PPLI Annual Report 2018 - Flipbook - Page 16
Mobility Opportunities (1.D.1)
Funding for School Exchanges Scheme
The Funding for School Exchanges Scheme is part of an awareness raising campaign that focusses on the
importance and benefits of undertaking a school exchange. In the context of mobility, exchange experiences
will provide excellent opportunities for students to acquire more confidence in their language skills, thereby
increasing the possibility of more openness to the idea of doing an Erasmus placement if they progress to
Higher Education. The idea of providing funding was to incentivise schools to either introduce exchanges
and/or increase the numbers of students going on existing school exchanges, and to use the experiences of
the schools and students in receipt of funding to raise awareness of the value and importance of language
exchanges.
This scheme, which awarded 10 schools €15,000 each over 3 years, was announced in September 2018, and
the deadline was in October 2018. Despite a very tight timeframe, 64 applications were received.
Of the 10 applications that met the criteria and were eligible for funding, 4 were Spanish exchanges, 3 were
German and 3 were French. The scheme will provide funding to an additional 10 schools in 2019/20 and will
showcase some of the exchanges.
How-to Manual and Toolkit for School Exchanges
In preparation for the Funding for School Exchanges Scheme, a How-to Manual and Toolkit for School
Exchanges was produced, a copy was sent to every school in the country, and uploaded to the Languages
Connect website.
The videos were produced to provide support to MFL teachers who need to convince non-language teaching
colleagues, school management, parents and students of the value of doing a school exchange. It also
introduces the idea of alumni who now live abroad assisting students with doing work experience abroad.
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