The overall aim of LaProf is to develop, publish online, and provide free access to language learning exercises that will help the immigrating workforce of two particular sectors (ICT education and agriculture) become more familiarized with the terminology used in their destination countries and professions. This will be achieved through developing and disseminating a number of language learning exercises through an online environment called the LaProf Web portal. In this way, LaProf aims to encourage innovation in effective and high quality language learning and teaching tools for teacher and vocational education. In addition, it aims to provide a wider variety of language teaching materials for the targeted user groups of LaProf, by focusing on language exercises for both widely spoken EU languages (such as English and French) as well as under-represented languages (such as Greek, Finnish, Hungarian, Romanian, and Russian).

More specifically, LaProf has the following objectives:

(a) to study the language competencies and learning needs of the two targeted user groups: IT teachers from Baltic countries (mainly Estonia, but also Lithuania and Latvia) that want to work in a Nordic country (with a focus on Finland), and agricultural professionals from Eastern Europe countries (e.g. Romania and Hungary) that want to work in a Mediterranean country (with a focus on Greece);

(b) to study the requirements of the Common European Framework for Languages (CEFL) of the Council of Europe, to inform the development of a language learning framework that sets up the basic guidelines and directions for the users, adopting a blended learning approach;

(c) to design and implement a number of LaProf language learning exercises that will help targeted users learn the terminology of their sectors in both the languages of the destination countries (i.e. Finland and Greece) as well as in two widely spoken EU languages (i.e. English and French);

(d) to develop a pedagogic strategy that incorporates solutions for the immigration preparation process and embeds the cultural contexts in the language learning process;

(e) to evaluate the LaProf language learning approach through a number of carefully designed evaluation activities, that will involve sample groups of actual learners;

(f) to promote the LaProf language learning material and methods to relevant communities, as well as formulate a set of policy recommendations to language teachers, professional associations and decision makers that deal with both language learning, teachers’ education, as well as vocational education and training around Europe.