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Leaders in Language
Start date: Jun 1, 2015, End date: May 31, 2016 PROJECT  FINISHED 

Our Leaders in Language project has provided mobility experiences in a Vocational Education and Training (VET) setting. We have worked with participants who have recently completed a vocational English Language Teacher Training course and provided them with relevant work experience, give them the chance to live and work abroad and gain inter-cultural awareness, upskill them and enabled them to develop recently acquired skills in a supportive and guided environment, introduce or develop their own language learning and therefore increase their understanding of their future students and put them in the position to engage in knowledge transfer with teachers of English in another European country. The objective was to improve key competencies, boost skills and employability within the inbound Youth & Educational Language travel market (worth £20b p.a to the UK). The project provided participants with supporting qualifications and experience in our areas of expertise of English teaching, activities and young learner provision. Every year UKLC recruits more than 100+ English teachers from all over the UK and offers them residential positions. UKLC receives a large number of applications from people who have completed the appropriate courses and qualifications but do not display the relevant key competencies and skills, largely due to an absence of relevant work experience. This project has enabled our participants to demonstrate on their CVs and through their Europass mobility that they have up-skilled, have improved language competence, can work independently and are subsequently more employable to us and others in the field of English Language Teaching. We have a track record for coordinating mobility projects to up-skill VET learners and increase their employability in this sector. Building upon successes of previous years, our project has involved taking 29 recently qualified learners from vocational training courses such as Cambridge CELTA or Trinity TESOL who want to pursue a career in the teaching of English as a foreign language but who have no vocational experience. We have provided them with an intensive training programme specific to our area of expertise (the teaching of young learners) and then they have attended a four week placement with our partner in Spain.The mobility has provided essential vocational experience to enable them to teach English confidently by offering a preparation programme, including sessions on how to teach Young Learners. This has been supplemented with certificates in Sports Leadership (Day Cert) and basic First Aid. Vocational Sector: Education & Language Objectives & Impact: The mobility will provide essential vocational experience to enable them to teach English confidently by offering a preparation programme, including sessions on how to teach Young Learners. These are supplemented with certificates in Sports Leadership (Day Cert) and basic First Aid. An objective of this project was to upskill and address gaps in the learners’ key competencies and as a result make them employable within the language market, either within our organisation or our host agencies. This has a significant impact as our learners' through their mobilities have come into contact with approximately 2500 EU students. This has increased inter-cultural awareness amongst this group and hopefully helps inspire and motivate further mobilities European wide from within participating countries. Furthermore, participants have then found work teaching English aboard within Europe and further afield, which helps to promote language learning and linguistic diversity. Some were offered employment even before their placement had ended. Many have subsequently gone on to full-time positions in locations as diverse as the UK, Hong Kong, Russia, Spain, France and Italy where their experience of teaching large class sizes at different age and ability levels is particularly prized. In summary the project has achieved the goal of improving the personal development of all learners involved and ultimately providing the opportunity to succeed in future employment and training.
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