FORAVE – ASSOCIAÇÃO PARA A EDUCAÇÃO PROFISSIONAL DO VALE DO AVE is a vocational/technical private school located in Vila Nova de Famalicão, one of the most industrialized councils of the Ave Valley, in the North of Portugal. Established in 1990, FORAVE’s main aim is the preparation of qualified citizens for active life and adult students trying to improve or acquire skills to answer to the demands of the market in the areas of Company Management, Industrial Maintenance, Electronics and Automation and Food Quality Control. Bringing Europe Closer is FORAVE`s main goal with the construction of this project. A project based on the global and transnational participation of its entire school staff. A participation of the teaching and non-teaching staff who are aware of the need of being a participating citizen in a global society, willing to achieve an active knowledge through the sharing of skills, knowledge and good practices, and in the enrichment and internationalization of the school. In the future, we wish to embody, to a higher level, our European school's identity and some of our goals are to enhance the development of quality lifelong learning and to promote higher levels of performance; to enhance the knowledge and the consciousness of all the school staff to the importance of other European cultures and languages; to help our students and the staff to acquire the needed skills to an active European citizenship; to improve the quality and the European dimension of FORAVE´s teachers training; to enhance the learning of foreign languages; to promote the development of contents, services, pedagogies and innovative practices, based on ICT; to develop an education and training “brand” which will be internationally recognized; to better prepare our students for the global world of work; to develop strategic areas of training which will enhance employability among young people and competitiveness among companies; to involve national and international renowned companies in our internships programmes; to develop among our students, staff and stakeholders a responsible European citizenship, active in the achievement of gender equality and equal opportunity. So that this goal becomes real, we have to think in FORAVE as a starting point in the search for innovative pedagogical practices, methodologies and equipments, but we also have to think in our school as a point of arrival where the good practices and the methodologies acquired or improved are shared not only among the staff and with the students, but also with other schools and local entities. Bearing this in mind, the project of staff training/job shadowing in Europe was organized according to four major areas of skills: foreign languages, ICT, school management and administration and sciences/technologies. Areas which FORAVE considers as essential to favor conditions that make innovative teaching/learning strategies possible; to improve relationships between the school and the outside organizations; to better understand young people realities in different contexts; to encourage the use of the new technologies; to enhance the learning of foreign languages and to exchange experiences through which European integration is improved and the school organization is enriched. This investment in the mentioned areas of expertise will create global results for the organization itself and will create major inputs in our students and staff contributing to the improvement of their competences and for the development of an active European citizenship. It will reinforce not only the quality of knowledge, but also the quality of knowledge/learning by doing and will contribute to promote creativity, competitiveness and the entrepreneurial spirit. It’s also our goal to promote opportunities for personal, professional, social and economic growth in our community, establishing partnerships with entities and development agents in our region: schools, universities, associations, companies and the local authorities, promoting a greater visibility of the region where our school is located in.