ELS@Work - European Languages for Secretaries

The project is coordinated by Pixel in cooperation with partners from Belgium, Germany, Italy and Spain. Pixel is an education and training institution with quality certification in compliance with the UNI EN ISO 9001:2000 standard, accredited as an education and training agency by Italian Ministry of Education and by the Tuscany County Council.

Project Target Group

The direct target group of the ELS@Work project are:

• 140 users in 4 European countries representing the beneficiaries in the world of work (secretarial and administrative staff).
• 120 users in 4 European countries representing the beneficiaries in the school education sector (particularly students in vocational and technical schools).

Project Objectives

The main objectives of the ELS @ Work project is to further improve the ELS Portal and to make it available to other entities (schools and businesses) not involved in the ELS project, in 4 different European countries.

The specific objectives of the ELS@Work project are the promotion of:

• Online learning of European languages (French, Italian, English, Spanish and German)
• Knowledge of European Business Culture
• an innovative language teaching tool based on e-learning
• a virtual community of language teachers and trainers at European level
• the inclusion of the ELS portal among the officially recognized tools for education and training

Main Activities

Specific actions of further improvement of the portal are planned:

• Technical debugging and improvement of the portal
• Check of the contents
• Introduction of a new language training course: German
• Completion of the French language training course.
• Development of a system for on-line synchronous tutoring for the 5 target languages.
• Creation of a user forum, one for each target language, for asynchronous tutoring.
• Development of a community of users

The project activities are organized in the following main work packages:

WP 1 - Development of online Course "Business German for Secretarial and Administrative Staff"

The German partner with the assistance of the technical partner will develop the contents of the German training package.

Expected Result: On-line training package for the learning of German in a business context and Glossary for German.

WP 2 - Completion and review of online Course "Business French for secretarial and Administrative Staff"

The Belgian partner with the assistance of the technical partner will complete and review the contents of the French training package.

Expected Result: On-line training package for the learning of French in a business context and Glossary for French.

WP 3 - Technical Improvement of the ELS portal

The technical partner will check the functionality of all the contents of the portal and will make sure everything works as planned. New tools and services will be created

• a user forum one for each target language, that will be managed (asynchronously) by a native speaker tutor.
• a system for synchronous on-line tutoring in each of the 5 target languages.

Expected Result: The ELS portal will be checked and extended with new services.

WP 4 - Check of the language contents of the ELS portal

Each partner will carry out a debug of the e-learning language training courses both from a technical and content point of view.

Expected Result: The ELS portal contents will be checked and revised.

WP 5 - Inclusion of the ELS portal in the public training and education systems in the partner countries and certification of skills acquired

Each partner will have to involve in the ELS project regional and/or national public authorities in charge of education and training so as to promote the inclusion of the ELS portal among the officially recognized tools for education and training at regional and/or national level. Each partner will have to promote the official recognition of the skills acquired through the ELS portal, through direct contacts with public authorities in charge of education and training, and in particular with those in charge of issuing official certifications.

Expected Result: Inclusion of the ELS portal among the tools used for official education and training activities in the partner countries
Official recognition of the skills acquired by the bodies in charge of this in the partners countries.

WP 6 - Experimentation of the portal in 120 schools and 140 companies in 4 European countries. Evaluation of the portal

The partners will organize workshops and training courses for teachers and employees in small and medium size enterprises in order to test the functionality of the ELS portal. Pixel, Centro del Profesorado y de Recursos de Gijón and INFOREF are responsible for the experimentation in schools; Bildungswerk Ver.Di and CESPIM are responsible for the experimentation in the small and medium enterprises

Expected Result: Report on the experimentation.