Language for work projects

Language for work project: tools for professional development (2016-2018)

Tools for professional development (2016-2018) followed on from Language for work Developing migrants’ language competences at work (2012-2015). This ECML three-year project developed a range of tools to enhance the skills of professionals supporting work-related L2 learning in the fields of language learning for adult migrants, integration programmes for adult migrants, vocational education and training, adult education, human resources and labour market support services.

The team

The international coordinating team consisted of:

Matilde Grünhage-Monetti coordinator, free lance researcher and trainer, formerly researcher at the Deutsches Institut für Erwachsenenbildung/Leibniz-Zentrum für Lebenslanges Lernen, Germany
Christophe Portefin, second working language documentalist, practitioner-researcher, director of ACCENTONIC, a not-for-profit learning provider of vocational French, Villemomble, France
Alexander Braddell, website correspondent, director of Oxfordshire Skills Escalator Centre Community Interest Company Limited (OSEC CIC Ltd), a research and training company in vocationally related migration issues, United Kingdom
Kerstin Sjövsärd, communications person, project Manager Stockholm Gerontology Research Center, later project leader at the Health and Care Service College, Stockholm.

The team was supported in 2017 by Svenja Haberland, holder of an ECML fellowship.

Matilde GRÜNHAGE-MONETTI (Coordinator) Germany	Alexander BRADDELL United Kingdom
Christophe PORTEFIN France	Kerstin SJÖSVÄRD Sweden

Events

Central events directly supported by ECML:

Four team meetings
The network meeting in 2017 attracted 26 experts from 16 countries, including Canada and the Russian Federation.
The final workshop, 23th and 24th October 2018, was attended by over 40 participants from 29 European countries and Canada.
The high number of participants at ECML events, both from member states and self-funded shows the growing international interest in the issues raised by Language for work, in both projects and in the network of professionals with different profiles and functions: civil servants, publishers, providers, trade unions, researchers, skill agency representatives, teachers, etc. Their diverse expertise and perspectives advanced the project, the network and the project website.

Outcomes

The main outcomes of the project were:

Language for Work – a quick guide: How to help adult migrants develop work-related language skills. The original in English has been translated into 12 languages. The German and the Italian version have been printed respectively by the Fachstelle für Berufsbezogenes Deutsch im Förderprogramm Integration durch Qualifizierung (IQ), Hamburg, Germany
Collection of practice examples
Checklist of competences required by professionals according to the type of work-related L2 support they offer
Resource bank
How to improve communicating with migrants: Guide for staff in job centres and public services. The original in German has been printed by beramí, an educational provider for migrants in Frankfurt, Germany
Promotional activities and materials such as
- Poster: Language for work – The contribution of work-related second language learning towards integration of adult migrants. The poster presents the two projects and the network making the case for the issue of developing work-related L2 learning [link to the poster]
- Flyer
- Gallery
- A collection of videos has been put together with the aim of raising awareness of the issues. It includes 13 promotional videos of professionals from across Europe with different roles, thereby highlighting the value of the Language for work project and network in different contexts
- Images on the theme of work
- Photos of events

International recognition

The reputation of the Language for work projects and of its network as pool of international specialists, was further consolidated. Team and network members represented the network in intergovernmental consultations, at the LIAM (linguistic integration of adult migrants) symposium 2016, and at national and international conferences and congresses across Europe and in the USA and Canada.

Language for work project receives the European Language Label award

On behalf of the Language for work project, the coordinator, Matilde Grünhage Monetti, received the prize for the book Lingua e lavoro, a cooperation between the Italian publishers Loescher and LaLinea and the ECML. Read more

This is a project of the European Centre for Modern Languages within its "Languages at the heart of learning" programme 2016-2019.
View project pages