Erasmus +
Start date: Jul 1, 2014,
End date: Jun 30, 2016
PROJECT
FINISHED
Frans Schartau Business Institute (FSH) works in Stockholm, one of the strongest growth regions in northern Europe. HVE is provided within Tourism & Hospitality, Finance, Healthcare, and Retail. There are just over 500 HVE learners at the school, 20 permanently employed staff and around 60 staff members who are contracted to work with teaching and education.
The mobility project that ran for two years aimed to enable staff to gain more knowledge about how EU cooperation works within HVE and which guidelines are available for this. For students who participated in the project, languages and vocational skills have been the main objectives. Within the project, staff and students from three of the school’s professional fields of work have participated and a total of 54 people have participated in implementation. There were 37 host companies involved located in 14 different countries.
The project has provided further knowledge about how EU-cooperation works between companies and schools for the 20 members of staff who participated. The organization has gained more knowledge about the overall objectives set out in the Europe 2020 strategy for HVE. Knowledge has been acquired about EQF, SeQF and ECVET and how tasks are performed in Europe concerning a number of professional roles that learners at FSH are educated for. Syllabuses in some courses have since been revised to reflect the European dimension and more knowledge has been gained about how learning management systems and technology works in a similar school in Europe. Use of English has developed and various concepts and terminology within educations systems are now used more frequently. An interest in continued EU co-operation has been clearly expressed within the organisation.
For the 34 students who participated in the project, their periods of practical training have given them international work experience as well as greater language skills. Their employability has increased and strengthened their future opportunities to gain work in an international labour market. They have learned to deal with unexpected situations in both their work and private life, learned to plan their everyday life in a new environment and also to structure their own learning.
Three members of staff who have experience of international cooperation have managed the project. Activities have been anchored and methods for carrying out the work have been followed according to a previously developed strategy. After starting up the project and implementation by the staff and students, work progressed according to the Activity plan that included themed breakfast meetings, writing CVs, and teaching Cultural Intelligence.
Three of the school’s professional areas of work were represented among the staff who participated in mobility, in order to achieve a broad result. Staff members who participated also represent various departments at the school and, in a number of areas, have been able to put their new knowledge into practice immediately to benefit students and promote the school’s work on internationalisation. The 34 students represented the fields of Tourism & Hospitality and Finance. Those who were selected have good interpersonal skills and had a clearly stated goal for what they wished to achieve in their future careers with the help of this new experience. After their period of mobility, participants have taken part in various activities where they have conveyed what they have learnt to others.
FSH is now at the forefront when it comes to working with internationalisation within HVE. The organisation has acquired a greater understanding of professional roles seen from a European perspective. This acquired knowledge has added an international dimension to the school’s programmes and teaching. New knowledge has been generated concerning technology and the importance of providing relevant and high quality Work Placements abroad.
Results of the project have been spread via different channels, at exhibitions and conferences. The companies tied to the different steering groups for each of the programmes have received the results during steering group meetings, graduation lunches and at networking events. Companies and organisations welcome the strategy adopted by the school with the focus on internationalisation since employees with international experience are highly appreciated.
Nationally, results from the project have been spread to a large number of HVE providers attending the HVE Days organized during autumn 2015. In May 2016, a final conference was organised by FSH where each participant’s experiences were presented orally and digitally to stakeholders, other schools and many of the companies the institute cooperates with in Sweden.
Finally, it is clear that after completing this project, FSH has strengthened international cooperation within professional vocational education in Europe, which should facilitate the future work on the implementation of ECVET.