Our goal was to strengthen the employees with their own international experience, stimulate their interest in learning about intercultural differences and improve their language competence for communication with foreign adult learners. We wanted to raise the motivation of employees to provide training for foreign adult learners, and thus have a long-term impact on the stable operations of our organization and preserve existing jobs.
In Idrija Lace School, which is an internal business unit of the Jurija Vega Idrija High School, the demand for foreign adult learners increased, but at the same time we were faced with a lack of staff to provide education for foreign adult learners. We wanted to empower and motivate employees (only women are employed at the Idrija Lacemaking School) to carry out training courses for foreign adult learners, as they are important source to ensure founds for operation and thus the existence of the Idrija Lacemaking School. The majority of employees avoided the implementation of training courses for adult foreign learners, most of them citing insufficient communication skills in a foreign language as the reason. A lack of understanding of intercultural differences and a fear of the new could be felt among certain employees. The international activities planned in the project would enable employees to venture into new environments where they will be forced to solve various life situations during mobility. With the acquired experience, they would upgrade their own competences and use them in the implementation of regular educational practice.