The project STEP (Strategies Towards European Plurilingualism) draws its strength from the fact that the advantages of knowing more than one foreign language are multifold: students and teachers not only increase their knowledge about cultures and about languages, they also enrich their own lives and surroundings, they increase their job chances and their mobility, and they promote tolerance and understanding.Our project partnership is composed of secondary schools from five countries:Vammalan Lukio (Sastamala, Finland), Ühisgümmnasium Lähte (Lähte, Estonia), Peebles High School (Peebles, Scotland), Istituto Statale di Instruzione Superiore F. Enriques (Castelfiorentino, Italy) and Otto-Hahn-Gymnasium Ostfildern (Ostfildern, Germany). It is aimed at general and vocational students aged 15-18. We see the need for increasing the speaking skills and oral proficiency of our students so that they are enabled to prove their qualifications in European standardised tests. Test results have shown that foreign language classroom teaching often enables students to achieve adequate levels in the understanding and in the writing part of standardised exams, but that they fall behind in the speaking part. In order to achieve higher language proficiency and expert knowledge, we cooperated with language test institutions and with members from The English Academy (TEA), a language educator think tank in Giessen. We stayed in contact and improved our language and intercultural skills with all the partner schools via the e-twinning platform, in online video conferences and in intercultural project meetings. We adapted existing didactic material, but we laid great emphasis on our students creating material like games, phrase cards and 'speaking prompts' for each other because this makes them personally involved in the topics and they identify more closely with the speaking situations and their context. When creating for example a pair of 'speaking prompts' for the topic of 'health vs. drugs, alcohol, smoking', they followed the requirements for the Speaking Part of European language exams, and created two A4 sheets with their own photos presenting different situations, and with opposing statements/quotations. This material was used in the foreign language classrooms in our schools and when preparing the topics for the meetings and for further work.In order to create plurilingual speaking opportunities in CLIL-like surroundings, the students' meetings were organised as workstays. The first day of each meeting was consecrated to language workshops so that students were familiarised with the host country's language and introduced to the workstay. English was the communication language in this project and the language used on e-twinning and in publications. The level aimed for in the final language tests depended on the years of teaching and ranged from B1 to B2/C1, whereas the other country languages reached levels from basic/A1 to A2/B1/B2. During the workstays English was used at B1/B2 level, with specific terms (Fachsprache English). The workcamp in Germany, at the industrial control and automation company FESTO in Esslingen, dealt with mechanics, electronics and engineering; the work stay in Finland focussed on schools and educational topics. The science work stay in Scotland concentrated on sciences and ecological topics like pollution and water supply, but also included foreign language tourism; the workstay in Italy approached agriculture art and tourism. The final workstay in Estonia dealt with media and future work places. Video-conferences helped the students interact and use their language skills.All these topics are relevant for the speaking parts of European standardised exams at B1, B2/C1 levels and should be achieved in English. The aim for the other languages was that students could speak about themselves, their family, their hobbies, favourite food, holidays and plans for their future to various degrees (basic to A1/A2), so that they felt confident to take language exams and felt at home in intercultural surroundings, and so that they feel prepared to work in the EU-wide job market.In order to experience the learners' viewpoint and to live lifelong learning, some of the teachers prepared for language tests alongside with students, took them and passed them. We evaluated the project and published our findings on the project results platform and on e-twinning. These results give insight into the language situations created. The material and the methods applied are made available as Open Educational Resources; some of the material will also be published in a methods guide by Diesterweg. The findings have been shared in an international conference and teacher training sessions; an article on our ideas and materials has appeared in OPEN!, the publication organ of English teachers in Estonia.

"Secondary schools from five different countries formed our project partnership: Vammalan Lukio (Sastamala, Finland), Ühisgümmnasium Lähte (Lähte, Estonia), Peebles High School (Peebless, Scotland), Istituto Statale di Instruzione Superiore F. Enriques (Castelfiorentino, Italy) and Otto-Hahn-Gymnasium Ostfildern (Ostfildern, Germany). The project ""Work in progress - Students managing public relations projects in schools"" explicitly focused on the development of students' project management skills in international environments by offering them various opportunities to autonomously manage a variety of self-contained projects. Students carried out projects revolving around public relations activities, i.e. resulting in events such as public debates and panel discussions on the one hand, and media products such as websites including documentary film clips and podcasts on the other hand. The projects dealt with topics of local and European / international relevance. An exceptionally high level of student engagement and activity was required and upheld throughout the project. The project not only aimed to equip our students with essential project management skills and competences, but by making them work in project teams composed of students from different nationalities, thereby integrating the international perspective in all respects, it also wanted to improve their intercultural competence and language skills. Being able to manage their work independently, to appropriately interact in an international environment and to speak different languages, will hopefully enhance their chances of EU-wide employment in the future. The project particularly targeted students of upper grades, aged ~ 15 - 18, these students entering the world of work in the near future, and therefore profiting most from the learning, teaching and training activities carried out in this project. At the same time, teachers got to know innovative and motivating methods and tools to implement projects inside and outside the classroom, thereby enlarging their repertoire of teaching methodology in a project-oriented learning environment. In the course of the project, students had the possibility of carrying out different kinds of projects at five transnational meetings, one in every country. At each meeting a minimum of 5 participants (at least 3 students and 2 teachers) from each school came together to embark on a set project. The project work in Germany was centred around a public debate and air pollution in big cities. In Finland students staged a panel discussion revolving around political participation of young people. In Estonia, students were provided with the opportunity to create a blog and photo documentaries, providing information on the smart and sustainable use of energy. In Italy, students produced podcasts, focusing on the topic ""Immigration and concepts of integration"". The project work in Scotland resulted in a panel discussion about young people entering the world of work. All final project products were made available to a wider public at the end of each learning, teaching and training activity. The final products were also and are still documented on eTwinning. Furthermore, students were expected to keep a record of their project management activities in form of a (online) logbook. On top, we presented our good-practice examples of international project work in form of power point presentations, each of which was produced by students in the course of our five transnational meetings. Teaching material to support the students to carry out their projects was also and is still available on our Twinspace. After each learning, teaching and training activity, the newly acquired project management techniques and tools were applied in the home schools and follow-up project activities were documented, adding to the success of the project. Surveys at the beginning and at the end of the entire project and of each transnational learning, teaching and training activity ensured the progress of the project. Students and teachers have enormously profited from experiencing different approaches to project work in an international environment. Both enlarged their know-how about project management in general, and especially students developed and boosted their project management skills and competences. The project has also helped them to increase their intercultural and linguistic skills, widen their horizons and make them feel a member of a wider European professional community."