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Get Professional Skills II
Start date: Sep 1, 2014, End date: Aug 31, 2015 PROJECT  FINISHED 

Vocational School Cior, located in Vila Nova de Famalicão, North region of Portugal, works in the field of teaching and vocational training for more than 20 years. The so called region of Vale do Ave is currently characterized by a hard social crisis caused by high unemployment rates among students' familes and young people's difficulties in entering the labour market, especially those who have completed their training courses. This situation has contributed to a decrease in the motivation of young people, namely in the conclusion of their educational journey, and consequently in the rates of early school leaving. The Mobility Project - "GPS II - Get Professional Skills II" - consists in carrying out 45 mobilities related to training in the workplace, aimed at young people who are attending/ have completed their vocational training, and at teachers from Vocational Scool Cior. This project is defined in 2 parts - one for young people and one for teachers, with 3 lines of action/ activities, that are complimentary and coordinated: - A 1st line of action which covers vocational students who are attending the 3rd and final year of their vocational level IV course, and is part of their training plan in a real work environment; it is addressed to 25 students. 5 students from each finalist class will be selected to perform a 8 week work placement in a company of the Partner country. - A second line of action which is addressed to recent graduates students from each of the vocational provided in Cior, so as to strengthen their employability skills and facilitate their transition to the labour market. This action involves 10 newly graduated students from Cior ; - Finally a line of action which aims to involve 10 teachers from Cior, so as to improve their training practice and promote the quality of vocational training provided. In this line of work, we expect that the teachers involved in the mobility and the remaining school staff will have the opportunity to acquire in loco knowledge related to methodologies and vocational training systems of other countries in Europe, so that the observation of good practices and the debate on the issues of students' motivation and strategies to fight early school leaving, will bring concrete contributions to improve the quality of the training process. The GPS project 's main objectives are to : a) provide participants the acquisition of knowledge and skills over a training placement period in an organization from another Member State ; b ) facilitate personal development and integration into the labour market; c ) encourage the learning of foreign languages; d ) promote the cooperation between training organizations and companies at a European level ; e) promote the European dimension of education and internalization of the European citizenship concept; f ) provide participants the direct contact with industrial realities different from those they face daily; g ) raise levels of completion and lower rates of school dropout ; h ) improve school human resources; f ) encourage the sharing of best practices among professionals in the partner countries, for enhancing strategies and motivation of students to complete their training pathway; g ) strengthen the competitiveness of the European labor market. Beyond these mobility planned activities, the project also includes preparation activities and the monitoring and support to participants, as well as the activities for the project evaluation and dissemination of results, namely the organization of the Europe Day and the organization of the final seminar to present the results . With the implementation of the project, we expect that the involved participants will develop personal and professional skills in their areas of expertise; acquire a deeper understanding of the professional context and of the tasks to develop; become more aware of their European citizenship status; and become able to transfer and adapt the knowledge to the national contexts and reality; this in the search for continuous improvement of training systems to meet the individual needs and the labour market needs too. Besides the expected impact to be achieved in the direct participants, we also expect that this project will have a long term impact in the educational community, both in students' motivation and commitment to complete the training paths, in the reduction of dropout rates and in encouraging the participation in new mobility and learning lifelong learning projects. In what concerns the teachers involved and the entire educational community, in addition to the skills and knowledge to be acquired, we expect to increase their awareness towards the importance of non-formal learning, and to promote the sharing and discussion of best practices and strategies to increase students' motivation and educational success .
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