Summary 
It has been
increasingly important for construction companies to develop both
intercultural and linguistic competence in order to succeed in multinational
European projects. Meanwhile, the inability to operate effectively in
markets with different working cultures and practices together with
different languages has been an important barrier to the mobility of
construction industry professionals/contractors within the European Union.
There has been, in turn, an increasing necessity to improve communication
skills of construction professionals by vocational and professional training
programmes which enhance the linguistic and cultural knowledge of the
graduates and/or professionals. The outcomes of LANCAM (Languages for
Contract Administration and Management in Construction ) fulfilled these
requirements for teaching and learning in English, German and Spanish with
the construction related content by construction industry related users.
The aim of the current project (EVLAC) is thus to adopt the methodology and
the results of LANCAM project to develop new learning materials that
focuses on the construction industry related work culture/ practice issues
in Turkey, Greece, Austria and UK, while focusing on Turkish, Greek, German
and English language learning and teaching.
The
contributions of the participating organisations of the project will be in
the main areas of; collecting audio, audio/visual and written authentic
materials related with construction work practices/cultures in their own
countries; presenting the collected materials in a digital media format;
developing a web site both to disseminate the results obtained during the
project and to use as a learning resource server; introducing the e-learning
material to target groups in their own countries; adopting the e- learning
material in their institutions and/or in selected courses in vocational
education institutes and also in construction companies.
The tangible
outcomes will be language training materials based around specific scenarios
which typify the key stages in the implementation of a construction project
and will incorporate a range of authentic input and that can be reached via
internet and digital media. The intangible outcomes will be enhancement of
vocational language skills and working culture awareness in European
construction industry and improvement of mobility of the construction labour
force which will result from both the short and the long term impacts of the
project.
The short
term impacts of the project will be; increasing the language abilities of
construction professionals/ students and; increasing their knowledge of
different working cultures and practices. The long term impacts of the
project in the long term will be; increasing the mobility of construction
professionals, decreasing problems due to cultural and language differences
in multinational construction projects; increasing the quality of vocational
language training courses.
Total budget of the project is 237 537 Euro where 178 130 Euro
is Europen Community contribution. The project has been started in
December 2007 and expected to be finished in December 2009.
