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The last Transnational Project Meeting took place on 30th August in Jelgava, Latvia, at the Latvia University of Life Sciences. There were three aims of the meeting: 

• Cross-cultural communication issues – the team of academics from Latvia were in charge of the cross-cultural issues in the project. Since the LTTE was organized online due to COVID-19 pandemic, the project participants were not able to visit the university departments and meet the staff who deal with international students and their employability. The TPM was a great opportunity to make up for this gap. 

• Audio podcast creation workshop –  the project participants took part in a multimedia workshop devoted to creating audio podcasts. Joseph Horgan, a representative of Latvia team, who is also a podcaster collaborating with the media in Latvia, ran a workshop on how to create an audio podcast in the classroom environment. The tools used for creating a podcast are free and available on every smartphone. The skills acquired by the teachers during the workshop can be used during the classes with students as an activity. 

• Summary and the future – the final element was to discuss the future of the project to ensure that the project outputs are properly disseminated. The following conclusions have been formulated: 

• The materials created in the project have already been and will be included in the language teaching curricula at each partner university with a view to improve the employability skills of the students; 

• The teaching staff of each university was and will be instructed on how to use the created materials. Additionally, the teacher manual was/will be distributed among the teaching staff; 

• The materials available in the form of an open-source Moodle course are and will also be used outside the universities – e.g. for courses run for business institutions; 

• The project participants are and will be the advisors of ICT competences – they will serve as ambassadors of digital skills among their colleagues and offer help concerning creating digital teaching materials; 

• The continuation of the collaboration between the partner universities in the form of study visits of staff, constant contact and consultations among LSP teaching staff – viewed as probably the most valuable output of the project. 

The meeting took place at ULB and its main idea was to “tie all the remaining loose ends” before the Multiplier Event which was to take place the following day.

The main agenda included the following points:

1. introduction and university tour

2. conclusion of work of the scientific committee

3. distribution of work during the multiplier event (a two-day conference) and assigning responsibility for specific areas (reception, introducing speakers)

4. inspection of the conference venue and distribution of tasks

5. preparation of the presentation of the e-learning course (O1) and Teacher manual (O2), division of work and roles, presentation rehearsal

The outcome of the meeting was the full readiness to the multiplier event. All the project team members were aware of their tasks and the presentation of the project outcome was prepared and rehearsed.

The meeting took part in Solbosch Campus building, which is the part of the ULB campus and also was a venue of the conference.

Inese Ozola, our project participant and the leader of LLU team was invited by EPALE National Agency to participate in the regional online seminar (Latvia’s administrative unit including Jelgava area) which was held on 11 February. She made a presentation (in Latvian) She had a chance to inform about the aim, the stages of our project, the intellectual outputs and the final conference.It was a lso a great opportunity to invite
participants to register for the conference in Brussels.

Visit the conference website

The third training event took place online via the MS teams platform and was organized by ULB, Brussels. The training sessions were organized and conducted mainly by the employees of ULB, together with some public and private sector guests and guest institutions.

This wide-ranging event kicked off by covering the LSP landscape at ULB, given the highly international nature of Brussels. The training sessions included an explanation of teaching English to Academics at ULB and how to incorporate innovative pedagogical IT tools including moodle into the classroom. Personalised virtual tours of the European Economic and Social Committee and the International Criminal Court also featured, both of which generated much interest from the participants. An insightful roundtable discussion which involved experienced Brussels private sector guests responding to questions about graduate recruitment and training in a multilingual environment rounded off this event.

22 – 24 March 2021

This meeting was focused on cross-cultural communication and its significance for the LSP teaching and learning and the improvement of the skills leading to creating the eLearning course.  The curriculum of the university includes content-based ESP courses in the first and second years of undergraduate studies which are integrated in the whole study process, stressing the interdisciplinary approach when preparing specialists for economics, business management, forestry, environmental studies, land administration, agriculture and other fields. The ESP study courses include acquisition of terms in the subject field, their use in professional and academic environment. They are also based on tailor-made tasks and the following web-enhanced language learning activities: web-search activities, web-quest activities; video lectures, use of e-dictionaries, interactive free ready-made sources for practice outside classrooms, podcasts, online reading materials. As regards the international experience, the Language Department has participated in several EU projects; the last project was Erasmus+ “Internationalization of Work-based Learning in Agribusiness Sector” which was completed in autumn of 2018. Also academic staff members have participated in Erasmus+ teaching mobility trips.

The first training event was organized by WSB University in Torun. This event was especially devoted to building digital literacy connected with designing and producing eLearning language courses and served as the introduction to learning about the needs of the employers concerning the language skills of their future employees. There was also room for an exchange of expertise and good practices of LSP teaching.