Working with volunteers in migrant language education: roles and competences Erasmus Project

Project Title

Working with volunteers in migrant language education: roles and competences

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 adult education

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2016

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses; Integration of refugees; Key Competences (incl. mathematics and literacy) – basic skills

Project Summary

The integration of migrants is one of the greatest current challenges facing Europe. In our globalised world, migration is a fact of life. Migrants are crucial for the future of many European countries, to meet gaps in the workforce as well as to reverse negative trends in birth rates. In order to support their full integration and avoid social exclusion, migrants should be supported in participating in the labour market and civic society. Learning the language of the host country is an urgent precondition for such participation, and in this, language education has a key role to play. Without mastery of the host language they face greater barriers to integration, diminishing their economic potential and creating additional costs for public services such as health and social care, education, crime, and local government. To meet the demand for migrant language education there is a need for greater numbers of trained educators. However, the scale of need, and restrictions on national education budgets, means that it may be necessary to rethink our approach to the language education of adult migrants and look beyond the formal classroom. Volunteers can play a number of important roles in supporting or supplementing the formal language learning of adult migrants.

There are nine partners from four different countries: the Netherlands, the UK, Slovenia and Denmark. All of the organisations are experienced in working with migrant education and in the use of volunteers in such provision. The partners can be profiled as NGOs, university, local educational (volunteer)organisations and researchers in the field of language education.

The target groups of the project are volunteers and professional teachers working in migrant language and literacy education, providers of such provision, policymakers and adult migrant learners. In the initial stage of the project we carried out desk research and qualitative research with learners, volunteers and professionals to understand the contexts in which volunteers were involved in the migrant language education process and the roles that they played. Following this desk research we agreed an overall framework for the outputs of the project (IO1 – Framework); this document has informed the development of the other outputs on the project.

We also developed role descriptors and competence profiles for the identified roles, a screening tool for migrant education providers to select appropriate volunteers, and training modules (with trainer guidance) to support the volunteers in carrying out the specified roles. The training modules and screening tool were piloted with volunteers in the four countries. The pilots were evaluated and the lessons from the four countries were synthesized. These informed the development of the final versions of the training modules and screening tool. We also developed an information guide for policy-makers and another for practitioners.

In the first year of the project, we focused on developing the framework and (concept) model to identify specific roles and tasks for volunteers. We started by selecting target groups of different stakeholders to be interviewed and developing the guidelines for those interviews. Then the team members interviewed 16 – 24 stakeholders in each country of the project (Slovenia, Denmark, UK and The Netherlands), and used these as a basis for the development of the framework and the concept model. In April 2017 the first four ME took place to disseminate the framework and concept model more thoroughly in our countries and to improve the model with the intention to come up with a model which is easy to use for those we develop it for. We subsequently gathered feedback on the model from others by means of dissemination activities and consultation with Third Circle members and used this information to improve the model. We also produced draft outlines of the eight training modules; a Selection Tool (with a learner typology incorporated) in order to assign a suitable role to a volunteer and match volunteers and learners. At the October 2017 London transnational project meeting we finalised the Framework and Model as well as the Selection Tools. We also agreed on the content of the eight Training Modules and produced deliverable training modules in the national languages of the project partners. These were piloted in each of the four countries between January to April 2018. The pilots were evaluated and assessed at the penultimate project meeting in Zalec in April 2018, where decisions were also made about the process to arrive at the final versions of the project outputs. At the Zalec meeting we also discussed first drafts of the information guides for policy-makers and practitioners. At the final project meeting in Utrecht we agreed final versions for each of the specified intellectual outputs and send all pre-final product to our Third Circle partners to receive their feedback and investigate the value of our product for thei

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 260097 Eur

Project Coordinator

ITTA UvA BV & Country: NL

Project Partners

• UPI – ljudska univerza Zalec
• UNIVERZA V LJUBLJANI
• Oxford Brooks University
• Stichting Het Begint met Taal
• Slagelse Kommune (Slagelse Sprogcenter)
• East London Advanced Technology Training
• Stichting ROC West-Brabant