Our school is situated in a socio-economic context strongly struck by the economic crisis and by the crisis of values that features European society on the whole. Moreover, Taranto, our town, has an additional problem caused by ILVA, the immense steel industry which has become a critical issue due to the environmental disaster it has been provoking in our area. Keeping, in mind said issues, we have come to the conclusion that in order to help our students face the problems they have to abide by in everyday life both within their families and in their social context and in order to widen thier perspectives in terms of job opportunies, our school needs to develop the following areas of competences for the teaching staff: - language competences so that our teachers can adopt the CLIL approach with increasing ease; - new teaching methods with a focus on new technologies; -competences within the sphere of educational psychology so as to face the growing issues of diversity in its various aspects. The teachers who will take part in the chosen courses are highly motivated, open to new challenges and ever-ready to take part in transnational dialogues. The eventual participants have followed various preparatory courses such as English language courses, IT courses and some conferences on issues of diversity. The expected results concern both the teaching staff and the students who will be increasingly involved and motivated through the use of the CLIL approach and of the latest technological tools. Moreover, teachers will have a better understanding of the problems deriving from matters of diversity and will be able to cope with them better than in the past. Consequently, students will benefit from the competences their teachers will have acquired in this sphere. In the long run, all this will, of course, help the fight against early school leaving which is another major issue in our territory.