Tuesday 28 October 2014

Halloween Language Cafe

This week we decided to get you all into the spirit of Halloween!
Since the Language Cafe falls one day before, we thought it might be a good idea to carve some pumpkins and make your own Jack O'Lantern.


We know many of you don't really celebrate Halloween in your home countries, it's not a typically British tradition either, but certainly a fun one.



You can bring your own pumpkin or one to share with your friend, alternatively please get in touch with Gabi gabrielem@almondvoclink.co.uk and she will order one for you, that will be delivered to our office. 

PHOTOS FROM THE EVENT

Oh and if you would like to join the Language Cafe Facebook group, email us with a request, we will happily add you  :) 





Hope to see many of you there, watch this space for the photos :) 

Friday 24 October 2014

Bowling with our Language Cafe friends



This week we moved our Language Cafe to Wednesday, a very rare thing for us to do but certainly justified in this case. The group was very keen on going bowling and I'm not going to lie, we loved the idea too :) 

Language Cafe is all about learning English through experience and lively interaction and that's exactly what we did. Our lovely apprentice, Gabi took on her shoulders the task of organising the group. She booked 2 a track at the Tenpin Bowling located in the Barbican Leisure Centre. The access to this complex can be a bit tricky if you are not confident at moving around Plymouth but with a little help of Google maps and City Bus travel map you shouldn't have much trouble. 

If you choose to access the area via Barbican lock gates ( bridge leading to the Aquarium) please remember that the bridge shuts for the night at 9.30pm

Tenpin offers some really good deals throughout the week, please check their website to see which one suits you best.








The Language Cafe will go back to its usual format from next week, join our Facebook group to keep up to date. For more things to do and places to see whilst in Plymouth, please go to our website

Thursday 4 September 2014

Visit to the Royal William Yard


We love showing the students how beautiful our city really is. Plymouth is currently experiencing some lovely warm weather after a bit of a damp end of the summer, so we decided to make a good use out of it :) 

Usually on the first day we take our students to the Plymouth Hoe and the Barbican for their welcome tour, show off  the historical sights and the beauty of Sutton Harbour. Afterwards we briefly walk through the Plymouth City Centre, so that they know where to get all their essentials from. What we often do miss out is the stunning Royal William Yard! This area  is bursting with stunning architectural sights and breath taking views across the Plymouth Sound and River Tamar. We thought those were good enough reasons to visit and therefore invited our students for a little walk and a coffee stop. 

We all met in the Almond's office at City Business Park and took a brisk walk to the nearby bus stop in Stoke Village, to catch the number 34 bus :) After only a few minutes atop of a double-decker we could see the glistening waters of River Tamar and soon after the magnificent Royal William Yard 's entrance gate.


We had a fantastic time walking around, exploring the area and learning its history. Climbing up the famous Coastal Path Staircase comes highly recommended, the views are spectacular and it's an absolutely perfect spot for a picnic. To end our day, we watched the sun slowly sink under the horizon as we sat outside of Seco Lounge with a delicious cappuccino in hand.  We will definitely be back soon and more regularly :) 












Monday 11 August 2014

Thank you

Many thanks to all who turned up to our Thursday Language Cafe at Tudor Rose Tea Rooms.
This event was very well attended and we all had a great time. Daniela Sonvakova did a fantastic job at delivering her Montessori English Language lesson to all the students present. 

If you would like read a bit more about what we were up to and see all the photos, please head to our website 



Tuesday 5 August 2014

Language Cafe at the Tudor Rose Tea Rooms


Join us for some delicious, homemade scones and traditional English tea at the Tudor Rose Tea Rooms. Tudor Rose is located at the Barbican's famous New Street - the oldest street in Plymouth. The building's historical features, charming decor and delicious scones make it a perfect location to explore English culture and improve the language. 

This week one of our MMLT online training teachers - Daniela, will be delivering her Montessori Lesson to the group.

Please call our office 01752 224446 or email Gabriele gabrielem@almondvoclink.co.uk to book

Friday 11 July 2014

MMLT online and face to face training for language teachers



In the recent months we put a lot of work and dedication in a project we are the UK partner for. Being a part of  the MMLT project, changed the way we visualize our company's  future of English language training courses. One of the most significant and sustainable results of the Montessori project is our recently opened Language Cafe
You have probably read quite a lot about it on here and on our website/social media platforms. We are extremely proud of this achievement and believe it genuinely improves the lifestyle of many local foreign nationals and also improves the quality of the service we can offer to our European students during their stay. 


During the piloting part of this project, Almond Vocational Link was to deliver teacher training sessions for language trainers in both face-to-face and online version. We received a tremendous amount of feedback, and those who managed to complete the training, admitted they will continue to use Montessori as their preferred method during language training. 


Two members of Almond's team participated in the training sessions delivered by Mrs Karen Corne. Valentina took part in the face-to-face training, Kamila participated in the online course. Both of them are actively involved in the running of our Montessori Language Cafe, therefore receiving training and giving invaluable feedback on the matter was very important to us. As a part of their training, they were asked to prepare lesson plans for a group of adult learners. Our trainees delivered their lesson plans to the students during our Language Cafe with great results.

We managed to capture some of the lessons on camera and we would love to share it with you. In addition to this, we also asked a local company to create a video documenting one of the lessons. Please take a look and feel free to share, its a fantastic opportunity to see how our students from Turkey and Portugal interacted and worked together during the class. 

               
                                     

Tuesday 3 June 2014

Top 10 reasons why your business should become a host company

1. We are a small, non profit company that provides personalised services.

We care for both students and companies that work with us. What this means is, that we will not place anyone in your company, who does not meet the criteria and lacks relevant skills and knowledge. The students have weekly feedback meetings in our office, which means we are always up to date.  

2. The service is free of charge to your business.

It simply cost you nothing to have one of our students helping you. The participants receive their funding through European Commissions funds for educational projects like Erasmus+

3. Universities from across Europe contact us to organise work placements for some of their top students. 

The participants go through a complex application process and interviews in order to select the right and motivated candidates.

4. Having one of our students means there is extra help on hand. 

Yes they will need help and training from your existing team, but they are willing to learn and motivated.This is a fantastic opportunity for them to see how English firms operate and they would love to learn from you. The students can prove to be a very valuable help to your business during busy times and can fulfil simple tasks as well as be given more ambitious projects to accomplish.

5. Expand your business.

Have you ever thought about expanding and marketing your services to other EU countries?  Having one of our students as a part of your marketing team can help you with that. After all, they are the market experts on their own countries and can help your team gather relevant contacts or help with choosing the most suitable marketing strategies. 

6. We are flexible

We ask for all students to work 35hrs per week. We do understand however, that this is not always possible. The participants do not have to stay in the office for the whole time. They can accompany you to relevant meetings (networking, business, meeting suppliers, clients etc.) or be assigned personal projects to accomplish at home or in field ( market research, web design, database analysis etc.) 

7. You are the boss.

We will contact you if we have a student who we believe could benefit from a placement with you and contribute to your company's progress. You will be sent a CV and we will also inform you of any relevant information gathered during the Skype interview. After this you decide. You are also responsible for the job description and deciding on how much independence you will give to the student. This can change in time and you might feel like increasing their responsibilities after the initial training, it is all up to you.









8. We want to hear from you.   

The students have weekly feedback meetings in our office, which means we are always up to date on how are they doing. Equally, we are very interested to know how are you finding it? What is your opinion on the student's work? Are there any problems? Do you have any questions about the placement? We are available to talk Monday to Friday 8am-5pm, so you can pop in, give our office a call or email us, it's up to you.

9. The length of work placements varies as does the type and age of students we host in Plymouth.  

We work on various European projects. Our students usually come for anything between 2 weeks and 6 months thought the whole year. They can be in Vocational Training, University under graduates, post graduates, graduates, mature students, people currently seeking employment or trying to return to employment after a long period of time. Their age is usually between 18 and 55 and experience can vary.

10. If you are interested, please ask.

Good quality host companies are something, we always seek. If you already had a browse through our website but think we don't deal with the areas of work that you provide, please get in touch. We receive many requests daily from keen partners for different work placements. Some of them are quite flexible positions, others in specific areas of study like laboratory analyst , technicians, microbiologists, electricians, mechanical engineers and many more. 

For more information about our services, please visit www.almondvoclink.co.uk


Thursday 29 May 2014

Let's go to the beach



The Beach Bus - Bovisand

This summer, all the beach-fun lovers from Plymouth will be happy to hear that the famous Beach Bus is back! The number 54 runs to the popular beach of Bovisand every hour and the journey takes less than 30 minutes!

Bovisand Beach is situated on a beautiful Devon Coast, overlooking the Plymouth Sound. Apart from a beautifully surrounded sandy beach and clear blue water it commands fantastic views over the Plymouth Sound. 
The ‘beach bus’ will start operating from Saturday 24 May until Sunday 14 September. The service runs on Saturdays and Sundays only until summer holidays. It will run every day from 28th July until the end of August.
Bus 54 departs from the A9 stop on Royal Parade every hour from 10am until 6pm (except at 2pm), returning from Bovisand hourly from 10.30am until 6.30pm (except at 1.30pm).
For more information on the Bovisand bus service call Target Travel on 01752 242000

Service 32 to Cornwall

For those of you who are already in Plymouth, this bus number sounds very familiar since you take it to get to our office :) Great news is that City Bus 32 is extending its services to Cornwall this summer. Starting from 1st June.
The Bus timetable is available online, via the app or from their Information centre. It might seem a little confusing at first but essentially you need to look at the bust stop list to see where each bus will take you from Royal Parade. Here are some of the places you can visit by using this service:
Cawsand 
Tregantle
Seaton Countryside Park
Kingsand
Liskeard


To see more suggestions about things to do and places to visit whilst you are in Plymouth on your Erasmus+ work placement, visit our website :


www.almondvoclink.co.uk

Friday 23 May 2014

Certificate Ceremonies May 2014

As well as welcoming new arrivals, we also waved goodbye to some of our groups. It was great to have you all here and we wish you all the best in your future career.
Here are the photos from certificate ceremonies in May 2014:

From Denmark


From Czech Republic







 From Finland





    

Wednesday 14 May 2014

Becoming a Host Family


Do you have a spare bedroom in your home?
We are always looking for host families in Plymouth and surrounding areas and offer competitive rates for accommodation provided. If you think, you can offer good quality accommodation (single bedrooms and shared bedrooms) and caring, friendly environment for our European students to live in, please get in touch:
Janet Wonnacott janetw@almondvoclink.co.uk
The process is very simple
1. Fill in Host Family Registration form
2. Arrange a home visit with one of our staff members. We would love to get to know you in person!
3. …. That’s it. We will contact you, when we have someone suitable.

Friday 25 April 2014

Online Teacher Training



To read more about Montessori Methodology in Language Training Project please visit Almond Vocational Link  or the project website www.mmlt.eu


Language Cafe - Jobs




Last night's topic for the Language Cafe was "jobs". We all talked about what we do at work and what would we like to do in the future. We had a great opportunity to listen to how different the rules and regulations are in schools and pre-schools across Denmark. Our Danish students are currently assisting in schools and pre-schools in Plymouth, so it was very interesting to listen to how the system works in their home country. 

We also had a couple of surprise hidden talents come out and found out, we have an aspiring young actress and a singer in our group! The group also got to know our new arrivals from Czech Republic who talked about the carrier path they'd like to follow after education.  We also played a little game of "Guess who I am"

"Guess who I am" 
Divide the participants into 2 groups. Every team member must come to the front and draw a card with a job title written down. Under the job title, there are 2 "banned" words. This means that when talking about your job, you are not allowed to use the banned words. You have 60 seconds to describe your job whilst others are guessing.  Both teams can guess and win points at the same time. The game ends, when all the participants take their turn. 


To see our previous games, follow the link