Piloting Soft Skills Training in Kindergartens: First-Hand Stories

Erasmus+ Project: Soft Skills for High Quality Education
Published: October 2025

🎓 From theory to classrooms

After months of preparation, training of national trainers, and curriculum development, the piloting phase of our project has taken off in partner countries. Kindergarten teachers in Slovakia, Slovenia, Estonia, and Croatia are now testing the newly developed Soft Skills Toolbox and facilitating Teacher Support Learning Groups (TSLGs) in their local contexts.

The result? A rich collection of stories, lessons, and reflections from practice.

🧩 A closer look at the pilot phase

The pilot implementation focuses on real-life use of the project’s training materials, reflection techniques, and group facilitation tools. In each country, a cooperating kindergarten supports its staff to engage in peer learning, discussions, and experiential sessions to strengthen leadership, communication, empathy, and emotional awareness.

Key components being tested include:

• The structure of TSLG meetings
• Suggested session plans and reflection prompts
• Facilitation techniques for inclusive dialogue
• Tools for emotional literacy and professional self-awareness

💬 What are the teachers saying?

“It’s amazing how quickly trust builds when the group has space to share openly.”
— Participant from Croatia

“We’ve started using check-in and check-out activities in our team meetings. It’s such a simple way to see how everyone is really doing.”
— Kindergarten director, Slovakia

“We adapted the roleplay activity to our needs and it worked perfectly.”
— Estonian facilitator

The pilots also reveal how adaptable the toolbox is across diverse settings. Some teams follow the materials closely, while others use them as a base for co-creating sessions with their staff.

🧠 Learning from the ground up

Each piloting kindergarten serves as a mini-laboratory where we can observe what works, what needs adjusting, and what sparks genuine change. National coordinators collect feedback through observations, interviews, and short evaluation forms. This input will directly inform the final version of the toolbox, to be shared across Europe.

📸 Coming soon: Voices from the field

Over the coming months, we will publish short video case studies and teacher stories from the piloting schools. These resources will illustrate how soft leadership practices are making a difference in real kindergarten environments.

🌍 Next steps

• Continue national pilots until early 2026
• Gather and analyse feedback from all partner countries
• Prepare final version of the Toolbox and accompanying training materials
• Share outcomes at national and international dissemination events
• Feature best practices and case stories on our website and social media

🔔 Stay tuned for more insights and photos from our pilot kindergartens – and meet the inspiring teachers behind this journey.