Wednesday 8 June Officers and Non-Commissioned Officers from the Military Air Technical Training Centre in Dęblin (Poland) visited the Institute in Loreto. Upon their arrival, the delegation, consisting of 20 military personnel, including Officers and Non-Commissioned Officers, and led by the Head of Delegation, Colonel Zbignew Ciolek, was welcomed by Colonel Angelo Balestrino, Commander of the Unit, who, in an institutional briefing, outlined the typical activities of the organisation. The guests were presented with the educational offerings of SLEAM, a true ‘Language Hub’ increasingly focused on operating from an inter-service and international perspective. In Loreto, language courses are indeed held, primarily English and also Italian for foreigners, in both classroom and e-learning formats. The Institute in Loreto also provides annual language proficiency assessments through the NATO standard JFLT (Joint Forces Language Test) and is authorised as an Aviation English Testing Centre for the administration of the test and certification of English language proficiency for aircrew.
During the visit to the educational facilities, which coincided with the presence of numerous trainees in Loreto, many questions were asked about the e-learning teaching methodology and Aviation English. These were followed by words of thanks and appreciation from the delegation for the clarifications provided and the interesting insights received regarding the SLEAM's planning and teaching methodology.
The day concluded with a visit to the exhibition titled ‘Italian Wings – Between Sky and Sea Across Five Continents’, presenting the history and documents of air cruises and transatlantic flights undertaken by Italian aviators between the 1920s and 1930s. The exhibition was curated by the Historical Museum of the Italian Air Force in Vigna di Valle (Rome) and housed within the aeronautical institute, in the prestigious villa that belonged to the tenor Alessandro Bonci in the early 1900s.
