Teachers from MCAST's Institute of Mechanical Engineering and other institutions from France, Italy, Finland and Slovenia recently attended the fifth meeting of the Comenius project 'Bridging Academically Language and Skills Training Agendas' (BALSTA) at the Instituto di Istruzzione Superiore Leonardo da Vinci, in Civitanova, Marche, Italy.

The project's main aim is to develop a new pedagogical tool that encourages technical and English language teachers to integrate their respective lessons to make them more effective, increase students' motivation to learn, and improve their communication skills and employability.

Since the project was launched in Malta in November 2005, several project partners' meetings have been held in the respective countries and a lot of work has been undertaken to produce a manual on a pedagogy that that technical or language teachers throughout Europe can use.

MCAST lecturers Albert Bonnici, Claire Abela, Manuel Gatt, and Vanessa Mifsud co-ordinated the latest meeting held in Civitanova, and the final meeting is planned to be held in June in Malta when the finalised manual will be presented.

The project is funded by the EU through its Education and Culture Lifelong Learning programme.

As part of Italian host partner's hospitality, a cultural tour was organised for the meeting participants to visit the 'Frasassi Caves', which are among the largest and most famous caves in Europe.