Nowadays, thanks to Internet technology, gaining new skills is relatively simple and easy.
According to UNHCR, online education tools are considered to be an innovative educational method, which should be taken into account in the area of refugee support so that the specific educational needs of refugees can be met. After the outbreak of Covid-19, the list of educational platforms and resources has grown rapidly. A list of several online educational resources is available
here.
Even before the outbreak of the pandemic, there were several online education tools that were available to help refugees and those working with refugees. For example, the Council of Europe has developed a toolkit, called
Language Support for Adult Refugees-A Council of Europe Toolkit. This toolkit has been designed with the aim of supporting EU Member States in their efforts to respond to the new challenges caused by unprecedented migration flows. The toolkit takes the form of a website in 7 languages (English and French, Dutch, German, Greek, Italian and Turkish). This initiative is part of the project on
the Linguistic Integration of Adult Migrants (LIAM).
T-Kit 4: Intercultural Learning is another initiative published by the Council of Europe with the aim of providing both a theoretical and a practical perspective on intercultural learning. Another online education tool from the same International organization is the
Online Self-Study Course for Educators, which is an online course in the use of the Autobiography of Intercultural Encounters (AIE).
Another powerful means of online language education is the
Erasmus+ Online Linguistic Support (OLS), which gives you the opportunity to improve your language skills for free. This tool has proved to be particularly helpful to refugees (e.g.
Online Linguistic Support, University of Macedonia). A few other examples of free online language courses are the following:
Free Croatian Language Courses Online,
Free German Language Online Courses,
Digital Tools for Inclusion of Refugees,
Asylum Seekers and Migrants.
A really interesting online education tool is the “
Diversophy® New Horizons: At Home Together In Finland”, which is intended to serve as a training activity that can stand alone or be an integral part of a larger training programme on diversity, global management and intercultural communication. Another initiative that offers online education tools –only for refugees– is
Kiron-The Online University for Students. The idea for Kiron dates back to 2014. The basic idea behind Kiron is that refugees should be given an opportunity to continue their studies in tertiary education while waiting in refugee camps for their asylum application to be processed. According to Kiron, it is also important that refugees should be able to complete language qualifications to study at a university in Germany (or another country). Kiron students have the opportunity to continue their studies online in Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs). After successfully completing their online courses, they can switch to a Kiron partner university. The partner universities recognize certain MOOCs, so that students can start a later course semester as soon as they meet all the formal requirements for applying for a place.
