobilities can be measured and provide a guide to impact. These activities will include the transfer of knowledge gained from the mobilities to other staff within the IA. Participants will also develop and maintain European contacts made through the mobilities, and share these contacts with other IA staff. The project's overarching aim is to expand the IA's curriculum and internationalisation, and improve the learner experience, through increased staff competences. The specific objectives are: 1. Improve the teaching and learning of languages in the IA, leading to higher standards of education and better linguists for the future. 2. Improve participants' language competence, both for teaching and for general use in European mobility. 3. Develop participants' cultural awareness and understanding of the European Union and specific European countries. 4. Enhance teaching methodology both for participants and for other relevant IA staff. 5. Enhance participants' transferrable skills to enable improved and new teaching areas in the IA. 6. Gain innovative ideas, different teaching methods, materials, ICT and media resources for use in the language classroom (both MFL and English) as well as for teaching Entrepreneurship. 7. Learn from and share good practice with other teachers from around Europe. 8. Develop the IA's European dimension through enhanced networking in relevant subject areas. 9. Offer a new subject area (Entrepreneurship) within the IA's curriculum. The envisaged results of the project are that the IA will be able to: 1. improve its current offering of intermediate/advanced Spanish classes. 2. transfer best practice from the project to other intermediate/advanced MFL classes (French, German, Italian, Russian, Japanese). 3. revive a previously run workshop on Spanish language and methodology which is not currently being offered due to lack of expertise. 4. develop and run new workshops on entrepreneurship (current research indicates that these are limited). 5. expand the current English CLIL offering by developing a new course on entrepreneurship through English. 6. develop new links with European partners. The expected impact for the two mobility participants is: 1. Increased staff competence as detailed in section D; 2. Increased language competence as detailed in section D; 3. Increased European networking opportunities; 4. Increased confidence and motivation for existing roles; 5. Opportunity to enhance existing roles. For the International Academy, the expected impact is: 1. Improvement in teaching methodology for mobility participants and other staff; 2. Deeper cultural awareness for mobility participants, other staff and learners; 3. Improve teaching methodology for languages within our academy; 4. Embedding of modern foreign languages with the IA; 5. Availability of new resources, realia and other teaching materials obtained during workshops; 6. Accessiblity of new resources for all staff through the IA shared drive; 7. Enhanced curriculum with new course offerings; 8. Increased European links, leading to more European exchange and funding opportunities. For the IA adult learners (around 70 per year), the expected impact is: 1. Improved cultural, social and political information available in Spanish classes; 2. More effective language teaching; 3. More options for CLIL teaching; 4. More motivated teaching staff; 5. Availability of new resources via the online WOLF system; 6. Increased likelihood of cultural activities and exchanges with new European contacts; 7. Increased mobility opportunities; 6. Increased awareness of entrepreneurship which can lead to increased employment/business start-up opportunities. In the long term, the IA will become more stable through increased learner numbers and a wider variety of courses.

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