-
Home
-
European Projects
-
Auszubildende arbeiten und lernen in England und P..
Auszubildende arbeiten und lernen in England und Polen II
Start date: Aug 1, 2014,
End date: Aug 1, 2016
PROJECT
FINISHED
For its students, the Gewerbliche Schule Ehingen wants to create the opportunity of an internationally accepted practical training/placement abroad. Similar to a former Leonardo-project 2012-14, our vocational school offered three-week work placements in England in industry and trades and crafts (mechatronics technicians, car mechanics, industrial mechanics, industrial electronics technicians, plastics processing technicians, professional drivers, floorers and parquet layers). In the same period, the school sent dual students to Poland (industrial electronics technicians, in co-operation with the company Liebherr Polska in cooperation with Technical School No. 4 from Bytom).
The work placement programmes were so successful that we increased the number of participants for England from 19 to 30.
Plans for 2014-16 were: England: 2 flows with 15 participants each, Poland: 3 flows with 3 participants each. All participants were at the end of their second or at the beginning of their third year of dual vocational training in diverse professions and classes of our school. In the end, we implemented 26 mobilities in England and 6 in Poland.
Parents or companies rarely encourage the students to go abroad. But more and more companies require the knowledge of English. Technical and business English is increasingly taught at our school within the regular curriculum. During the past 4 project years, we realized how easily our youths make valuable experiences abroad, which benefit them in their career, intercultural awareness and their personality. They learn about industrial production, maintenance and repair as well as customer service or customer orders in comparison with their home country. Apart from that they enlarge their professional vocabulary and learn to integrate into the workflow of a foreign company in a short period of time. This placement is accepted as part of their German apprenticeship and can provide them with advantages for future job applications (certificates).
The work placement has been positively evaluated by all previous project participants. Their training companies increasingly appreciate and support this possibility. Unfortunately, smaller craft businesses (joiners, floorlayers,masons, car mechanics) often do not allow their apprentices to take part in our programme, even though the young people are well-qualilfied, because they claim they are needed in the business. The Leonardo and Erasmus+ programmes are now well-known and accepted within our school staff. Students have passed on their experiences at school, at work and via social media, so that intensive recruiting activities are no longer needed.
Our present strategy has proven successful which is why we intend to continue this programme over a longer term. Our application for Erasmus+ 2016-18 has been successful. However, we must temporarily exclude the placements in Poland because our partner, the company Liebherr Poland, cannot guarantee any jobs/work for the apprentices.