Supporting Professional Access through Reading Knowledge, Language Learning and Employment Support (S.P.A.R.K.L.E.)

The Challenge

Illiteracy and low literacy remain among the most significant barriers to the social and labor market integration of migrants across Europe. Limited literacy skills restrict access to language learning, job-related information, employment opportunities, and meaningful participation in society. Yet the challenge is not only on the learner’s side: adult educators working with migrant communities frequently lack adequate tools, methodologies, and training to effectively support learners with varying levels of literacy.

This gap is particularly acute when it comes to work-related content. Many migrants have practical skills and professional experience that go unrecognized because they cannot navigate written materials in their new language. Without targeted support, literacy barriers compound into broader cycles of exclusion from employment and social life.

What S.P.A.R.K.L.E. Sets Out to Do

S.P.A.R.K.L.E. is a cooperative partnership project that supports the social and job integration of illiterate and low-literate migrants by strengthening the capacities of adult educators. The project equips teachers with skills to teach foreign languages to migrants with little or no literacy, supports the application of -the Easy to Read methodology for work related content, promotes human-centered teaching approaches, and reinforces educators’ ability to address different literacy levels. In doing so, the project aims to increase migrants’ job placement opportunities and raise broader awareness of migrants’ literacy challenges across partner countries.

Key Activities

• Collection of good practices: Collection and analysis of good practices through six workshops bringing together 30 teachers to discuss, evaluate, and reflect on effective approaches. The input gathered informs the development of training materials, a teacher’s toolkit, and a syllabus, produced in multiple languages to ensure accessibility across diverse learning contexts.
• Teacher training mobility: A four day transnational mobility program bringing together 20 teachers from partner countries to exchange practices and learn innovative approaches for teaching second languages to illiterate and low-literate migrants.
• Peer to peer training: Peer to peer training activities in which teachers from the mobility program transfer knowledge and methodologies to an additional 60 educators, strengthening teaching capacity at national level.
• Easy to Read professional manuals: Development of three professional manuals using Easy to Read methodology, grounded in needs assessments involving migrants and refugees, to ensure that content responds to real professional training needs and supports access to the labor market.
• Pilot trainings with migrants: Pilot training sessions with migrants to test, apply, and fine tune the developed materials, with systematic collection of feedback to improve relevance, accessibility, and effectiveness.
• Skills assessment and impact evaluation: Regular monitoring activities collecting feedback from both teachers and migrants, giving participants a voice in evaluating their learning experience and contributing to quality assurance.
• Sustainability and lessons learned: Development of a sustainability plan and a Lessons Learned report to promote replication and long term impact, supported by multiplier events, a final conference, and letters of support from organizations outside the partnership.

Who Benefits

S.P.A.R.K.L.E. directly serves two groups. The first is adult educators and teachers working with migrant and refugee learners, who will gain practical tools, new methodologies, and hands on training through workshops, the transnational mobility program, and peer to peer activities. The second is illiterate and low-literate migrants and refugees themselves, who will participate in pilot training sessions and benefit from the professionally developed Easy to Read materials designed around their real learning and employment needs.

Expected outcomes include 20 teachers trained through the mobility program, 60 additional educators reached through peer to peer activities, and 100 migrants with improved language and literacy skills. All activities and materials are offered free of charge.

Project Partners

• X23 SRL, Coordinator (Italy)
• Ballafon Società Cooperativa Sociale (Italy)
• Generation for Change CY (Cyprus)
• Associació Lectura Fàcil (Spain)
• ELAN Interculturel (France)
• Synthesis Center for Research and Education Limited (Cyprus)

Project Details

Duration: September 1, 2025 to February 28, 2028

Funding Program:

The S.P.A.R.K.L.E. project is funded by the European Union through the Erasmus+ program.