Background

The challenge is provided by the economical development agency “Kaunas IN”. It's goal is to facilitate the transformation of the Kaunas city’s economy to the higher added value economy. Therefore, we work to attract foreign direct investments (FDI) to the city while making Kaunas a more suitable location for FDI companies to open a branch. Successful integration of international talent (and their family members) into the social, labour and educational environments is one of the key factors in the facilitation of FDI companies. Also, because of declining demographics, the city’s ability to integrate foreign talent, re-emigrating diaspora and refugees adds up massively to the economic growth of the city.

Challenge
With over 50 secondary schools, only 2 of them are capable to fully integrate foreign children. The major obstacle is language barriers. It can hinder active participation, comprehension, and social integration for migrant children, impacting both their academic performance and social connections within the school community. Also, insufficient teacher resources, including a lack of language-proficient educators and limited training in addressing the needs of migrant students, further impede integration efforts. As there are no sufficient funds, creativity and motivation become the only options. Most of the schools are lacking the latter. Therefore, the challenge is to find tools and means for schools to learn how to integrate foreign schoolchildren. The aim is to make a value proposition that is higher than the difficulties and inconveniences the schools would experience.