Leaders of our school supports teachers’ ambitions to improve their language competence in authentic native-speaking context as nearly half of our classes are bilingual, therefore the majority of colleagues is involved in teaching in dual language programmes, including a number of teachers who teach subjects in a foreign language. Besides language skills, the development of digital competences is of great significance. Getting to know the international directions and approaches of educational development and exploring the potential solutions to the challenges of the 21st century are both key to successful and effective education. Teachers participating in ICT-focused courses may more effectively motivate students to harness the potential in online learning tools and platforms. Methodology courses will enrich participants’ daily teaching practice and contribute to their adaptation to continuously changing needs of upcoming generations. Due to the 2020 transformation of vocational education, there is a greater demand to get to know how other European vocational schools work and to identify approaches, methods and good practices worthy of adaptation, thus contributing to the improvement of our vocational programmes.
The main focus of education in our school is to prepare students for the challenges and requirements of the job market they are about to enter. Above the required professional skills, they also need several other skills like problem-solving skills, entrepreneurial competence, cooperation, resilience, creativity, effective communication and the ability to work in teams and projects. In order to scaffold and develop these skills and competences, we need teachers who already possess those competences and show openness to acquire and apply new practices. Experiences and new knowledge acquired during international courses and job shadowing visits enable these colleagues to gain inspiration to improve that range of competences. Our teachers’ open-mindedness contributes to the resilience of our institution in a dynamically changing world. Job shadowing visits not only enabled our school to maintain and nurture its international relations, but allowed teachers to study the education systems and teaching practices of other countries. The innovative methods and practices (e.g. project-based teaching and learning) studied in partner schools will be shared with other colleagues (and teachers working in other schools) during dissemination events.