We aimed to support the education, professional and personal development of teachers by gaining experience with successful education systems in other EU countries. We wanted to enable them to compare the education system in the Czech Republic and in EU countries that perform very well in international PISA comparisons, and to move our school further on the path to a modern educational institution. Our goal was to extend STEM education, i.e. science and mathematics, to STEAM, i.e. enrich it with the arts, i.e. the ability to create, formulate and present. Nowadays, so-called hybrid professions that combine knowledge from the arts and science are becoming more common. There is a growing demand in the labour market for people who are able to pursue such careers. By using STEAM we aimed to enhance graduates' competitiveness in the job market. We wanted to increase students' interest in the environment and active citizenship, to strengthen the development of social and intercultural competences, critical thinking, media and digital literacy in order to retain young educated graduates in the future in the region we live in. We wanted to offer teachers quality training therefore increase their motivation.
Our school devotes great efforts to the education of teachers and offers them opportunities to improve their qualifications and organizational, pedagogical, professional and language skills not only by training within the Czech Republic, but also in an international context. We look for inspiration in countries with education systems of great quality and by learning about their education systems we want to improve education within the school. We develop international contacts and implement international projects. We enable experienced colleagues who are interested in professional development to further their education in areas that are not yet covered by education in the Czech Republic. We involve younger colleagues in the modernisation of teaching and offer them further training. We enable teachers of professional subjects to improve their language skills in order to use them in projects and to study professional literature. We offer foreign language teachers participation in methodological courses abroad that focus on innovative ways of teaching. At the same time, studying abroad allows them to establish contacts with colleagues from other countries, exchange experiences and learn about different cultural environment.