Ikaslan Bizkaia has attended the 4th Peer Learning Activity (PLA4) meeting of the PRALINE – Promoting Adult Learning in Networks project in Dublin, Ireland, at the Liberties College of Further Education. The encounter took place on May 10th and 11th and focused on the exchange of good practices in language learning for migrant students.
The last meeting of the PRALINE project was hosted by the Education and Training Boards Ireland (ETBI), and attendees had the opportunity to learn how Ireland’s Further Education and Training (FET) system works. In particular, the speakers focused on the situation of the English speaking country regarding Language Learning for Migrant Learners, since the Ukranian crisis has caused Ireland to get a great number of refugees. Ireland’s main tool to assist these students’ needs are the ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages) programmes, aimed at helping foreign learners prepare for success in school and in society by developing their skills in written and spoken English.
Michael Donohoe, Lead Researcher at CMETB (Cavan and Monaghan Education and Training Board) and Lorraine Downey, ESOL Development Officer at City of Dublin Education and Training Board, presented the ongoing assessment in ESOL and the experience of culturally diverse FET learners, while David Hughes, from ETBI, showed the center’s digital library and ESOL resources to participants. Lorraine Doherty, representing the Solas Learning Works agency of the Department of Further and Higher Education, underlined the importance of free language language learning through ESOL in order to boost integration in society, especially in the case of refugees.
Finally, the members of the European project announced the date of the next PLA meeting, which will take place in Estonia in the month of October and will be hosted by the Estonian Association For Advancement Of Vocational Education. PRALINE is an Erasmus+ project born in 2021 with the goal of strengthening European education networks connected to Vocational Training, and it is scheduled to develop until January 2024.
