National Association of Language Schools of Serbia – Yals, founded in 1998, strives to promote quality in foreign language teaching in accordance with the highest international standards. In order to keep up with the latest developments in the ELT world, we regularly attend Eaquals international conferences. Ever since Yals joined Eaquals in 2001, these conferences have served as a guide to our association.

The latest conference was held on Malta, from 27 to 29 March, in a luxurious Intercontinental hotel overlooking the beautiful St George’s Bay in St Julian’s. The conference was not only a unique event for gaining knowledge and improving our business but also a meeting point for forming new partnerships and exchanging ideas.

As always, the first day of the Conference was dedicated to Management training and we explored project management tailored to the education sector. Our charming trainer, Giorgio Iemmolo, presented the theory behind it as well as useful models we could apply for effective planning and execution. Through group work, we had a chance to try out various models and choose the most applicable ones for our institutions.

The opening plenary, on the second day, by Zarina Subhnan on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion gave a fresh insight on how to enhance students’ experiences and prepare them to function in the real world while using English is a lingua franca respectfully and successfully.

The closing plenary, on the third day, by Dr Daniel Xerri, highlighted the importance of building collaborative networks as it is this culture of sharing that transforms the learning communities.

Between these two plenaries, participants had a difficult time choosing which, out of 5 simultaneous sessions, to attend during 12 elective session slots.

All the sessions I attended offered innovative approaches and methods to dealing with situations we encounter daily in our institutions and they varied in topics from emotional intelligence, AI, advertising to management and curriculum design.

During the breaks, in the conference hall, apart from chatting to ‘old’  and meeting new colleagues, participants enjoyed talking to renowned publishers and businesses which displayed novelties to support  teaching and learning foreign languages.

Once again, Eaquals has proved to be the world leading association in providing quality language services and our association – Yals is proud to be part of it.

Marija Pejatovic