Executive Agency, Education, Audiovisual and Culture
Migrant language and social integration
Final Report
527834-LLP-1-2012-1-GR-GRUNDTVIG-GMP
Public Part
MIGRANT LANGUAGE AND SOCIAL INTEGRATION
Project information Project acronym:
MINGLE
Project title:
Migrant language and social integration
Project number:
527834-LLP-1-2012-1-GR-GRUNDTVIG-GMP
Sub-programme or KA:
GRUNDTVIG
Project website:
mingle.exus.co.uk
Reporting period:
From
01/11/2012
To
31/10/2014
Report version:
v1.0
Date of preparation:
20/12/2014
Beneficiary organisation:
EXODUS S.A.
Project coordinator:
Hara Stefanou
Project coordinator organisation:
EXODUS S.A
Project coordinator telephone number:
+302107450300
Project coordinator email address:
[email protected]
This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This publication reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.
© 2008 Copyright Education, Audiovisual & Culture Executive Agency. The document may be freely copied and distributed provided that no modifications are made, that the source is acknowledged and that this copyright notice is included.
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Executive Summary The present document is the public part of the final report for the MINGLE project of the Lifelong Learning Programme. The goal of the document is to present the project’s objectives and the approach followed by the consortium for its realisation. The expected output of the project is also listed, along with the future plans for its contribution to EU policies. This document, combined with the confidential part of the report, constitutes an integrated picture of MINGLE at the end of the project’s lifecycle. MINGLE aimed at providing language vocationally-oriented training addressed to migrants, in particular to Romanians and Bulgarians living or willing to move to Italy, Greece and Cyprus respectively and who are looking for a job in the elderly care and/ or tourism/restaurant sectors. The main output of the MINGLE project was a multilingual (EN, EL, IT, RO, BG) Distance Learning Application (DLA) as well as the respective educational language teaching content of the receiving country (EL, IT). They were provided to migrants at learning centres set-up within the project and also on-line for distance learners. The DLA content focused on two occupational sectors; elderly care and tourism. In total four courses (2 in Italian and 2 in Greek, one for each sector) had been developed. Each MINGLE course is divided into five chapters, each one covering specific parts of the curriculum, in a manner that all of them together constitute a complete and comprehensive entity, with an increasing level of difficulty from chapter 1 to chapter 5. A final assessment allows users to get the “Certificate of successful attendance” of the course. The consortium comprised of a technology provider (EXUS), who was the coordinator and was responsible for the design and development of the Distance Learning Application and its content, one academic partner (UoP), responsible for the pilot use and evaluation of the DLA, and three NGO’s (KMOP, ANS, CNTI), responsible for the development and organisation of the educational content of the Application, as well as for setting up the user groups and the learning centres. Three European countries were represented in the consortium (Greece, Italy, Cyprus), providing a European dimension and validity to the project’s results. The DLA including the educational content developed within MINGLE was pilot used, tested and evaluated by migrant users throughout Europe. A multi-step evaluation process involving 150 end users was adopted to assess the outcomes of MINGLE project, focusing on the application usability, content quality, and the overall experience on the MINGLE DLA. The methodology for the MINGLE assessment was planned on different stages: (a) a first Internal assessment made by partners; (b) a field trial in Italy and Greece and finally (c) pilot use with approximately 150 users, to which the system was delivered, together with a questionnaire to gather feedback (150 registered users, 86 questionnaires filled). Conclusions of the evaluation steps confirmed the validity of the system; resulting MINGLE key strength factors have been: web-based access responding to individual pace of learning and time availability; simple interface; ease of use; rich and deep language content, powerful for learning enhancement; innovative orientation towards the specific occupational fields, attendance flexibility, improving migrants employability. Future plans of the project consortium include exploitation of the DLA results either by providing services for content development and delivery over the cloud or by adding the MINGLE educational approach within the regular training activities provided by the public authorities. Further dissemination of the existing educational content is also planned in order to attract more learners across Europe.
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More information about the project (http://mingle.exus.co.uk) and (https://www.facebook.com/Mingle.Project).
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is
available its
at
the MINGLE Facebook
website page
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Table of Contents 1.
PROJECT OBJECTIVES .................................................................................... 6
2.
PROJECT APPROACH ...................................................................................... 8
3.
PROJECT OUTCOMES & RESULTS............................................................... 11
4.
PARTNERSHIPS .............................................................................................. 17
5.
PLANS FOR THE FUTURE .............................................................................. 18
6.
CONTRIBUTION TO EU POLICIES ................................................................. 19
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1.
Project Objectives
Immigration is a key support to labor force growth and a common practice among EU countries, especially in lower skilled occupations of the labor market. Countries such as Italy, Greece and Cyprus have been fuelled by migrants arriving from the Balkans during the past 15 years. Despite the large number of migrants within the EU, severe barriers are identified to their progress and social integration in the receiving economies, mainly concerning their poor language skills, the non-recognition of their qualifications and experience and the bureaucratic procedures necessary to set-up a new life, acquire formal documents, etc. Strengthening literacy and essential skills in one area of the migrants’ life is expected to have an effect in all areas, as workplaces and communities are interconnected. Improving awareness and participation through the provision of useful guidance and information will facilitate immigrant integration in the receiving countries. To this end, specific measures need to be taken and practices to be applied in the migrant-receiving countries, which will facilitate the integration of migrants by teaching them the basics to communicate in the hosting country’s language, and providing them with useful guidance and information for setting-up a new life. MINGLE aimed to address exactly those issues, of poor language skills and consequently difficulty for better employment and social integration, by developing the tools and educational content, and by setting up the locations where migrants would be able to acquire language skills and access the necessary information about the receiving country’s operating norms and institutional structures, at their own free time. Language and civic integration is necessary, in order to avoid marginalisation and social segregation. To this extent, the project aimed to develop a web-based, easy-to-use Distance Learning Application and the respective educational content for teaching the language of the receiving country to the migrants, with specific emphasis on the occupations most pursued by them. Learning the language of the host country helped the target groups secure a better job and mostly, facilitated their integration into the new country of residence and workplace. The DLA also contributed to the migrants’ socialisation and communication as they formed a homogenous learning group (of people from the same country). MINGLE’s Distance Learning Application characteristics (usability, accessibility) intent to support people who are willing to improve their language skills at their free time. Hence, it can be used by both employed and unemployed people, living in their native or in the receiving countries, who would like to enhance their employability opportunities and/or to improve their working position as well as to integrate in the receiving society. The main output of the MINGLE project was a multilingual (English, Greek, Italian, Romanian, Bulgarian) Distance Learning Application (DLA) including the respective educational language teaching content of the receiving country (Greek and Italian). The DLA content focused on two working sectors; elderly care and tourism. In total four courses (2 in Italian and 2 in Greek, one for each sector) had been developed. Each MINGLE course is divided into five chapters, each one covering specific parts of the curriculum, in a manner that all of them together constitute a complete and comprehensive entity, with an increasing level of difficulty from chapter 1 to chapter 5. A final assessment allows users to get the “Certificate of successful attendance” of the course. Special care has been taken of the linguistic peculiarities of the two languages. More specifically, the Greek courses had a special focus on spelling and phonetics whereas the Italian ones proposed a larger section dedicated to grammar. Moreover, for migrants living in 527834-LLP-1-2012-1-GR-GRUNDTVIG-GMP
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Cyprus a special version of the Greek course has been developed so that, the Cypriot dialect is addressed by replacing words and phrases with the idioms commonly used in Cyprus, as well as by including audio material recorded by Cypriot speakers. Moreover, the Cypriot version included information of the daily life in Cyprus (emergency numbers, addresses, places, public services etc.). This new educational approach was tested and evaluated by 150 users throughout Europe during the validation phase of the project. The evaluation results affirmed the fact that
the DLA successfully meets the educational objective of providing deeper knowledge of the Italian/Greek language to migrant learners. The respondents’ knowledge of the host language improved after the course. Moreover, the course improved the learners’ communication skills and self-confidence.
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2.
Project Approach
The project consisted of three main phases: •
RESEARCH: During the first months of the project, the consortium conducted significant research in order to identify state-of-the-art practices and technologies on distance learning and also to ascertain the real needs of the migrants in their effort to learn the language of a hosting country. For the last purpose, a mixed method approach was adopted as the optimal study design. The study design was sequential as it involved qualitative and quantitative sequential research stages, such as the design of the needs assessment questionnaire, its validation and finalization through the use of focus groups, the needs assessment of migrants through a small scale survey and finally, building on existing data through interviews with employers. Based on the results of the two studies, a solid basis for subsequent project activities was formed, ensuring the innovation and competitiveness of the proposed ideas. Upon this basis, the MINGLE Distance Learning Application and the content structure were designed.
•
DEVELOPMENT: The second project phase was the educational content and Distance Learning Application design and development phase. Scenarios for the courses (elderly care and tourism courses in Italian and Greek) were developed and the graphical user interface was designed. The courses cover specific topics that on one hand are interesting to the users and on the other they have a higher level of complexity in order to let users deepen their knowledge on language aspects related to grammar, communication and vocabulary. This is an innovative approach which results to a more complex structure compared to that of the regular courses provided by the public authorities. Moreover, all courses are vocationally oriented, they contain texts and linguistic functions used in two specific job sectors: tourism and elderly care. In this way, MINGLE users have the ability to receive a more advanced and oriented training therefore more complete - and they can acquire a wider set of language competences that will allow them to apply for a better job and integrate in the receiving society. This kind of training – which is higher than A2 level - is not provided at public level while private courses are too expensive for migrants. The DLA interface has been developed in five languages (English, Greek, Italian, Romanian and Bulgarian). The DLA can be accessible through http://elearn.exus.co.uk:9080/mingle
•
EVALUATION: Based on the results of the first two phases the DLA, including the respective educational content, was pilot used, tested and evaluated by users in three European countries (Greece, Italy and Cyprus). A multi-step evaluation process involving 150 end-users was adopted to assess the outcomes of MINGLE project. For the evaluation, both formative and summative assessment was employed: (i) formative assessment ensured the quality of the DLA before its release. This was accomplished through one to one review on course content and the application’s performance in terms of efficiency, flexibility and user-friendliness through a strict cooperation between the two teachers (Italian and Greek mother tongue) qualified for L2 and the DLA developers at EXUS. (ii) summative assessment derived feedback from pilot-users who tried out the complete DLA package. This was accomplished through field-trial by a small sample of target-learners in each country (3 people in total) before the DLA launch for pilot use and a full pilot use with a larger sample of target-learners in each country (approximately 30 people from each country). As the limited duration of the pilottesting (4 months) wouldn’t allow for a long-term assessment of its outcomes,
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interviews with focus groups were also held to get insight of the project’s impact and outcome.
The analysis of the evaluation feedback is based on qualitative and quantitative data: (i) one to one review on the DLA’s educational content in both formative and summative phases of the evaluation (qualitative); (ii) participant observation, providing information by the instructor at the learning centres on the response and achievement of users participating in the pilottesting on site or from distance (qualitative); (iii) questionnaires filled-in by users participating in the DLA’s pilot testing, providing information for their perception on the Application’s design, course organisation and content, design, instructive and technical support, performance and outcomes (quantitative and qualitative); (iv) open interviews with small groups of pilot-users, on the significance of mastering the language of the host country for better employability and career prospects; as well as on the helpfulness of MINGLE DLA (qualitative). Conclusions of the evaluation steps confirmed the validity of the system; resulting MINGLE key strength factors have been: simple interface, effective course organisation and content, independent learning, powerful for language learning deepening, attendance flexibility and vocational applicability. Horizontal activities, such as project management, dissemination, exploitation and quality assurance procedures, accompany the project throughout its lifecycle, to ensure high quality of results, wide project visibility and sustainability after the funding period. Dissemination activities started from the beginning of the project. As a first step, the Consortium agreed on the dissemination plan containing the dissemination related definitions, description of concepts and approaches and their application in practice together with the collection of possible dissemination channels and tools. Mapping and engaging of the stakeholders was in focus of dissemination actions throughout the lifetime of the project. In the first year, the focus of the communication was on the general introduction of the planned outcomes among the stakeholders. In the second year, activities were focusing on the engagement of end-users and service providers in using the recently launched product, in order to support its sustainability. Promotional activities after the project closure, described in detail and reinforced by an exploitation agreement signed by all partners, will be based on the utilisation of the partnership’s network and will be built on the network of stakeholders who already expressed their interest. The main channels/tools will be the official MINGLE website, the partners’ websites, related social media (partners’ and MINGLE page), online forums and events, conferences. Main channels for the dissemination activities were: o
o o
On-line presence: MINGLE website http://mingle.exus.co.uk MINGLE facebook page https://www.facebook.com/Mingle.Project Partners’ websites Partners’ social media channels Promotional materials: leaflets, newsletters, multimedia presentation, poster Press releases, publications Partners’ mailing lists and electronic newsletters Newspaper articles
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Online journals o Events: conferences According to the exploitation plan, the MINGLE project can be very well exploited, as it has a wide audience of possible stakeholders and also a numerous ways to be further expanded (additional occupations, new target groups, more welcoming countries etc.). However, it is essential to find the effective channels to focus on the specific target groups of the newly released MINGLE DLA in order to make it visible among the mass of similar applications. The MINGLE consortium set the foundation of this with the dissemination work during the project’s lifetime and will sustain the operation afterwards following the guidelines of the Exploitation Plan.
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3.
Project Outcomes & Results
In this section the achievements and results of the entire project per work package are presented. The consortium has managed to achieve all goals and expected results successfully, as these were defined in each work package. More specifically: User requirements collection and SOTA research (WP2) The consortium performed a detailed analysis of distance learning services and applications and related research activities. Literature research on distance learning theories and distance learning initiatives has taken place, and existing cases in vocational training have been analysed. The migration background in each of the under consideration countries (Greece, Cyprus, Italy) was also presented. On this basis, a research on the immigration schemes in each of the participating countries was conducted and further the national legal framework on migration was examined. Next, a situational analysis was conducted, which was comprised of the analysis of the migrants’ socioeconomic profile and the professions in which traditionally they are involved in, the networks used in order to migrate to the host country and finally the key issues they most commonly face during their stay in the host country. The aforementioned literature research enabled the partnership to define the target groups. By following a mixed method research approach, which includes both qualitative (focus group discussions and interviews) and quantitative methods (questionnaires’ development) the consortium concluded to the identification of the needs requirements of the under examination population. Accordingly, from the preceding overall analysis, it can be concluded that the target groups have the following characteristics: the Bulgarian migrants in both Greece and Cyprus and the Romanian migrants in Italy, are employed in the broader social sector (healthcare, domestic care) or tourism, have concluded at least compulsory education, have basic computer skills, basic communication and reading skills. They strongly believe that they have to adequately use in a correct manner the language of the host country so they need to improve their ability to communicate with natives in the respective host country by improving their skills in pronunciation, basic writing and reading, vocabulary, grammar and syntax. Consequently, the aforementioned results in combination with the analysis regarding the SOTA technologies (currently available for the implementation of similar purposes), were used to develop a DLA which is useful and efficient for the under consideration target groups. Results are available in D2.1, “User Requirements and (http://mingle.exus.co.uk/ecportal.asp?id=258&nt=19&lang=1).
SOTA
analysis”
Application and content design and development (WP3) Based on WP2 results, the consortium defined the MINGLE educational model and designed the educational content and the MINGLE Distance Learning Application. The educational model proposed by MINGLE aimed at providing language vocationallyoriented training for migrants, in particular Romanians and Bulgarians living or willing to move to Italy, Greece and Cyprus respectively and who are looking for a job in the elderly care and/ or tourism/restaurant sectors. The overall goal is to enhance the quality of life and facilitate the social and economic integration to local society of migrant workers, by improving their access to language training courses and other guidance material, helping them become active members of the hosting society. Building on this
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approach the MINGLE model included a lot of linguistic activities (listening, reading and comprehension, vocabulary, grammar, phonetics), and communication tools (announcements, email, etc.) that make the learning experience a pleasant and constructive experience. Each course is divided into five chapters, each covering specific parts of the course, in a manner that all of them together constitute a complete and comprehensive core, with an increasing level of difficulty from chapter 1 to chapter 5. Each chapter is divided in two units: Unit A with more general exercises and Unit B with extra theory and exercises that focus on details in grammar, comprehension and vocabulary of the language. In this way, MINGLE users have the ability to receive a more advanced and oriented training therefore more complete - and they can acquire a wider set of language competences that will allow them to apply for a better job and integrate in the receiving society. Within the units the following types of linguistic activities are included:
Listening, reading and comprehension;
Vocabulary exercises;
Grammar structures explanation and exercises;
Exercises on phonetics (in Unit A of all chapters).
Apart from the “theoretical” part of each chapter, which is presented in the form of text, images and tables, each chapter also includes exercises (i.e. multiple choice, fill-in the blank, matching between words and definition, etc.) so that the users can self-assess their learning level. Each course ends with the “course exam" which covers all course chapters. This final assessment provides users with a “Certificate of successful attendance” to the course, provided that they have exceeded a predefined threshold in correct answers. Based on the MINGLE model, the consortium designed the overall DLA. User roles and access rights were defined, the MINGLE educational unit was described in detail, the main application characteristics were agreed and the functionality was defined. Users comprise of learners, tutors, content authors and system administrators. User interfaces were designed and the basic structure of each course was agreed. The second major outcome of MINGLE besides the DLA are the four courses: 2 in Italian (one for tourism and one for elderly care already designed) and 2 in Greek (one for each sector to be designed in the second year). All courses have a similar structure, taking into account the linguistic peculiarities of the two languages. In particular the Greek courses contain, among the different sections, a special focus on spelling and phonetics due to the differences between Greek and Bulgarian alphabets; while the Italian ones focus mostly on grammar. The Greek content was adjusted to the Cypriot dialect by recording all audio files by Cypriot speakers, changing words and phrases with the ones that are used in Cyprus, adapting information to the daily life in Cyprus (emergency numbers, addresses, places, public services etc.). Content of the elderly care courses:
Health and elderly care including appointment with the doctor, understanding the medicine instructions, elderly pathologies (i.e. the immobilization syndrome etc.);
Elderly food and feeding;
Emergency situations: the emergency call;
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Activities at the restaurant (such as taking orders, dishes description and traditional recipes, communication with clients, etc.);
In the hotel: (taking a reservation, talking about holidays, etc.);
Health and safety at work and emergency situations.
Additionally, the vocationally-oriented courses have some chapters in common related to transversal issues relevant to both working sectors which help the migrants to be informed about social aspects of the life in the receiving country:
Job research and job interview: the users learn how to understand a job announcement, manage a job interview and write a well-structured CV relevant to the placement they apply for.
Local services and offices: o
In Unit A the learners become familiar with: the specific terms and procedures of the respective bureaucracies; real life dialogues that can take place in public administration offices;
o
in Unit B driving licence issues are dealt. By providing dialogues and texts, people willing to get the licence can gain a basic knowledge on traffic signals and rules. The specific topic has been selected as it is critical for migrants.
Results are available in D3.1,
[email protected] for information).
“Application
and
content
design”
(email
to
Pilot use and Evaluation (WP4) The consortium developed a thorough plan for pilot testing and evaluating the distance learning application including the educational content developed within the project. Based on this plan, three partners (KMOP, ANS, CNTI) have involved end-users for the pilot phase, recruiting them by extending a call through different channels (mailing, social networks, web sites, newsletters) to different kind of local stakeholders such as: employment agencies, Romanian/Bulgarian organisations, Trade Unions, Municipalities, Social Services, cooperatives, immigration centres, ethnic shops and internet points managed by migrants, supermarkets and hotels were migrants work etc. These users tested the system and provided feedback for the assessment of the system. Three learning labs in Greece, Italy and Cyprus were set up for MINGLE pilot testing. End-users attended face-to-face sessions that were facilitated by KMOP, ANS and CNTI in order to test the MINGLE DLA. The users were split into small groups and the same course was repeated multiple times for the different user groups. In addition, more users were testing the MINGLE DLA on-line from their homes at their own pace. Partners’ staff provided guidance and support to the pilot users in all stages of the procedure: enrolment, assistance on the use of the DLA, getting feedback through interviews, collecting evaluation questionnaires etc. For the evaluation of the DLA, namely whether the DLA meets the objectives of: (a) effectiveness – i.e. upgrading the learners proficiency of the host language, (b) vocational applicability – i.e. meeting needs of real life (employability, social integration), and (c) flexibility – i.e. enabling users to learn at their own pace and time convenience, both formative and summative assessment was employed: (i) formative assessment ensured the quality of the DLA before its release. This was accomplished through one to one review on course content and the application’s performance in terms of efficiency, flexibility and user-friendliness through a strict
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cooperation between the two teachers (Italian and Greek mother tongue) qualified for L2 and the DLA developers at EXUS. (ii) summative assessment derived feedback from pilot-users who tried out the complete DLA package. This was accomplished through field-trial by a small sample of targetlearners in each country (3 people in total) before the DLA launch for pilot use and a full pilot use with a larger sample of target-learners in each country (approximately 30 people from each country). As the limited duration of the pilot-testing (4 months) wouldn’t allow for a long-term assessment of its outcomes, interviews with focus groups were also held to get insight of the project’s impact and outcome. Approximately 150 target users were involved:
1 user involved in the field trial in Italy (evaluation before the DLA release for pilottesting held during March-April 2014); 2 users involved in the field trial in Greece (evaluation before the DLA release for pilot-testing held during May 2014); 147 users for the pilot use registered on the DLA (June – October 2014) 84 pilot-testing questionnaires were collected, providing information for the users; perception on the Application’s design, course organisation and content, design, instructive and technical support, performance and outcomes 9 pilot users were interviewed on the significance of mastering the language of the host country for better employability and career prospects; as well as on the helpfulness of MINGLE DLA. Conclusions of the evaluation steps confirmed that the DLA successfully meets the educational objective of providing deeper knowledge of the Italian/Greek language to migrant learners. The respondents’ knowledge of the host language improved after the course. Moreover, the course improved the learners’ communication skills and selfconfidence. The respondents’ input to all questions concerning the DLA’s design, course organisation and content, was strongly positive; thus, establishing the efficacy and effectiveness of the Application. The web-based distant learning process provides to users attendance flexibility and learning at their own pace and time convenience. Independent learning motivated the learners to repeat the exercises and stimulated them to deepen their knowledge in the language. The vocational applicability of the DLA meets the needs of real life – i.e. migrants’ need for employability, better economic situation and social integration. This justifies the usefulness of the DLA, as well as the timeliness of MINGLE project. The evaluation methodology and the evaluation results are available in D.4.1 “Deployment plan” and D.4.2 “Evaluation Report” respectively. Dissemination (WP5) Numerous dissemination activities took place during the project’s duration reaching a large number of people. More specifically:
MINGLE official website: 2553 pageviews by 417 users (http://mingle.exus.co.uk) Facebook page: 43 likes (http://www.facebook.com/Mingle.Project) Partners’ websites which have more than 10000 visitors per month Partners’ internal newsletters; more than 1500 relevant associations and stakeholders (i.e. Local Health Bodies, Employment agencies, University and
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Research Institutions, Press Agencies, Cooperatives of the social and migration sector, Foundations, VET bodies, local and national authority, Trade Unions, individuals, families etc.) Five MINGLE Newsletters with over 2000 recipients: distributed in electronic form to interested parties related to MINGLE concept through EU ENTER network, i.e. migrants, stakeholders and organizations. Two MINGLE Leaflets: distributed to MINGLE related audience in several events (see below), more than 400 printouts distributed MINGLE wiki page on Future World Center’s (leg. reg. as CNTI) pedia: over 1235 hits (http://www.futureworlds.eu/wiki/MINGLE). Two leaflets and two posters in Italian for inviting users to the pilot tests with more than 400 recipients Two newspaper articles written and published in Bulgarian in the ‘Cyprus Bulgarian Newspaper’ where 7.000 copies were printed and distributed across Cyprus Articles in relevant web sites and on-line magazines such as: Age Platform, Italian Ministry of Social integration, Leonardo Foundation, Qualificare Participation at events (conferences, workshops, etc), in total over 500 people. Moreover, MINGLE was awarded with the European Language Label 2014 as an innovative project in the field of language teaching and learning within the vocational training area in Italy.
Results are available in D5.2, “Dissemination Activities Report Year 1” and D5.3, “Dissemination Activities Report Year 2” (http://mingle.exus.co.uk/ecportal.asp?id=258&nt=19&lang=1). Dissemination material is available on the project’s website at http://mingle.exus.co.uk. Exploitation (WP6) Significant steps towards the exploitation of the project’s results have been made throughout the project. The consortium examined the distance learning market and identified the main competitors. A SWOT analysis identified the risks and opportunities of distance learning applications and a business model for future commercialisation of the project’s results has been defined. The consortium has developed an exploitation plan which pinpoints the possible scenarios for further evolution of the DLA after the end of the project, new educational content development, involvement of more welcoming countries and organisations and identifies a business model through which the project’s results can be further exploited. Target customers include mainly Training Institutions, being educational institutions, migrants’ associations or other Content Providers (e.g. NGOs working in the migrant education and socio-economic integration field). Of course, the scope of the project can be further expanded to include other target groups in the future, such as repatriates or foreign language learners. Exploitable project results include the following: 1. Training contents in Italian 2. Training contents in Greek 527834-LLP-1-2012-1-GR-GRUNDTVIG-GMP
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3. The MINGLE Distance Learning Application (DLA) The results will be further exploited either by providing services for content development and delivery over the cloud or by supplying public authorities or other training institutions with the MINGLE educational approach and content so as to be included within their regular training activities. Further dissemination of the existing educational content is also planned in order to attract more learners across Europe through the partners’ affiliated networks. Results are available in D6.2, “Exploitation Report – Final version” (email to
[email protected] for information). Quality assurance (WP7) A well-defined quality assurance methodology was defined early in the project and guided the partners into delivering high quality results. Quality Assurance within the project was implemented via the following steps:
Implementation and update of standards and procedures to ensure the quality of project results (standard project templates, assessment of training methodologies and tools, standards, policies and directives); Definition of Quality Reviewers to manage the quality control of the project's deliverables; Assessment of tools and criteria for quality control; Implementation of systematic checking to ensure that procedures and policies are being implemented (review of project progress every 2 months and review of project plan every 3 months); Risk assessment, set up of corrective actions and initiation and follow-up of preventive actions; Organization of internal audits. The quality assurance was assured by internal peer reviewing of all project results and deliverables and monitoring of KPIs as described in the Quality Plan (D7.1). Results are available in D7.1, “Quality plan” and D7.3 “Quality Assurance Report – Year 2” (email to
[email protected] for information).
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4.
Partnerships
The multi-linguistic and multi-cultural nature of Europe requires a consortium with a plurality of regions, like that of MINGLE. Development of distance learning material and applications is truly a European issue as learning and professional training is a global need and such applications are of interest to all Europeans regardless of their origin. East European immigration in the last 15 years is mainly directed to the Mediterranean countries, transforming them from traditional emigration countries to major destinations. Countries such as Italy, Greece and Cyprus have been fuelled by migrants arriving from the Balkans and even Asia. In these countries it is more than important to have organizations to act as migrant “welcomers” who will facilitate the integration of migrants by teaching them the basics to communicate in the hosting country’s language, and providing them with useful guidance and information for setting-up a new life. European cooperation enables the capitalization of accumulated expertise and results of implemented country-specific projects in the field. The MINGLE partners, located in 3 EU countries, brought along their own expertise and the experience of related initiatives in their own jurisdiction. Moreover, the multinational character of the Consortium ensured that different European cultural aspects were taken into account for the development of the application, the interfaces, the user environment and content. The user interface of the application was developed in 5 European Languages while the content was developed into 2 European languages. The Distance Learning Application was tested by users in different European countries supported by project partners, thus fostering pan-European acceptance of the final application. The need to support such multilingualism significantly affected the overall design of the application, in order to facilitate content development. A significant number of end-users were directly involved in the testing phase of the Application (see results in WP4 deliverables). Based on their feedback on the final courses, the MINGLE DLA was further improved. Some of the end-users were engaged with MINGLE and expressed their interest in future collaboration. Throughout the project’s lifetime, the Consortium fostered building up connections with similar initiatives in order to exchange experience and support sustainability. The types of collaborations were: exchanging press releases, disseminating results on channels like project’s mailing list, initiatives’ websites and newsletters but also at smaller, focused face to face events (e.g. Athens EACEA ‘Meeting of Greek centralised projects: Leonardo Da Vinci, Grundtvig, Adult Learning Agenda’, EDEN 2014 annual conference etc.). In addition, MINGLE partners have and will continue to exploit their links with the business or academic community they belong to, in order to support sustainability and exploitation of project results.
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Plans for the Future
Future plans of the project consortium include exploitation of the MINGLE results either by providing services for content development and delivery over the cloud or by supplying public authorities or by supplying public authorities or other training institutions with the MINGLE educational approach and content so as to be included within their regular training activities. Further dissemination of the existing educational content is also planned in order to attract more learners across Europe. Future steps in order to maximise exploitation of results include: a. Developing a mobile learning application. b. Adding services to the application, based on user comments deriving from the pilot phase, and based on further market research and the existing competition c. Translating the user interface in additional languages d. Developing new educational content and/or in new languages, in collaboration with content providers MINGLE partners will focus on disseminating the developed educational content to their wide number of affiliated partners who did not participate in the project. Each partner has a network of thousands of affiliated partners, thus making it possible to disseminate the project’s results in the following years to a very large number of people throughout Europe. Commercialisation and IPR issues have been discussed and agreed upon within the consortium and an Exploitation and IPR Agreement has been signed.
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Contribution to EU policies
The long-term strategic objectives of EU education and training policies are:
Making lifelong learning and mobility a reality;
Improving the quality and efficiency of education and training;
Promoting equity, social cohesion and active citizenship;
Enhancing creativity and innovation, including entrepreneurship, at all levels of education and training.
MINGLE contributes to two of those policies. In more detail: Making lifelong learning a reality Being at the interstices of their home state and host state, migrants are ineligible for official education and training opportunities that are available for contemporary workers. Nonetheless, they search for those opportunities, even creating their own, sometimes depending on the support of local migrant associations. MINGLE provides to migrants the opportunity to learn the language of the hosting country in a more easy and convenient way, offering added value for improved employability as well, while it familiarizes them with ICT technology and allows them to gain ‘digital’ skills. Promoting equity, social cohesion and active citizenship The project’s goal is to enhance the quality of life and facilitate the social and economic integration to local society of migrant workers, by improving their access to language training courses and other guidance material, which can help such marginalised social groups to become active members of the receiving society. With MINGLE migrants have equal opportunities with native citizens to find a job in the touristic or health care sector.
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