Project background The Otto-Bennemann-School in Braunschweig, Germany, is a vocational school for business studies, economics and administration. It is the largest vocational business school in the federal country of Lower Saxony with about 4300 students and 159 teachers. Partner schools for mobility projects are located in Blanes, Spain (INS Serrallarga), in Sofia, Bulgaria (Nationalna Finansovo-Stopanska Gimnasia) and in Kokemäki, Finnland (Satakunta Educational Federation – Sataedu). The internationally oriented companies located in the region expect their trainees and employees to have transversal competences, such as intercultural understanding, foreign language skills and international professional competences. Therefore it was necessary to increase the number of internationally oriented subjects in our portfolio. This was achieved by the additional qualification “Europakaufmann/-frau IHK”, a qualification certified by the Chamber of Industry and Commerce, featuring an internship abroad, two foreign languages, international law and marketing and computing skills. The mandatory internship abroad supports the acquisition of key competences and intercultural competences. Aim of the project/ Number and profile of the participants The project intends to facilitate the trainees an efficient, job-related internship abroad to improve their employability and their career chances. Promoting international decision-making skills is our main aim. The internship abroad should develop or improve competences beyond the vocational training; preliminarily it should promote and demand the ability and the willingness to communicate and to cooperate effectively when encountering language-related and intercultural differences. The 36 participants are commercial trainees from different companies with an international focus. Some of them train dually, i.e. in the company and at school, while others do a full-time vocational training in our school. Description of the main activities The activities within the internships are mainly - administrational tasks (e.g. filing) - data processing with current word/data processing programmes - filling in forms - composition of easy texts in the target language - easy translations - reception tasks (e.g. taking phone calls and putting through) Project methodology Each country or partner school respectively has one or two contact persons from our school. This procedure combined with the use of modern communication technologies facilitates a good workflow and clear responsibilities. The trips to and from the country of destination as well as all the necessary insurances are taken care of by the staff of the Otto-Bennemann-Schule. The partner schools are responsible for the transport to and from the airport in the country of destination, for the local residences and for the organization of the work placements. They also support the trainees when needed and offer cultural and language-training activities. Projected results, impacts and long-term benefits By supporting the students and giving them specific targets during their stay abroad, the project aims to increase employability and to raise the interest in further job-related stays abroad. Participants should be more sensitive with people from different cultural backgrounds. Apart from enhancing language skills, it is important to increase each participant’s self esteem throughout the project. Companies should be encouraged to support internationalisation within the vocational training in Germany. Envisioned results are that more companies are willing to take interns from our partner schools and reciprocally allow their trainees to take part in Erasmus+ projects. It is necessary to start many more international projects within the vocational education, supporting the process of Europe growing together economically as well as socially.