FROM SCRATCH




catalogue - page 232

 
A year has already gone by since we sent our proposal for the organisation of a study visit, which has been finally accepted and published in the CEDEFOP's catalogue for 2011/2012 study visits.  catalogue

Why have we chosen to organise this event? 

Foreign languages in Spain have been traditionally studied in a few specific degrees (e.g. translators, linguists, etc) and for a few specific professions (e.g. the world of tourism), but more and more people are facing the challenges of being part of Europe and the advantages of communicating in one of the official languages of the European Community in order to adapt the present ever-changing world. In this sense, the offer of non-compulsory and supplementary studies in foreign languages has increased in the last twenty years in Spain, with a wider scope of education: students of all kind of ages (from 14 up to 65 or more) and of all kind of economic sectors (services, tourism, education, health, business, etc) have realised the importance of learning a foreing language for their personal and professional development and opportunities not only in Spain but also in Europe. In Maspalomas people are twice as much challenged, since the 95% of our economy depends on tourism and since we are permanently in touch with citizens from different European countries, which turns our institution into one of the most experienced centres in teaching foreign languages not only to Spanish students, but also to a wide range of students from other nationalities.The Canarian net of Official  Language Schools (EOI-Spanish acronym) is the second biggest and most important net in the country, and the Official School of Languages of Maspalomas has been implementing the national standards and policies in the field of foreign languages as they have been improved throughout the past 20 years in order to meet the expected levels of quality, and we have also integrated the use of ICT as part of our curriculum in accordance with the European educative policies, so we are determined to share our experience in how to get people be highly qualified in their command of a foreign language, in harmony with the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages, and we are also thirsty for experience and ideas from other European institutions who work in the same field.