The Erasmus+ project submitted by Budapest XVII. Kerületi Balassi Bálint Eight-Year Secondary School in February 2023, titled “Let’s Keep Pace! Improving Key Teaching Competencies and Preserving Mental Health through Innovation” (project number: 2023-1-HU01-KA122-SCH-000133880), was awarded support by the Tempus Public Foundation. The project, with a duration of 18 months (June 1, 2023 – November 30, 2024), provided 14 colleagues the opportunity to participate in professional training programs abroad.

These programs included professional development courses and English language courses aimed at enhancing language proficiency at basic and intermediate levels for six applicants. The professional courses focused on topics such as the effective classroom and extracurricular use of ICT tools and methods, including leveraging the potential of Artificial Intelligence. Additionally, courses introduced new approaches to arts education, modern teaching methodologies, and strategies for improving and maintaining mental health. The locations ranged from Denmark, Italy, Croatia, through Tenerife, Portugal, France, Ireland to Aruba in the Dutch Caribbean.

The mental health-related courses offered solutions to challenges such as burnout, achieving a healthy work-life balance, problem-solving, stress reduction, coaching, and teaching empathy. The duration of the courses ranged from 5 to 10 days, with English as the working language in all cases. Overall, participants expressed satisfaction with the training programs, returning from the mobility with positive feelings and renewed energy.