Project proposal: “Train The Trainer of Immigrants (TTT-I). Innovative Training Course for Adult Educators” was invented by Fundacja Ad Meritum (FAM) from Warsaw, Poland. The proposal is the result of gathering by Ad Meritum the experiences in implementing the methodology of informal language learning by immigrants (as the result of 2014-2016 Erasmus+ strategic partnership project), in developing MERITUM Style® in teaching Polish as a foreign language and in providing the trainings addressed to language teachers in the formula of “Train The Trainer”. During the visit of the Second Chance School of Mytilene from Lesvos in Greece (SCSoM) in FAM in February this year, both project partners – FAM and SCSoM – found the methodologies mentioned above important to be implemented as the training course to answer the needs of immigrants concerning integration to hosting society. Polish and Greek Partners decided about developing together the project proposal: “Train The Trainer of Immigrants (TTT-I). Innovative Training Course for Adult Educators”. They also decided to include the training modules to the course program concerning dealing by the trainers with traumatic situations of the learners, awareness of cultural differences in trainers’ work with immigrants and socio-economic environment and intercultural mediation. To make the course available and suitable to all trainers in Europe working with immigrants on their inclusion to the hosting society and to give the wider perspective of effective solving immigrants problems, the core Partners decided to invite for preparing the project proposal three more organisations from European Union who work with immigrants on the large scale and who’s contribution in developing the training course will be significant and valuable due to their experience, know-how and European approach. The German Partner, WADI, was invited to develop the module on the awareness of cultural differences in trainers’ work with immigrants. The Spanish Partner, Fundacion Universitat Jaume I – Empresa (FUJ-IE) was invited to develop the module on socio-economic environment and intercultural mediation. The Partners also decided to invite one more Partner from Greece - Active Citizenship Partnership (ACP) from Athens. This Partner will develop the module on Cyber Café for the trainers as the method of TTT support, the Cyber café will be run in practice and thanks to that the volunteers, trainers and educators working with immigrants will have the virtual space for exchanging the experiences, supporting each other, but also in the virtual café they will have the access to developed during the project implementation programs and materials. The project innovative tools - TTT-I program, materials and cyber learning platform will be used in all project partner organisations working directly with migrants, as this new, innovative formula of education, concentrated on facilitating informal learning of the immigrants, inspired by non-formal education high quality standards will help to provide more effective and pro-immigrant oriented programs supporting integration process with hosting society. The database of the volunteers, well-trained according to the new methodological approach and available to work with immigrants and refugees in education area, ready to move to other country to support the activities of project partner organisations, will be used by all partner organisation for organising voluntary activities for their target groups of immigrants. For Spanish partner, who is the research institute and training provider, including trainings for educators working in the area of multiculturalism, the project results will be used to offer the resources in immigrants and refugees situation and new training opportunities for their educators working in the area of multiculturalism. In a case of Polish partner - FAM - the course developed within this project implementation "TTT-I. Train The Trainer of Immigrants Course" will be offered to European educators in the educational offer of FAM. All relevant stakeholders will have the access to TTT-I tools: program and materials could be used in the educational practice of European organisations working with immigrants and to the database of the the volunteers, well-trained according to the new methodological approach and available to work with immigrants and refugees in education area, ready to move to other country to support the activities for immigrants, could be used by all European organisation for organising voluntary activities for their target groups of immigrants.
We hoped that the project would bring innovative tools to all project partners working directly with migrants - refugees from Syria and Africa, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Egypt, Albania and Georgia, and additionally in Poland - migrants from Ukraine. By getting to know and training the staff of our organisations, we wanted to create a new, innovative educational formula, focused on facilitating informal learning for immigrants, inspired by high quality standards of non-formal education - this educational approach was to help deliver more effective and pro-immigrant programmes supporting the process of integration into the host society.
The basic premise of the project was to create a course for trainers in Europe who teach foreign language to immigrants and generally work with immigrants on their integration into the host society, in order to give them a broader perspective on how to deal with immigrants' problems effectively. The initiators of the project, the Ad Meritum Foundation (FAM) from Warsaw, Poland and the Second Chance School of Mytilene (SCSoM) in Lesvos, Greece, as a result of their previous collaboration (participation of teachers from SCSoM in FAM's language teaching methodology course) saw mutual benefits and possibilities for cooperation to address the needs of immigrants: FAM had the know-how developed over many years of teaching Polish to foreigners, enabling effective learning of Polish as a foreign language without the use of an intermediate language (which is crucial in the case of immigrants due to their very frequent lack of knowledge of English), and thus learning more effectively and faster than with methods involving the use of intermediate languages, while SCSoM needed to implement new methods of working with immigrants in teaching Greek as a foreign language, as the existing methods were not producing the desired results.
Project proposal: “Train The Trainer of Immigrants (TTT-I). Innovative Training Course for Adult Educators” was invented by Fundacja Ad Meritum (FAM) from Warsaw, Poland. The proposal is the result of gathering by Ad Meritum the experiences in implementing the methodology of informal language learning by immigrants (as the result of 2014-2016 Erasmus+ strategic partnership project), in developing MERITUM Style® in teaching Polish as a foreign language and in providing the trainings addressed to language teachers in the formula of “Train The Trainer”. During the visit of the Second Chance School of Mytilene from Lesvos in Greece (SCSoM) in FAM in February this year, both project partners – FAM and SCSoM – found the methodologies mentioned above important to be implemented as the training course to answer the needs of immigrants concerning integration to hosting society. Polish and Greek Partners decided about developing together the project proposal: “Train The Trainer of Immigrants (TTT-I). Innovative Training Course for Adult Educators”. They also decided to include the training modules to the course program concerning dealing by the trainers with traumatic situations of the learners, awareness of cultural differences in trainers’ work with immigrants and socio-economic environment and intercultural mediation. To make the course available and suitable to all trainers in Europe working with immigrants on their inclusion to the hosting society and to give the wider perspective of effective solving immigrants problems, the core Partners decided to invite for preparing the project proposal three more organisations from European Union who work with immigrants on the large scale and who’s contribution in developing the training course will be significant and valuable due to their experience, know-how and European approach. The German Partner, WADI, was invited to develop the module on the awareness of cultural differences in trainers’ work with immigrants. The Spanish Partner, Fundacion Universitat Jaume I – Empresa (FUJ-IE) was invited to develop the module on socio-economic environment and intercultural mediation. The Partners also decided to invite one more Partner from Greece - Active Citizenship Partnership (ACP) from Athens. This Partner will develop the module on Cyber Café for the trainers as the method of TTT support, the Cyber café will be run in practice and thanks to that the volunteers, trainers and educators working with immigrants will have the virtual space for exchanging the experiences, supporting each other, but also in the virtual café they will have the access to developed during the project implementation programs and materials. The project innovative tools - TTT-I program, materials and cyber learning platform will be used in all project partner organisations working directly with migrants, as this new, innovative formula of education, concentrated on facilitating informal learning of the immigrants, inspired by non-formal education high quality standards will help to provide more effective and pro-immigrant oriented programs supporting integration process with hosting society. The database of the volunteers, well-trained according to the new methodological approach and available to work with immigrants and refugees in education area, ready to move to other country to support the activities of project partner organisations, will be used by all partner organisation for organising voluntary activities for their target groups of immigrants. For Spanish partner, who is the research institute and training provider, including trainings for educators working in the area of multiculturalism, the project results will be used to offer the resources in immigrants and refugees situation and new training opportunities for their educators working in the area of multiculturalism. In a case of Polish partner - FAM - the course developed within this project implementation "TTT-I. Train The Trainer of Immigrants Course" will be offered to European educators in the educational offer of FAM. All relevant stakeholders will have the access to TTT-I tools: program and materials could be used in the educational practice of European organisations working with immigrants and to the database of the the volunteers, well-trained according to the new methodological approach and available to work with immigrants and refugees in education area, ready to move to other country to support the activities for immigrants, could be used by all European organisation for organising voluntary activities for their target groups of immigrants.