"VET towards ECVET covers the consideration of ECVET in trainings related to tourism. We notably focus on 2 sectors : hotel receptionist and seller in touristic areas. This project involves French, Northern Irish, German, Portuguese and Italian partners to implement a certifying mobility of 45 days in order to validate learning units of the professional titles ""Seller in touristic areas"" and of ""Hotel receptionist"". The project meets the needs in both sectors to prove mastery of a foreign language and cross-cultural approach to customer service.In 2009, the European Parliament and the Council recommended that member states ""create the necessary conditions and adopt measures so that, as from 2012 [...], it is possible for ECVET to be gradually applied to VET qualifications at all levels of the EQF, and used for the purpose of the transfer, recognition and accumulation of individuals' learning outcomes achieved in formal and, where appropriate, non-formal and informal contexts"" (cf. http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:C:2009:155:0011:0018:EN:PDF)The target audience consists of people in VET, unemployed or low level qualifications, seeking to maximize their employment opportunities in the tourism sector. Participants will do a 45-day professional internship in one of our partner countries. This period spent abroad will be certified in the learning of the ECVET system defined in advance with our European partners through units.Developing an ECVET project for VET providers with agreed learning outcomes and assessment criteria allows all stakeholders to see the development of professional competences and transversal skills which takes place during the mobility and training period. This gives an added value to the Mobility. Tools are developed, modified and agreed upon which suit the individual learning needs of the participant - they are put at the centre of the mobility. Such a project also helps focus the efforts of the host companies and the participants providing a more meaningful placement with tasks that would help develop the skills required by the sending companies. It creates a win-win situation for all.With quality mobilities being offered we hope that more participants from across Europe in the field of sales and tourism would elect to take a mobility abroad within the partnership and if the project aims and tools created were adopted by other sending and hosting companies and VET provideres then there is an even greater potential that the number of Mobilities in Europe would increase."

Sign Language is not a universal medium; on the contrary, each one has developed naturally over the years within its local community, exactly like oral languages. While there are in fact a number of international signs and gestures, used for example at international meetings and conferences for deaf people, these are a mere communication aid and cannot be considered a language. As a result, international communication between deaf people requires the learning of a foreign sign language, in precisely the same way as with people who can hear.However, despite the clear incentives to promote multilingualism provided by the European Commission’s VET policies, very few of the projects and learning materials created over the years have taken into consideration the needs of deaf people. Their opportunities to learn foreign sign languages therefore remain severely limited, which effectively represents a major obstacle to transnational communication between deaf people and therefore a limitation of their citizenship rights, particularly in terms of free circulation.Within this context, this project aims to:a) Carry out research into foreign sign language learning needs, identifying the most urgent communication needs;b) Create a common training programme for foreign sign language learning at elementary (A1/A2) level for Portuguese, British, Turkish and Austrian sign languages (NB: on the contrary to oral language, Austrian is different from German);c) Validate these programmes in schools for the deaf located in the partner countries by means of involving sign language trainers, who will therefore play a double role as both learners and trainers;d) Promote the learning of the sign languages of the partnership among all the entities working with the project, especially among trainers, teachers and researchers in this area;e) Promote the exchange of knowledge and experience among the professionals involved and among the deaf communities in each partner country;f) Facilitate the learning of a foreign sign language directly from the native sign language, i.e. without having to subject the learner to the intermediate acquisition of the respective written languages.The GIVE ME A SIGN project will, in this way, make an important contribution towards closing the knowledge gap regarding the learning of foreign sign languages, with special emphasis on removing the additional burden of having to previously learn the respective written languages. This is itself represents a major innovation in this area. The project will therefore facilitate communication between the deaf communities across Europe and consequently open the doors to mobility for this target population, which will in turn contribute decisively towards ensuring equal opportunities. GIVE ME A SIGN also aims to promote the recognition of European sign languages as official languages of each country, and indeed as part of the national heritage of each member state in just the same way as the oral languages of the EU, this contributing towards public awareness of the value of this form of communication.In the medium term, the results of this project will subsequently serve as the foundations for a second project in which, based on the findings of our research and the resulting creation of learning programmes, the partnership will begin to create learning content and materials, with particular emphasis on mobile applications to assist the learning of foreign sign languages. This is an ideal platform, given the limitless visual possibilities of tools such as Skype or FaceTime. Our ultimate goal is therefore to work towards a situation in which the learning of foreign sign languages becomes not only much easier but also a realistic curricular option for training institutes working with deaf people, so that in the not too distant future these trainees will be able to finally participate on equal terms in transnational professional mobility initiatives. GIVE ME A SIGN is therefore expected to become a reference for the teaching and learning of foreign sign languages. On a global level, over 110 million citizens use sign languages as part of everyday communication. This number includes the deaf, their families, their teachers and auxiliaries, among many others, and is a number which cannot and should not be ignored, given the expected impact of this ground-breaking project. In addition, the dissemination of the project aimed to reach many millions more, by developing awareness among those able to hear, of the advantages not only of learning to communicate with the deaf, but also of ensuring they are included as equals in both everyday and professional life.

On the contrary to popular opinion, sign language is not universal, and in fact each community has naturally and spontaneously created and developed its own sign language over the years. There is a system of international signs which enables deaf people to communicate at international meetings and conferences, but this is not in any way a natural language and is rather a convention of signs in order to summarise. For these reasons, fluid international communication between deaf people requires the learning of foreign sign languages, in exactly the same way as oral languages. However, in spite of the several initiatives put in place by the European Commission in order to promote multilingualism in Europe, little or nothing has been produced in terms of projects to create teaching and learning materials which might make this idea of multilingualism accessible to the deaf communities across Europe and, indeed, across the world. As a result, opportunities to learn foreign sign languages are severely limited when they exist at all, which therefore represents a significant obstacle to transnational communication between deaf people and, in turn, a clear limitation to their rights of citizenship, most obviously as far as the free circulation of citizens in Europe is concerned.With this in mind, the GMAS2 project, based on the original Give Me A Sign project which produced research into the language learning needs of the deaf (see www.givemeasign.site), aims to produce a digital learning platform containing real learning materials to enable deaf people to learn 5 foreign sign languages, at A1 and A2 levels (Portuguese, Turkish, Swedish, Austrian and British), created in accordance with the indicators described in ProSign (Sign Languages and the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages). These materials include detailed, lesson-by-lesson curricula, a cluster of strategically important face-to-face learning materials and online learning materials, a vocabulary resource and a teachers' guide based on the experiences obtained by testing everything we produce with groups of deaf learners in each country, learning one or more foreign sign languages via internet/video-powered distance learning courses.In this sense, by the end of the project something entirely new will have been established for the first time in history: it will have become possible to learn a foreign sign language directly through signs, without resorting to the additional burden of learning the written language, which is so often different from the sign language of the country (Austria, for example), and the deaf community in these countries will have become aware of the enormous advantages of this kind of learning. These include the chance to learn a new skill (a foreign sign language) and thus gain a new qualification to enhance their CV, plus the resulting opportunity to take part in VET mobility, which has been impracticable up to now because of the communication problem, the potential increase in employability and in attractiveness to employers given their new profile, in addition to socially important factors such as the chance to visit another country, often considered too difficult because of the communication barrier, the chance to make new friends in other deaf communities across Europe and to share ideas with them and, in short, the chance to reduce the risk of isolation which exists because these issues have never before been seriously addressed. It will also lead to a new profession: the foreign sign language teacher.We hope that this project will represent the turning point for deaf communities in Europe, that the GMAS2 digital learning platform will become the benchmark for foreign sign language learning in Europe and the start of a new era for the deaf, in which they finally begin to gain access to equal opportunities in learning and qualification.

This Project results from our need as teachers of adult language learners to satisfy the needs of a mixed-ability language class, helping students improve their achievement, thus reducing disparities in learning outcomes. Our Team embodies the aim that permeates the Project, that is, diversity, because we are a diverse group (language schools, teacher training centres, and NGOs) which, at the same time, share the same necessities and a common goal: to help adult students develop their competence in foreign languages as a way to open doors to employment, training and mobility opportunities in a globalised and especially ever competitive world. We want to work with diversity in a way that can serve any educator (and any student) anywhere in any context. How are we doing this? by standardizing student learning models, methodology approaches, and evaluation criteria. These learning models will be approached from an analytical perspective analyzing aspects like learning styles, learning paces and personality traits, but also from a holistic perspective taking into account aspects like age, socio-cultural and educational background and how their reality as a whole can affect their learning process. We want to create a kind of standard and, at the same time, flexible approach from which we can personalize student profiles attending to their individual needs, making them conscious of what type of learner they are. The activities of the Project have been organised into two different stages: 1. Analysis and Training - Good practice exchange workshop, not only examples of good practice to attend diversity in the classroom, but also of any other aspect regarding the organisation and management of centres, considering the hetereogeneity of our association. - A training activity that will provide the theoretical framework from which we can standardize learning models, tools for their identification and those of self-assessment and materials to be implemented in the classroom. - Elaboration and asessment of those tools and materials that will be used in class during the implementation stage. 2. Implementation, Assessment and Dissemination: - Case studies as a didactic technique: teachers will select a practice group and a control group, which will serve as a comparison group when results are assessed. Those results will also be included in a comparative research study. - Progress analysis and methodology comparison: with the objective to learn how the work is adapted to the different realities and situations experienced in the different establishments. - Assessment of results, which must be in line with the indicators of achievement applied to objectives and results of the project as a whole. - Dissemination activities: a Manual for teachers, a comparative study research, and the creation of a website and mobile app containing information about the project, its objectives and results and from the Manual can be downloaded. The methodology applied is characterized by a respect towards diversity, and values the aspects and experience of such an heterogeneous team as ours and the enrichment that it brings to the Project. In that sense, we also include the case study method to analyze diversity which, by nature, can present different variables and is subjected to change depending on the context it is found in. The results, benefits and the impact expected is looked at from two different perspectives: Teachers being the target group: - Gain expertise to identify a wide range of profiles of adult language learners and develop skills to design effective pedagogical activities and methodology approaches responding to the diverse needs of students. - Develop inter-disciplinary language training skills for all adult learning context and to encourage learners' critical thinking and self-assessment. -Develop transferable and generalizable pedagogical models that can be applied at transnational level. Students, being the beneficiaries of our work: - Experience the improvement of linguistic and communicative competence of students in a foreign language, according to the level they are in, and learn how to take responsibility of their own learning process, favouring independence, and also how they learn best based on an awareness of their abilities, strengths and weakenesses, thus fostering self-confidence.

Digitalisation and globalization ever more determine people’s daily lives, offering a large variety of new visions and lifestyles and turning the world into “a global village”. Thus, there are increasing requirements in language learning as options of working and living abroad – especially within the EU. Even though English as the lingua franca is the most important foreign language, learning one or more of the other 23 languages spoken within the EU is advisable with regard to extended traveling/tourism throughout Europe as well as to the requirements in the world of work.Language learning, however, is largely restricted to schools, meaning that most students tend to become demotivated for the simple fact that it is mandatory. On the other hand, especially the younger generations, the so-called digital natives, have grown up with digital devices and games that usually require at least a minimum knowledge especially of English, usually hardly connected with learning effects produced at schools.Motivation can easily be hightened when relying on the “fun factor”, thus adding the incentive of voluntarily and by one’s own choice taking up the vocabulary and grammar of a foreign language needed to also get along in real life (intrinsic motivation).Combining the “fun factor” and the younger generations’ love of playing digital games with language learning, the project therefore aims at developing, testing and implementing an application for learning English, German, French, Spanish, Italian and Portuguese, on levels A1 and A2, as the underlying concept of an adventure game to be played on mobile digital devices.The app addresses young people aged between 12-17+, i.e. students at secondary level, using it both within the educational context and during spare time, as well as language learners of all ages who wish to learn any of the six most relevant European languages more playfully instead of or alongside ordinary learning at schools or courses.The project aims at developing an adventure game the contents of which include elements of virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR), creating a game setting at the turn of ages between the Middle Ages and modern times, based on well-known tales and our common European history. Players will create their own individual avatars on a gender neutral basis also taking into account individual preferences as to profession, life etc. (e.g. a trade person, a knight, life in the countryside or a town). Players will have to interact online with other characters in the game and master challenges that they are presented with via books (AR elements) in which they find further information, thus stimulating reading and immersing oneself deeper into past and present aspects of our common European history, cultures, societies and economies.Even though the adventure app will mainly aim at motivating self-learning approaches and flexible, individualized progress, it is also considered to be used at schools, offering an innovative pedagogical tool in language teaching, introducing/furthering low-level implementation of digital devices.On a technical scale, the app will present incentives for immersing with various aspects of digital programming, enhancing interest in STE(A)M, maker education, DIY programming etc. Teaching personnel will be offered a manual and teaching material for full integration of the app and its contents both in language as well as cross-subject teaching (e.g. history, geography).Each player may choose their own pace of learning, which allows for a far better inclusion of students with learning abilities below average. Highly motivated students and those with higher learning abilities will be provided with additional challenges and tasks within the game.The app will also widen learning space and time as it provides the possibility of learning “on the go”, wherever and whenever the learner decides, thus allowing a more playful learning with much greater motivation. It will also enable them to learn several foreign languages if wanted, together with a local, regional, national and international community of players.The aspects of playing the game on an international European level and of its being based on the common European history along with the notion that language learning throughout Europe needs to be given joint, focussed interest has brought the partners of this project together: The Goethe-Institut as the coordinating institution has already cooperated with the UK partners in this project in a project on language learning in primary schools (2015-2018), yet with very different priorities and aims. The coordinator from the Goethe-Institut in London has already taken part in an eTwinning project with one of the partners in Italy. All the other new partners from Italy, France, Germany and Portugal have been included both for their expertise and in order to widen the existing partnerships.