BIG AT-HU

Short summary

Linguistic, social and intercultural competences are essential components of a positive development of the border regions and the basis for future cross-border cooperation. Supporting these competences from an early stage is key to creating equal opportunities, social cohesion and economic benefits. Additionally, language acquisition starting at a young age benefits the personality of individuals and creates favourable conditions for competitiveness in professional life later on. Therefore, this project focuses on fostering the above-mentioned key competences in kindergartens and schools and additionally develops new and innovative approaches in cross-border cooperation between partners. The innovative aspect comprises a systematic and comprehensive approach (kindergartens / parents / schools / administration / educational training), quality development for continuous language acquisition in the project region and applying cross-institutional methods.

The key outputs are:

• Creation of new educational materials in order to foster the acquisition of neighbouring languages and multilingualism in the area of kindergartens and schools.
• Installation of a virtual knowledge platform for sustainable use and integration of new methods and materials as well as for training of educators according to latest scientific findings.

Approach:

• Providing the necessary training and cross-border education, including internships for students, as well as connecting educators
• Creating an integrated network of administrative and educational institutions, ensuring the sustainability of outputs.
• Cross-border activities between educational institutions for children and students
• Applying cross-institutional methods and models for age-specific and continuous language acquisition of children and students
• Consciously involving and informing parents in order to create an added value to multilingual education and foster a shared educational landscape.

Partnership

Lead Partner:

1. Federal Government of Lower-Austria (AT)

Partners:

2. West-Pannon Regional and Economic Development Nonprofit Ltd. (HU)
3. University of Sopron (HU)   
4. Vienna Board of Education - European Office  (AT)
5. Wiener Kinderfreunde (AT) 
6. Federal State of Burgenland (AT)

Strategic Partners:

7. Academy of Lower Austria (AT)  
8. Lower-Austrian Education Authority (AT)
9. Klebelsberg Institution Maintenance Centre (HU)

Facts and information

Programme: Cooperation Programme INTERREG V-A Austria-Hungary 2014-2020

Lead Partner: Federal Government of Lower-Austria (AT)

Project duration: 01. 01. 2016 - 31. 10. 2019

Amount of ERDF co-financing: 2 462 732,05 EUR

Total budget of WESTPANNON: 340 376,00 EUR

Responsible

Portschy Mónika