The project ‘Multilingual Orientation through Voluntary Exchange’ (MOVE) was successfully completed at the end of February 2017 with the financial support of the Erasmus+ programme. Five volunteers from three countries took part - Italy, Spain and France. There were two participants / volunteers from each country, except Italy. There was one participant/volunteer from each country. The volunteers became a huge asset to the organisation for the four months with their motivation, enthusiasm, points of view, positive energy and fantastic ideas. The objective of the project was to encourage multilingualism in different aspects and to allow Bulgarian students and adults to have free access to native speakers and practice their speaking skills in a context and to discuss topics relevant to the country and language they are learning. The volunteers visited numerous high schools in Sofia and Plovdiv and were leading the language classes in their native languages as well as they were organizing discussion groups for adults.
The project activities were focused on language learning through informal methods of training, raising the level of multilingualism and improving intercultural understanding. Volunteers acquired key qualities that each teacher need and acquired knowledge about informal learning methods that they can apply in the future. Through the activities that they carried out, they had the chance to develop many soft skills as well, and what they found most useful is the vast amount of contacts, relationships and network that they created. As a result of their work, the feedback from participants in the conversations and the discussion groups have received very positive feedback and reported positive development in their speaking skills and knowledge of the relevant country.
Foundation Education 21st century continues to work on activities related to the European Voluntary Services and to actively involve volunteers from Bulgaria and abroad in its work.