European Austria-DaysBackground of the project"Kultur und Sprache" is offering further education for specialists in German studies and teachers for German as a Foreign language and is developing teaching materials for Austrian culture, literature and the German language for more than 20 years. In the course of these activities we could set up a strong, worldwide network of co-operation partners who are also engaged in the vocational training of specialists in German studies and German teachers. Among others we have established co-operations with German teacher associations, language schools, examination centres, editors and universities, etc. Goals of the projectThe main goal of this project is to enhance the European dimension of our organisation by upgrading and intensifying existing co-operations with our European partners. It will give our staff a possibility to improve their language competences, develop a profound understanding of the diverse education systems and exchange ideas on successful teaching and learning methods. Our medium-term goal of this project is to grow closer bonds with our partner organisations and to intensify the exchange of ideas and experiences in order to build up a solid basis for an even closer co-operation in the future in the form of a strategic partnership for the concerted development of teaching materials. Number and profile of the participantsIn the course of the project a total of 10 out-going-mobilities will be organised. Always two participants will be sent to one partner organisation. Our project includes five partner organisations. Our participants are a very heterogenic group including teachers from secondary schools, the adult-education as well as specialists in German studies working in different sectors, that have specialised in certain areas for teacher training purposes (such as phonetics, gastrosophy, technical language, Austrian literature, etc.). The choice of the participants is based on the needs of our co-operation partners as well as the development necessities and qualifications of our staff members. Description of the activitiesDuring the project period we will send out two participants to five host institution in five different member states of the European Union. The participants will stay at the host institutions for two days (plus one day for arrival and departure - if necessary). One part of the time will be spent in various activities in order to get to know the host institution as well as the education system it is based on. On both days workshops on the latest tendencies in the didactics and methodology of German as a foreign language as well as Austrian studies offered by our staff to specialists in German studies and German teachers that can be reached via our co-operation partners will be held. Project implementation processThe preparation and post processing of the mobilities will be coordinated by the team of “Kultur und Sprache” that will be in constant contact with the host institution. In addition to that coordination meetings with the participants will be held before and after the mobility. Our co-operation partners – especially the contact person cited above – will be in charge of the supervision on site as well as the communication with the participants of the seminars held by our staff and other co-operation partners (such as the Österreich-Bibliotheken, etc.). The goals and distribution of the roles are set out in writing in Memorandums of Understanding with our partner institutions and Mobility Agreements with our participants. Results, impact and expected long-term benefitsA participation in this program will have a great motivational impact on our staff. Additionally it will give them the chance to improve their competences and enhance their knowledge on teaching which will have direct consequences on their teaching and thus a great number of language learners and teachers. Furthermore these activities will be documented on our homepage (www.kulturundsprache.at) as well as our social media channels (facebook.com/kulturundsprache) in order to give a larger public the possibility to access materials that were developed in the course of the project. Finally we hope to intensify existing co-operations to push ahead our future project of a concerted development of teaching materials for German as a foreign language.