Online Language Support (OLS)

Dear Erasmus+ and European Solidarity Corps national agencies and beneficiary institutions/organisations,

Online Language Support will dedicate September to the European Day of Languages (EDL), which is celebrated on the 26th. Community managers will host a second Open Day online on that day to introduce mobility participants to discussion forums and great learning content. They will publish blog posts about the importance of EDL and start discussion topics to celebrate it.

Please encourage your mobility participants to look out for announcements about the OLS Open Day and EDL in their communities and on social media. They can contribute to a multilingual EU by participating in the OLS language communities. Their involvement will help strengthen linguistic diversity across the EU. 

This is not the only news EDL month brings! Look out for our third OLS video contest to be launched soon. You can find more details in our next special edition newsletter to be published on 20 September.

Happy reading,

The OLS team

Help us keep mobility participants aware of new features on OLS by using or adapting a sample email and social media posts, visuals and videos we have created for you to share on your social media networks. 

Kindly note that to download the toolbox for September, you must first login to the EU Academy and then enrol in this course.

Being multilingual is a vital skill in the workplace. OLS is contributing to the European Day of Languages by launching exciting courses for Vocational Education and Training (VET) learners and for others interested in such fields. Our new-look VET courses feature immersive 3D workplaces which students can explore in a fun way while learning the language skills they need to interact with colleagues and customers.

See the mechanics course with 12 modules here. The topics range from greetings and introductions, safety procedures and troubleshooting a problem, to what makes a great CV and job interview.

The VET learning modules are currently available in 18 languages. More 3D workplaces  and languages will be unveiled in the coming weeks and months. Look out for tourism, catering, hair & beauty, health & social care, logistics, agriculture, mechanics, construction, computer science and graphic design. 

To keep the spirit of European Day of Languages alive throughout the year, we are giving community managers a chance to introduce themselves over the coming months. Along with blog posts explaining the importance of EDL, they will help users improve their language level by sharing content available on OLS. It’s Gianluca’s turn in September:

Hello everyone!

This is Gianluca, the Italian Community Manager on OLS. I’m happy to share this message with you to introduce myself and present some content published in my community.

I’d describe myself as passionate about music (who isn’t…?!), movies, literature, outdoor activities and yoga. For this reason, I've focused the content for the Italian community on these topics. Here are two of my favourites:

• A blogpost on Michela Murgia, one of writers who has most inspired me;
• A discussion topic to help you practice your Italian through music.

I was very pleased to see the great participation in the last mini-contest in the Italian community. Members of the community shared 50 inspiring slogans describing their mobility experience!

Check out my community, comment and say hi!

Mobility participants will be able to meet their community manager on OLS Open Day on 26 September, which is also when we celebrate the European Day of Languages. Community managers will gladly answer questions about language learning, living abroad or using the OLS platform. Here’s a quick guide to how learners can contact their community manager on OLS:

• go to ‘Learning Community and Resources’ for a language and visit either the ‘Ask the Community’, ‘Practise your Language’ or ‘Living Abroad’ forums (step 1), 
• click on ‘Add a new discussion topic’ (step 2). 

Let your mobility participants explore the linguistic diversity OLS has to offer!