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Intergenerational learning and study trip to Kranj

In partnership with the European Senior Exchange project, we took part in a study visit to Kranj with our students from the 24^th to the 28^th of October.

The meeting was planned for socializing and learning, as well as the exchange of experiences of senior citizens who had the opportunity to participate in several activities.

The meeting was attended by over 30 elderly people from partner organizations of the Initiative, AGORA' - Laboratorio Terza EtàProtagonistaonlus, CDU Ljubljana and Human University Kranj, as well as the managers of the HIHTAST project.

When we arrived on Monday, we presented our organization and programs to our partners, and after the lunch break, socializing continued outdoors through a guided tour given by one of the participants of the People's University of Kranj. As a small town, Kranj offers a lot to its residents, and it is known as the most respected high school in all of Slovenia. Furthermore, there are gourmet delicacies, especially for meat lovers – most notably Carniola sausage and beer. One of Slovenia's most famous poets comes from Kranj, after whom the main square in Ljubljana is named; France Prešeren. The cultural and economic wealth of Kranj comes from the past when Kranj was one of the main industrial cities in Yugoslavia. The city centre is located in the old part, which still has ramparts and underground tunnels.

After a good hike and a very interesting review of history, we sat down to hot tea and rested before going to bed.

Human University of Kranj under the slogan "Learning for a better life" emphasizes intergenerational learning, encouraging cooperation and transferring knowledge and experience from older generations to younger ones, and vice versa. For the purpose of these activities, they also opened LUK - an intergenerational centre where all generations are welcome. The purpose of LUK is to bridge the lack of time and space for intergenerational learning, which used to happen spontaneously, but is today hindered by the modern way of life. On Thursday, we had the opportunity to see what LUK looks like and what activities can take place there. Among other things, there is a large kitchen intended for the transfer of culinary skills from generation to generation.

In order to enjoy a real Slovenian dinner, we all first put on our aprons and got our assignments. The preparation of food started with the collective cleaning of mud, while others started kneading the bread cake. The final result was a traditional soup with pumpkin and Carnivoran bread.

Throughout the dinner, socializing and singing, we were presented with traditional customs, costumes and songs from Kranj, and a special part of the evening was marked by an emotional speech by a participant from Belgium who emphasized the importance of European values, peace, and cooperation, especially in these areas.

On the last day, we finished with the evaluation and the final joint discussion of all participants.

A special thank you to Sjajna and Vesna, who were with us as the representatives of our students on this wonderful trip, and to teacher Domagoj, who always brightens up every gathering and trip with his energy!

See you again soon!

Jelena Posavec Smilović

Blog eng, English, Erasmus, Uncategorized

Empowering Women in Agrifood

At Initiative – Centre for Education, we are proud to have been given the opportunity to participate as an educational support for Empowering Women in Agrifood (EWA) programme, organized by the EIT Food. EIT Food is supported by the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT), a body of the European Union.

Empowering Women in Agrifood (EWA) programme is aimed at reinforcing female leadership and supporting women with business ideas or female-led startups in early stage of development operating in the agrifood sector. In 2022 edition 130 talented female entrepreneurs from 13 countries (Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Portugal, Spain and Turkey) are going through a 6-month entrepreneurial programme tailored to develop business solutions for specific challenges in the agrifood business. The goal of this initiative is to provide comprehensive consulting of the participants' career, so that they can successfully set up a sustainable agrifood business.

One of the supporting activities of the programme is a dedicated 3-months training with the focus on improving English communication skills in the international agrifood business area, especially for the purpose of creating a good business pitch. EWA participants will receive the necessary knowledge, confidence and support to fulfill and exceed their desires, which will lead them to successfully start and develop a sustainable business. The program is intended for women regardless of their age, family situation or work experience.

The ultimate goal of EWA programme is to overcome the existing gender gap in the agri-food sector with a special focus on RIS targeted countries promoting inclusivity and diversity among business founders and increasing the number of startups founded by women.

We have prepared two programs for female participants depending on their level of knowledge: Grow Your English and Speak English Confidently; and as motivation, please watch this VIDEO intended for all women

About EIT Food

EIT Food is the world’s largest and most dynamic food innovation community. We accelerate innovation to build a future-fit food system that produces healthy and sustainable food for all.

Supported by the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT), a body of the European Union, we invest in projects, organisations and individuals that share our goals for a healthy and sustainable food system. We unlock innovation potential in businesses and universities, and create and scale agrifood startups to bring new technologies and products to market. We equip entrepreneurs and professionals with the skills needed to transform the food system and put consumers at the heart of our work, helping build trust by reconnecting them to the origins of their food.

We are one of nine innovation communities established by the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT), an independent EU body set up in 2008 to drive innovation and entrepreneurship across Europe.

Find out more at www.eitfood.eu or follow us via social media: Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube and Instagram.

Erasmus, Erasmus blogs

5 giorni a Firenze – Erasmus plus project

Florence, the birthplace of the Renaissance, the centre of Tuscany, a sea of pasta and tomato sauce, tripe and divine wine... All of this now reminds us of our training in Florence.

As part of the Creativity for Innovation project, our party of 5 set off from Zagreb in a mini-van.

The carpooling option is supported by the Erasmus+ projects as a more ecologically-friendly way of travel, so we started on our journey, happy and 'green', early in the morning.

Five employees from Initiative attended the course in Florence, and we were met by two more participants from the Storytelling Centre in Amsterdam, as well as our colleagues from Florence who prepared the course for us.

We arrived in Florence late Sunday night, so after dinner we practically collapsed in bed. In the morning, we headed off for the Europass Teacher Academy training centre, which is located in a historical building in the centre of Florence. We were placed in a classroom with a fresco ceiling, but we soon realised that all buildings in the centre of the city had fresco ceilings, and history was living alongside us in this city.

The program started with an introductory topic for all of our English teachers. Called CLIL (Content and Language Integrated Learning), it is used for all types of lessons in which something is taught in a foreign language. CLIL is an approach in which a foreign language is used as a tool in learning a non-lingual subject in which both the language and subject have a common role. This way, by learning about history, art, culture and food, you can simultaneously learn the language as well.

A successful CLIL lesson should include 4 elements:

CONTENT – advancement in knowledge, skills and comprehension about certain elements of the curriculum

COMMUNICATION – using the language while learning about using the language

COGNITION – developing thinking skills which combine forming ideas (abstract and concrete), comprehension and language

CULTURE – exposure to alternative perspectives and common understandings which deepen our awareness of others and ourselves.

For the lesson to be successful, every teacher must carefully explore the subject they wish to prepare for a CLIL lesson, and expect to have to learn more about the new topics themselves.

They also have to structure the lesson carefully, and know the knowledge level of each participant well so the content can be adapted accordingly. At the end, it is necessary to determine a good way of evaluating the learnt knowledge.

The second topic of our meeting, and also the main one, was creative writing. Creative writing can have pretentious connotations, but with us it luckily awoke our emotions and creativity, which was the reason we came to Florence in the first place. The first day of creative writing was about language, while later we explored writing about the city and art.

Exploring language as a topic for writing, we researched various texts which were inspired by language. Some of them played around with language as a form, some used dialects, others slang. In all these stories, the language influenced someone's character, childhood, or had a significant influence on their life. As an exercise, we dove into some creative writing and memories which tie us to language learning, and the results were that everyone's pieces of writing connected us and made us come together more after sharing personal stories.

This type of exercise can be easily used in activities in which a teacher wants to encourage students to write creatively and freely, while memories emphasise how language has an effect on our emotions.

These exercises are a useful example of how to intertwine writing exercises with the Callan Method, and to stimulate students to think about ideas, their surroundings, and how to encourage them to use place descriptions, experiences, feelings and their senses in writing.

Through cultural activities, we had the opportunity to enjoy fabulous food, strolls through the centre of Florence, botanical garden, museums and sculptures.

Thank you to all our partners for this wonderful experience.

✔This program is co-financed by the Erasmus + program.

Erasmus + enriches lives, broadens horizons 🇪🇺

@Agency for Mobility and EU Programmes

Erasmus blogs, Uncategorized

Alternative Ways of Teaching and Storytelling in Education

Storytelling in Education

As part of the “Creativity for Innovation“ project, we visited the Storytelling Centre in Amsterdam together with our colleagues from the Europass Teacher Academy, who were also also partners in the project.

The aim of the project was to strengthen the organisations involved in adult education and alternative methods of teaching, storytelling and creative writing. The workshops were held by trainers from the Storytelling Centre in the Netherlands.

What is storytelling and how can this skill help us in teaching?

How to apply the ancient skill of storytelling as a means of teaching and progress was one of the questions our educators were posed during this workshop.

Telling stories is one of the oldest human characteristics. The Storytelling Centre says that applying this skill in education is the foundation of quality education. Sharing stories and creating stories together leads to stronger human connections, personal and professional growth, as well as successful learning and integration. We ourselves, as a team, witnessed growth and learning through applying storytelling techniques.

Our educator, Maria Grgić Skendrović, says:

“Thanks to the training I am able to delve deeper into our core materials and encourage our learners to give more complex ideas. One tool that I am going to incorporate is ‘the hero’s journey.’ With this tool, all educators can ask appropriate questions to encourage longer, more complex ideas in English.“

By applying various techniques, including the “Tree of Life“, we learnt how to do exercises in 5 phases, prompting storytelling on many levels:

1.Teambuilding

2. Creativity

3. Awareness

4. Telling stories

5. Evaluation

Our educator, Domagoj Biondić, says:

„The one thing I consider to be of most value to me is a simple fact that everything that was taught and given to us throughout the workshop was put into action and experienced immediately which added extra value to it and became a part of us. My personal favourite being, and mentioned earlier, Tree of Life"

Alternative Ways of Teaching

New teaching trends are interesting to experience. The educators at the Storytelling Centre focus on just that – experience which then leads to connections, openness, creativity, and most importantly, learning and growth. Lifelong education is definitely trending, but the main question is – how can we encourage adults to learn again? Can we learn in a fun and relaxed way, or is learning essentially a strict form of transferring and absorbing knowledge. We all know that it isn't so, because the process of learning itself is stressful, especially for e.g. marginalised groups, refugees, asylum seekers. People who are exposed to existential crises have it harder when it comes to concentrating and learning. That is exactly why the Alternative Ways site was developed, as it helps educators find a “different“ way. Alternative methods of teaching aren't complicated. They actually seem quite simple, and we essentially just have to remind ourselves of them. It brings back learning in a fun, relaxed and creative way. It provides us with experiential learning and relaxes us by teaching us through games. And when something is as easy as a game, then it really isn't that hard. This situational learning offers great opportunities for connecting and broadening minds, and most importantly, integration into society.

Our educator, Ivana Pezo, says:

„l have definitely learned how to be a better teamplayer, as a lot of playful games were introduced to us at the very beginning to make us feel comfortable with one another and not afraid of making mistakes, which I consider to be integral for every learning proccess. I instantly saw that as something I can apply in my teaching, relaxing students by connecting them. „

The whole process of learning through storytelling and using alternative methods of teaching is something that looks so simple, natural and easily applicable. The most interesting challenge was definitely the “Lego Game“, where you can actually see how challenging communication is. The whole process of sending and receiving a message is ambiguous. This is why these kinds of courses are perfect for developing awareness and the skill of telling stories, i.e.: communication and sending messages, which in our case is knowledge. All these newly-learnt skills definitely help with connecting and integrating students through language, and we have more success with the learning process, a.k.a. learning with pleasure!

Željka Novaković

✔ This project was co-funded by the Erasmus+ programme.

Erasmus+ enriching lives, broadening minds.

🇪🇺@Agencija za mobilnost

Blog, Erasmus, Erasmus blogs, Uncategorized

Teacher Training English Course in Zagreb

Erasmus+ experience in Zagreb (A wonderful Erasmus+ experience in Zagreb)

Our Erasmus participants flew from Spain to Zagreb to attend our English Course. Congratulations to Carmen Lagares García, Lucia i Daniel Pérez Mora from CEIP Virgen del Carmen on finishing our General English Course for Teachers with the Callan Method!

With the Callan Method for English language learning, our trained teachers make participants speak from the moment they enter the classroom. Our dynamic and fast-paced method is taught by native speakers who ask participants questions designed for their language proficiency. The teachers then assist learners in their answers and correct any inconsistencies in pronunciation, grammar usage and sentence structure.

https://inicijativa.biz/en/erasmus-plus/general-english/

Educator Adam about his experience with this lovely group:

“I had the privilege of working with Lucia and Daniel.

We concentrated on revision, new work, question construction, and auxiliary verbs (both primary and modals).

Their engagement in the Callan Method's revision and new work was noteworthy. They were eager not just to comprehend, but also to get it right and apply it in their own way.

It was enjoyable to work through the process of forming questions. Their originality shone through. It was a wonderful way for me to see and grasp their thought process, and it allowed us the opportunity to get to know one other better.

They were excellent at auxiliary verbs and understood how they aided the main verb. Tense, mood, voice, and modality were all incorporated. The auxiliary verbs have, has, and had were used in a variety of contexts.

It was a pleasure to meet them, and I wish them the best of luck and hope to work with them again in the near future.”

Daniel has also written blog about his Erasmus+ experience, which you can read here:

Día 7: Thank you Croatia (ceipvirgendelcarmenerasmusplus.blogspot.com)

Dowload our new eBook: 10 Tips for a successful KA1 Erasmus+ experience

EBook_10_tips_for_successful_Erasmus_naslovnica

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Erasmus

ERASMUS+ 2022 Programme

Are you interested in enrolling high quality, inclusive education, and training abroad? Do you want to learn, travel, and get to know other cultures in EU member states?

If you are a member of an educational organization you have an opportunity to participate in learning mobility activities for adults in European member countries through the ERASMUS+ 2022 programme.

Every year, organizations across Europe submit thousands of projects to receive Erasmus+ funding. The European Commission has established a transparent evaluation process aimed at providing grants for the best projects in its new Erasmus+ Programme Guide 2022. You can find the guide here.

This Program Guide is a great tool for anyone who wants to know thoroughly what Erasmus+ is all about. It is mainly intended for those who want to be participating organizations or individual participants.

Key Points of the ERASMUS+ 2022 Programme

ERASMUS+ programme for the period 2021-2027 places a strong focus on social inclusion, the green and digital transitions, and promoting young people’s participation in democratic life.

The objectives of this program are to:

Promote equal opportunities and access, inclusion, and diversity, so that the participants with fewer opportunities can take part too.
Emphasize the importance of digital education for the digital transformation in education and training. Moreover, to encourage organizations to acquire digital skills and build their capacity to train and teach with the help of digital tools.
Build the knowledge, skills, and attitudes within participating organizations on climate change and support sustainable development within the European Union and beyond.
Support participation of the citizens in democratic life, common values, and civic engagement. Furrthermore, to help them overcome difficulties in actively engaging and participating in their communities as well as in the Union's political and social life.

If you are looking for a good training course provider and want to improve your English-speaking skills, look no further.

We offer courses in Croatia in Zagreb and Split for all levels of English, including Business English language course.

Detailed information on our training be found here.

Dowload our new eBook: 10 Tips for a successful KA1 Erasmus+ experience

Download now

By signing up you accept our Terms of Use

Blog, Erasmus, Erasmus blogs, Uncategorized

Build A Marketing Plan For Your School – part 1

Let’s talk a little bit about why your school need a marketing plan.

I know most of you are already doing some kind of marketing, but do you have a plan?

Marketing can be confusing! There are many different aspects to it, Facebook & Google – paid ads and social posting, Email marketing, SEO, Google ads etc.

Do you know how to put the pieces together in a way that will generate your school more enrollment predictably and consistently?

You need a plan!

Most of you have some kind of social media presence, maybe a bit of email marketing or even some SEO too, but is it working for you?

Posting for the sake of posting is not enough to get you, students. All it will do is spread some awareness about your school

Likewise, SEO will help your website to be found online, It won't guarantee that these students who come to your website will become your students.

The Goal Of Your Marketing

The goal of a marketing plan is to help students find your school online; get them to know, like and trust your school as a brand and make it obvious to them that your school is the best option.

Once you have a plan, the different marketing elements have more meaning and different functionality, Social media is for getting your name out there like a personal billboard, Blogs become your newspapers, Youtube becomes your tv channel etc.

A Marketing Plan That Works

We want to share the same marketing plan that we use. With this plan, you will be able to connect all the pieces in a way that will save you a lot of money. You will also be able to measure exactly, the results that you get.

So if you spend 15 euros on paid Ads (Facebook or Adwords), you should be getting at least two students enquiries,

You will get some valuable information going forward to get the most from your marketing.

You will learn how much of a budget you need to have for your marketing plan,
how much do you spend to acquire a student
How to recognize when things go wrong and how to fix them
What order to put the pieces together

Sequence Matters!

If you don't do things in the right order, then they are not going to work. So that's why you need a marketing plan.

We will show you how all the pieces together in a way that will get you the best results.

Otherwise, it will be like throwing spaghetti at the wall and hoping something will stick.

The problem with this is that it won't really work and even if it does somehow, you won’t be able to recreate it.

This system is called the customer value journey, and it's going to make marketing for your school so much easier.

Watch the video below for part one

A Marketing Plan For Your School (Part one)

Say goodbye to half-empty classes

Download our Essential Digital marketing checklist for schools

Improve your Website
Ideas for creating interesting content
Get more reviews for your school
Engage your students more
Get more organic traffic to your website

Today the most strategic, helpful and empathic school wins!

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Erasmus, Uncategorized

The 80/20 Rule: What To Put On Your Social Media

What to put on your social media? On your Facebook, Instagram or LinkedIn newsfeed. It's a common question, and a lot of schools get it wrong. So the easiest way to explain how you do that is to tell you about the 80/20 rule.

The 80/20 Rule
The 80/20 rule is this 80% of what you put online on your social media should be good content, and 20% should be promotional posts about your school.

You should provide interesting and valuable content that helps people understand and learn about your teaching subjects.

To do this effectively, you should create a student avatar.
An avatar is a detailed description of your ideal students
It will include their point points and frustrations
Once you know their pain points, you can create content that addresses this,
If you have a language school, create blog posts or videos about grammar, pronunciation, typical mistakes.
Help your potential students with their problem points. By speaking with your current students, it is easy to compile a list of the top issues they have.

Your goal is to create good a connection with your followers, help them with their problems. Your content can be anything blogs, Videos, infographics etc.
But don't put out promotion after promotion, people don't care about your offers, and they will not come back to your social media page if this is all you offer there.. They will get bored very quickly If all you are doing is promoting yourself.
People only care about how you can help them.

So if you help your potential students by giving value first, they will be more well disposed towards you. They will see your school in a more positive light and associate it with solving their problems.
So keep it very simple

Digital Marketing Mastery course

Confirmed dates Split 22-26.04.2024.

Join us in Split!

This course is perfect for anyone who is looking to improve their digital marketing skills and take their organization to the next level.

Learn more!

Read more about our courses:

Speak English Confidently with the Callan Method

Empowering Digital Growth: A Digital Marketing Mastery Course for Schools & NGO's

English Course for Absolute Beginners

Erasmus, Uncategorized

How To Ask Your Students To Leave a Google Review?

Insert Video

This is a quick video, so you can learn where to find your Google and Facebook review links. You will need to include one of these links in the email you send out to your students. Always try to build up your Google reviews first as there are more benefits with higher Google reviews than any other platform. Check you our last video on the benefits of Google reviews for your school.

More reviews on Google will

Improve your SEO and your online visibility
Build brand awareness
Understand your students better (their feedback)
Generate more traffic to your site
Boost sales

If you don't have a website, then focus on Facebook reviews.

Emailing your Students for Reviews

Don't be shy when asking your students for reviews, most students are more than happy to leave a review. Recent studies have shown that if asked: "71% of consumers would be happy to leave a business a review".

Reviews are the key to attracting more students and growing your school so make it a big part of your marketing.

How to ask your students for a review.

The easiest was is to email your students and ask them. Don' overthink it, a simple email will be enough

Subject: Quick question

Dear John,

I hope you are enjoying your course to date. Do you have any feedback for us

I want to ask you if you won't mind leaving our school a quick review on Google?

It would only take a minute, please click here and you will be taken there directly

Please of you have time, can you mention the quality of the teachers, how you liked our method etc

If you have any questions, please contact me

Regards

Timing is everything

The key to getting more Google reviews is timing! If you get the timing right, you can increase the number of reviews you receive by up to 8 times!

The best time to ask a student to leave you a review is when they are the most excited and engaged. This is usually a week or two into the course. You will have to play about with this to find the optimum time. New Students are more likely leave reviews that older ones because they are feeling the most grateful for your service. Asking at the optimum time can get 40% of your students to leave a review as opposed to approx. 10% of old students.

Check out our English Language courses for teachers and other Erasmus+ courses

English Course for Absolute Beginners With the Callan Method

Speak English Confidently with the Callan Method

Enhancing the European Dimension in Teaching and Learning

Make ICT and Outdoor Learning part of your clasroom

Supporting Diversity: Intercultural Classroom Management

Empowering Digital Growth: A Digital Marketing Mastery Course for Schools & NGO'S

Digital Marketing, Erasmus, Uncategorized

How To Make The Most Of Your Google and Facebook Reviews!

What to do with your reviews?

Now that you have started generating more reviews, what yo do with them? Show them off as much as you can.

We use a software call http://reviewsonmywebsite.com/. It costs $5 a month and it will allow you to display you reviews on your website with some great display widgets and badges.

You can display your reviews like this:

Or badges like this

Where to put your reviews -

Add Reviews to Your Social Media Ads - Research shows that 88% of consumers believe ads are more trustworthy when they include online reviews. In addition, reviews-based ads get 4x higher click-through rates and a 50% drop in CPC than ads without reviews.
Put them all over your website: Put these reviews on homepage, your contact page, Blog page and on your description of your courses pages.
Include them in your emails: Put them in your newsletter, and on the footer of all your other emails.

Reviews are super important and will only become a bigger part of your schools sales process. Start collecting them now or your will fall behind your competitors.

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