In bilingual or multilingual countries where several languages coexist, it is usual to use (one of) the local language in some labor sectors. In such cases, people who do not speak the local language can encounter a barrier to enter the labor market: they either remain outside the regulated labor market, or, even though they are integrated into the labor market, they have difficulty to maintain a long term and sustainable career. This is especially true for the healthcare sector. Immigrants are a case in point. Due to the fact that their priority is usually exclusively learning the main language spoken in the state rather than the local language of a region. To highlight the importance of being able to use the regonal language in a healthcare setting and especially elderly care: By 2025, more than 20% of Europeans will be 65 or over, with a particularly rapid increase in numbers of over-80s (http://ec.europa.eu/health/ageing/policy/index_en.htm). Hence, the number of bilingual elderly people with cognitive disabilities will increase dramatically as well. An extra complexity in this matter is the role of the use of dialects or minority languages with clients in healthcare settings for their well being during treatment. Language is of vital importance for an individual’s well being as well as ensuring trust in healthcare settings. This plays a vital role in power dynamics between clients and staff such as nurses. A minority language or dialect also shares a stronger ‘emotional attachment’ (Dewaele 2004; Heinz 2011). (II) Rationale of the Project and Innovative CharacterIn the last decade, there has been a wide range of experiences in language training at the workplace. However, they mainly focus on the major European languages (English, French, Spanish, German) and do not take into account the specific language needs of some European regions and working environments with a strong presence of a regional/minority language. Even with increasing multilingual societies, language training is mostly standardized and homogeneous and does not take into account the role that each of these languages plays in society or even in the workplace. Workplace communication needs are very often not teachable and neither measurable by standard language reference guidelines, but have to be planned and evaluated in relation to determined working fields. The project would therefore combine both communication and psychological skills, which is unique to the focus of previous European projects.The rationale of this project is hence to develop innovative methods, focused on acquiring communication competences in the (local) languages required in a multilingual workplace.(III) Project DescriptionOverall objective: To offer a versatile training material toolkit for its use in the language teaching area of any regional language of Europe.Project Objectives•Improving the language skills of people currently applying for work or working part-time in the elderly care and health care sector and where knowledge of the local language is of high importance and improving the quality of work•To train trainers to be able to teach regional languages to migrants disadvantaged learners focusing in the communication needs at their workplaces •To train trainers to be able to teach communication skills for a bilingual work environments (e.g. continuous switching of the language, oral communication and written communication in different languages)•Improve the wellbeing of clients in healthcare settings•Taking steps towards integration: addresses the multilingual needs of immigrants in diverse communities as well as the multi-sited nature of integration.•Increasing opportunities of migrant workers due to the improvement of their professional communication skills.Main Target Group•language teachers (teachers in public and concerted schools for adults)•adult education trainers•language and vocational training teachers•stakeholders in the field of adult vocational training and support for disadvantaged learning).(IV) Expected Results1. To develop language competence skills and improved levels of skills for employability, increasing opportunities for professional development.2. To design a communicative competence acquiring methodology for the health care/elderly care sector.3. Also, we will design tools for evaluating the impact of method in the language skills of the workers. 3. To disseminate the information on how to use the methodology which can be implemented during the multiplier events.4. Guidelines and good practices (local authorities, institutions for adult learning and designers of educational contents, stakeholders in the health care and elderly care sector in particular), building consciousness of needs and viability of special language needs, such as regional languages or regional bilingualism.5. To offer a versatile training material toolkit for its use in the language teachi