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Europas Kaufleute im Auslandspraktikum
Start date: Jun 1, 2014, End date: May 31, 2016 PROJECT  FINISHED 

The mobility project of the Berufsbildende Schulen der Stadt Osnabrück focused on commercial trainees from the Dual System who are specializing in European business and on thon of other core commercial areas as well as the personal assistants for foreign languages and correspondence in commerce at our school who wished to expand their understanding of taking up employment in Europe. The objective was to facilitate the acquisition of competencies in the international business arena by means of work placements running three-to-six weeks with partner institutions and businesses in various European countries which notably improves their professional knowledge as well as foreign language competences and employment chances of participants within the EU. The BBS Pottgraben in Osnabrück wanted to increase the number of students taking part in international vocational work placements. This was to be accomplished by sharing an overview of the experience gained by previous Leonardo projects with potential participants - starting from general information and project preparation, moving to the actual work experience itself and concluding with reflection. This makes the learning process and outcomes more transparent. As host institutions, businesses offered work placements arranged either by our partner “Partnership Europe“ in Cork (Ireland) or by companies that were approached by trainees/training institutions in foreign countries in Europe. In addition we visited a Spanish partner. Our original intention was to cooperate with this partner in this project but as the initiation process took longer than expected we have just started to send students via this partner in our new project EuroKapIV. 19 mobility activities were done by student trainees, mainly from the so-called dual vocational area and European commercial assistants, who already had acquired a basic business knowledge and had gained work experience in German companies. For the specific preparation of more potential trainee-mobility activities in Spain and Ireland we used three activities for teaching staff. Selection of participants was carried out by means of a proven and tested application procedure (application form, Europass CV etc.). This was followed up by an exchange of information with our partners or the businesses at the respective locations. Participants signed agreements which included specific learning objectives. Preparations for carrying out the project were arranged jointly. During the work placement abroad our partners supported the participants in the country of destination and ensured employment corresponding to the learning agreement. At this stage the apprentices/student trainees noted down their experiences and newly acquired skills. They passed them on to the teachers and processed them after their return to share them with their class mates, training companies and other interested people. Desired impacts were the personal and professional development of the participants, who transmitted their collected insights into school and many areas beyond, like their companies and friends. Therefore structures of thoughts and existing opinions with regard to different countries are changing, young adults are striving stronger for a work placement abroad and training companies are becoming more open to mobility activities. Additionally acquired competencies of the apprentices / trainees during the period abroad were recognized more precisely and made transparent with respect to lifelong learning by the Europass mobility certificate. Through this project existing partnerships of previous projects have been enhanced, the cooperation in terms of the promotion of intercultural exchange has been improved and a framework for the development of a European identity provided.
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