The ALPI (Language Learning through Immersion) project has a twofold objective - to strengthen the linguistic knowledge and skills of teaching staff in primary and secondary (middle and high school) classes in order to provide the pupils involved with quality teaching in Italian and in non-linguistic subjects (NLS). Ultimately, the programme aims to increase the number of bilingual learners in an area where mastery of both languages is a major asset for greater employability. - to create a network of French-Italian cross-border schools (more particularly with the province of Turin in Piedmont) to enable schools involved in language training to have partners with whom they can initiate solid and lasting collaboration and thus implement joint educational and cultural projects of all kinds (exchanges and individual pupil mobility, work placements in the professional field, cross-training of teachers and supervisory staff, distance collaboration through eTwinning and Twinspace, etc.)
The GIP académique d'Aix-Marseille and the PACA academic region wished to apply for this project to strengthen and structure Franco-Italian cross-border cooperation, in particular the Italian language immersion classes recently opened in Briançon and Montgenèvre. The foreign language immersion schools are one of the strong strategic axes included in the educational policy desired by the regional rector. For a rural and isolated area such as the north of the Hautes-Alpes department, the challenges of cooperation with the Piedmont region (only a few kilometres away) are essential, even vital. The ALPI programme is also part of the common policy that France and Italy support in order to encourage reinforced cooperation, which aims in particular (as specified in articles 8 and 10 of the recent Quirinal Treaty - see attachment 1) at education, training and the development of cross-border collaboration. Finally, this application was made within the framework of the cooperation agreement that links the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur academic region to its institutional partner in Piedmont (USR - see attachment No. 2).