Higher Education Language Educator Competences (HELECs), 2021-2022

Funder: National Forum for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education (HEA)

Dr Earls was Lead Partner Institution of the Higher Education Language Educator Competences (HELECs) project, a national, inter-institutional, collaborative research project partnering University College Cork (PI) with Maynooth University (Lead Partner), Dublin City University and Waterford Institute of Technology. Funded by the Higher Education Authority of Ireland’s National Forum for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education, in the context of Languages Connect 2017-2026 and the absence of any such framework in the Irish context, HELECs investigated, by means of empirical data collection following a needs analysis approach, the range of competences that language educators need in the HE context and developed a professional competences framework to enable pre- and in-service language educators as well as CPD programme developers a reference point to develop training initiatives supporting language educators in their efforts to develop a comprehensive profile of language education competences.