The SEM had issued a mandate to the Institute of Multilingualism to develop a quality strategy for fide language courses. The purpose of the strategy is to create a common understanding of fide’s didactic principles and to support the implementation of fide in practices used to support language learning. The evaluation of the introductory fide courses and various comments from educational institutions had shown that fide was still interpreted in a variety of ways. The quality strategy is therefore called on to define quality criteria of fide language courses.
The quality strategy is to additionally set out guidelines for introducing fide into practices used in promoting language learning. Because Switzerland already offers a number of tools to support language learning, and because the cantons have a great deal of experience in quality development, the quality strategy is designed to build on existing good practices while making allowances for linguistic regions and for specific circumstances in the cantons.
The project results were forwarded to the fide steering group for them to finalise the strategy and prepare a pilot phase for its introduction.