The number of students enrolled at Alppila High School in Helsinki is likely to increase in years to come and the student body is likely to be comprised of a growing number of students from various ethnic backgrounds. Our goal is to offer our students an education geared to meet the needs of an international teaching environment. Globalization and the challenges brought along with it has made us realize that we need to set special emphasis on tolerance and forebearance towards people from different backgrounds in our school. It is our intention to look upon cultural diversity as an asset rather than a burden. In order to meet our goal we feel it is necessary for our staff to be involved in further education. The principal has agreed to head up a project purporting to look for new ways and procedures necessary in managing the new changing educational demands of the times. By receiving necessary futher education and especially by participating in in various ”Job Shadowing” projects it is hoped that our staff by observing hands-on and up-close the teaching methods used in other countries, will receive the necessary skills to meet the demands made upon them. As our school grows the staff at Alppila feel it is a good idea to expand our already existing programs set to increase our international contacts and cooperation between educators in our various partner schools in other countries. It is our intention to increase the number of international projects in our school to include and involve all the students during the three years they spend at our school. We feel confident that by being further educated and by being made aware of the challenges faced by educators in teaching students from various ethnic backgrounds, our teaching staff will rise up to the challenge of communicating with teachers from other countries in a language other than their own. In the future it will be essential for a teacher to be able to teach their subject in a language other than their native tongue. As our school grows in size it will be necessary to to hire new staff who we wish to include in our existing international school exchange and cooperative traditions. By participating in further education geared to the needs of our teaching staff, our teachers will be offered a chance to keep up-to-date with the latest teaching methods in their respective subjects not only in Finland but abroad as well. It is also our firm belief that by being further educated in the latest developments in pedagogy abroad in their chosen field the teachers will become higly motivated members of the school community intent upon furthering our common goal of providing our students an environment of eduational excellence. Creating new contacts as a by-product of participating in courses in further education offered abroad, the teachers will be given a chance to set up continued cooperative projects between schools in various countries. Having first had a chance to meet and befriend teachers from other countries in person gives our staff an opportunity to set in motion exchange programs that can also be conducted online should actual physical exchange not be practicable. Two of our school biology and geography teaching staff have enrolled on a course geared to further educate them in their subjects. Likewise a history teacher and a social studies teacher will participate in a ”Job Shadowing” project, whereas another teacher teaching the same subjects will take part in a course aimed at further educating teachers of above subjects. Our psychology and religious education teacher has enrolled on a course as well. One of the English teachers has enrolled on a further education course and two other English teaching staff are to participate in a ”Job Shadowing” project. The Spanish teacher is to take part in a ”Job Shadowing” project and also a course in further education. The school principal has also shown an interest in being further educated on a course geared to increasing leadership skills. The program outlined above is a two-year program and it was planned in cooperation with all the participating teaching staff. The teaching staff involved in the program is expected to share any skills gained as a result of having participated in the program. The City of Helsinki also expects the participating teacher to report on what they have learned on a webpage called ”Reppu” set up for the purpose of sharing useful information, experiences and skills. As a result of enrolling our staff on courses on offer in further education we wish to improve our chances of meeting the challenges brought on by an increasingly multicultural world we find ourselves in. It is our desire to reach new heights in educational excellence by actively seeking new ways of offering our students the best education possible.