English Courses for Teachers in Malta: A Guide for Schools Planning Erasmus+ Staff Mobility
Erasmus+ is often associated with students. But a significant part of the programme is designed for the people who teach them.
Under Erasmus+ mobility for staff, schools and adult education providers can send their own teachers, trainers and administrative staff abroad for professional development. One of the most requested formats is language training, and specifically, English courses designed for education professionals rather than general learners.
This guide explains how these courses work in Malta, who they are for, and what a school needs to consider when planning one.
Why English training for teachers is different?
A general English course teaches a language. A course for education professionals has to do something more specific.
Teachers rarely need English to order coffee. They need it to take part in a European project meeting, to read research published in another country, to correspond with a partner school, to use foreign-language teaching material with confidence in their own classroom, or to host incoming colleagues and students.
That difference shapes everything: the vocabulary, the type of speaking practice, and the situations participants are asked to handle. A teacher who spends two weeks practising professional communication comes back with something they use the following term. A teacher who spends two weeks on general conversation comes back with a pleasant memory.
When you assess a course provider, this is the question worth asking first: is the content built around the professional context of the participants, or is it a standard course with teachers in the room?
Who can take part
Erasmus+ staff mobility is open to a broader group than most schools assume. Depending on the sector and the project, this generally includes:
Teachers at primary, secondary and vocational level
Trainers and educators working in adult education
School leaders and coordinators
Administrative and support staff involved in international activity
Participants take part as part of a funded project run by their institution. Individuals cannot normally apply on their own — the sending organisation holds the project and selects the staff who take part.
Two main routes exist. Accredited organisations draw on their accreditation to run mobility year after year. Organisations without accreditation can apply for short-term projects. Rules, deadlines and funding rates are set nationally, so the National Agency in your country is always the authority to check before planning.
How the course is structured
The English Courses for Professional Teachers we run in Malta, in collaboration with inlingua Malta, are organised as follows:
Levels: from A2 to C1, assigned after a placement test on arrival
Intensity: minimum 20 hours per week
Group size: maximum 13 participants per class
Content: education-specific vocabulary and classroom terminology, intercultural communication, and working with international colleagues
Certification: a named certificate of attendance issued at the end of the course
Two details deserve attention when comparing providers:
The placement test matters more than the advertised level. Groups of teachers are almost never homogeneous — the same staffroom will contain a confident A2 and a rusty B2. Testing on arrival, rather than assigning levels in advance from a form, is what prevents half the group from being bored and the other half lost.
Group size determines speaking time. In a class of 13, each participant speaks. In a class of 25, most participants listen. For adults who are usually the ones speaking in a classroom, this is not a minor point.
Combining language training with other activities
A language course rarely fills a mobility on its own, and the strongest projects combine it with something else. In Malta this typically means pairing the course with job shadowing in a local school or organisation, structured visits to education providers, or meetings with staff from other European countries taking part in the same period.
This combination is also what makes the mobility easier to justify in a project application. Language competence is a means, not an outcome in itself. A project that connects language training to a concrete professional objective — running an eTwinning project, hosting incoming mobility, introducing CLIL methodology — is a stronger project, and a more useful experience for the participant.
What a hosting organisation handles
For the sending school, the practical work is where a mobility becomes complicated. A hosting organisation in the destination country takes on that layer: course arrangement with the language school, accommodation, transfers, local support during the stay, the cultural and professional programme, and the documentation the project requires at the end — attendance records, certificates, and Europass documents where applicable.
Lexema has operated in Malta since 2016 and welcomed over 1,200 participants in 2025, working with a network of more than 175 partner companies and organisations across the island. For a staff mobility, the practical value of that network is straightforward: it means job shadowing placements and professional visits can be matched to the actual profile of the group, rather than assigned from a short standard list.
FAQ
Is Erasmus+ funding available for a language course alone? Language training is a recognised professional development activity under staff mobility. Whether it is funded on its own or needs to be part of a broader activity depends on your project type and your National Agency's rules — check with them before you build the application.
What English level do participants need? There is no minimum requirement for the course itself. Levels run from A2 to C1 and are assigned by placement test on arrival.
How long should a staff mobility last? Language courses are commonly organised over one or two weeks. Longer stays allow for a fuller combination of course and job shadowing.
Can staff from different departments take part together? Yes. Groups often mix teaching and non-teaching staff, and the placement test means participants are grouped by language level rather than by role.
When should we start planning?
Earlier than most schools expect. Course places, accommodation and flights all become harder to secure close to peak periods, and the project application itself has fixed national deadlines.
Planning a staff mobility
If you are preparing a KA1 project and considering Malta as a destination, we can help you build the mobility around what your staff actually need — the course level, the balance between language training and job shadowing, and the practical arrangements on the ground.
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