Flash Electro Erasmus Project

Project Title

Flash Electro

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for vocational education and training

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2014

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Open and distance learning; Key Competences (incl. mathematics and literacy) – basic skills; Teaching and learning of foreign languages

Project Summary

The FLASH project was implemented under the programme Erasmus +.
The aim of the FLASH project was to support teaching of foreign languages in a professional context. Its main tangible output are textbooks for professional English and German (grade 1-3), which are accompanied by e-learning activities. The lessons are focused on topics from the electro environment including the main grammar and lexical items. The project consortium consisted of partners from the United Kingdom, Finland and Slovakia. As the project was intended for VET schools in the electro field, there were five vocational schools from Slovakia and one vocational school from Czech Republic that tested and piloted the learning content.
The project is addressing concrete needs based on the lack of vocationally-oriented modern teaching and learning materials in the VET schools in Slovakia and in the Czech Republic. Therefore, we expect project results to directly contribute to fulfilling this gap at VET Slovak and Czech schools in the electrical field and other related professions.
Using the project outputs, teachers will have access to high quality teaching and learning materials and thus they will be able to use different methods reflecting different learning styles of the students.
The FLASH textbooks for English and German languages are designed for the 1st to 3rd year of VET schools in the electrical field. The main aim was to prepare future professionals in the electrical field for real situations that may arise in their work. The language focus of the textbooks aims at extending the professional vocabulary range using the real-life situations in the context. A considerable emphasis is put on practice and real-life dialogue simulations. The authors of the textbooks were aware of the gap in a foreign language tuition during the week of practical training at schools and therefore also included suitable activities to help fill this gap.
The textbooks and the e-learning materials are visually attractive for their users, they include a lot of colour photographs and visual symbols. Their attractiveness is enhanced by the fact that students can make notes directly in the text. During the testing and piloting of the learning materials, the students and teachers gave positive evaluation appreciating the interdependence of textbooks with interactive e-learning exercises, videos and interviews recorded by native speakers. Not only vocabulary based activities are included, but also grammar points and related exercises.
As the textbooks and the e-learning activities connect the theoretical and practical part of the course, students will be well prepared in terms of their language competencies in the professional context.
The student textbooks are accompanied by a detailed methodology for teachers with practical advice, tips, suggestions and the answer key.
The need to develop and introduce specialized language learning materials was well verified when we introduced the project outputs to VET schools. The project FLASH was introduced to more than 50 secondary vocational schools with more than 150 teachers and 3000 students. The project team interviewed the teachers from these schools during the training sessions and dissemination events and collected their feedback. We are going to disseminate the project even after its project cycle, as we are currently working on a similar project called Green Wheels that is focused on VET technical schools as well. Through this new project we can address more technical schools as potential users of the FLASH project outputs.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 283894,32 Eur

Project Coordinator

CENTRE FOR MODERN EDUCATION (SK), S.R.O. & Country: SK

Project Partners

• Stredna odborna skola elektrotechnicka
• Stredna odborna skola, Bratislavska 439/18, Dubnica nad Vahom
• Stredni skola – Centrum odborne pripravy technicke Kromeriz
• Sukromna stredna odborna skola
• Kouvolan kaupunki (City of Kouvola)
• Stredna odbora skola strojnicka Sportovcov 341/2 Povazska Bystrica
• ATT TRAINING LTD