On January 30, 2024, Tampere University (Finland) launched an international grant project Erasmus + "Modernization of university educational programs in foreign languages based on integration with information technologies" (DigiFLEd).

The goal of this project is to improve the quality of higher education in Ukraine through the strengthening of educational programs for learning foreign languages in connection with information and communication technologies. The tasks of the project are: elimination of inconsistencies between the requirements of the labor market and the offers of vocational training; training of foreign language teachers and translators; technological improvement of translation training, activation of cooperation between partner universities, ZZSO and other stakeholders; promoting the spread of the Ukrainian language and culture at the international level.

Participants of the meeting are representatives of partner teams from Europe and Ukraine: Tampere University (Finland), Maynooth National University (Ireland), University of Western Macedonia (Greece), Kharkiv National University named after V. N. Karazin, Zhytomyr State University named after Ivan Franko, Ternopil National Pedagogical University named after Volodymyr Hnatyuk, Mykolaiv National University named after V. O. Sukhomlynskyi, Horliv Institute of Foreign Languages of the Donbas State Pedagogical University, Dnipro National University named after Oles Honchar, Donetsk National University named after Vasyl Stus presented their higher education institutions.

GIIM was represented by the project manager, responsible for international cooperation, candidate of philological sciences, associate professor of the department of English philology and translation Marina Shkuropat and the executor of the project, candidate of philological sciences, associate professor of the department of Ukrainian philology Iryna Sklyar.

Marina Shkuropat presented our educational institution, the working group involved in the project, outlined the areas of responsibility of the participants within the project. The rest of the team representatives of the Horliv Institute of Foreign Languages of the Donbas State Pedagogical University joined the ceremonial opening of the event online. Their support was quite warm and felt even in Finland.

The coordinator of the national Erasmus+ office in Ukraine made a welcome speech Svitlana Shitikova, project coordinator Yulia Shumilova (Tampere University), Kate Moore (Tampere University), project partners. They inspired all participants to achieve their goals and obtain productive results.

Speakers of the event and participating partners discussed the main aspects of the work of the first year of the project (tasks, implementation plans, expected results, future activities).

The official reception at the Tampere City Hall was a wonderful end to the first day of the meeting.

The second day of the meeting of participants-partners (January 31, 2024) of the international grant project Erasmus + "Modernization of university educational programs in foreign languages based on integration with information technologies" (DigiFLEd) was rich and important from the standpoint of outlining important management issues.

The fascinating lecture "World Englishes" by Tampere University professor Päävi Paht did not leave any participant of the project indifferent, but, on the contrary, caused a lively discussion.

The representatives of the project teams took part in the workshop in the "World café" format. Representatives of the team of the University of Western Macedonia (Greece) worked with each group of participants, who are responsible for preparing the study visit and familiarizing the project participants with advanced digital technologies. The topic of discussion was the key positions of digitization of foreign language teaching, relevant for the educational environment - challenges, best practices and trends.

February 1, 2024 - the third day of the meeting of project partners Erasmus + "Modernization of university educational programs in foreign languages based on integration with information technologies" (DigiFLEd) was devoted to the discussion of the specifics of the organization of cooperation between the partners of higher education institutions of Europe and Ukraine, productive optimization of work between partners of higher education institutions of Ukraine.

Participants of the launch meeting and online guests, including teachers of the Department of English Philology and Translation and students of the Faculty of Social and Linguistic Communication, listened to lectures by authoritative scientists and experts in the field of translation. The following topics were addressed by the audience: "Post-editing strategies for academic writing" (Kate Moore), "Teaching translation strategies/techniques" (Annamari Korhonen and Mija Santalahti), "Community translation projects as tasks" (Kaisa Koskinen), "Professional tools and practices in teaching translation" (Miya Santalahti and Annamarie Korhonen).

The three-day meeting of project partners has come to an end. All participants are focused only on high and effective results - the creation of digital opportunities, digital content for applicants of educational programs related to the study of foreign languages and translation.