Search for European Projects

Higher education student and staff mobility project
Start date: Jun 1, 2014, End date: May 31, 2016 PROJECT  FINISHED 

Our institution trains secondary school pupils and students for higher education diploma (BTSA) in the fields of landscaping and environment. Over the course of the last 15 years we have annually organized study trips in European countries, mainly in the United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland and also in Netherlands and Spain. We began organizing work placements abroad in 2009 and we obtained the Erasmus Charter in 2010. This Charter allowed us to establish partnerships in England, accomplish 2 Staff mobilities for Training in 2011, one incoming professional mobility for Teaching in 2012, and one student mobility for Placement in 2014. For the last 3 years we have hosted higher education trainees as linguistic and cultural assistants for 6 months periods (2 English speaking and 1 Spanish speaking) and they have contributed to our European openness. We obtained the 2014 Erasmus+ Charter. Our general goals for this project were of lingual and cultural, professional, and pedagogical nature. We have made progress in these 3 areas, but only to some extent, due to a small number of obtained mobilities. However, we have developed our partnerships and improved the quality and impact of our mobilities, which caused a ripple effect and a bigger European involvement of the whole institution. The 2014 project enabled us to strengthen our alliances with England and form a partnership with a Spanish institution, IFA of Jaca, regarding student and staff mobilities. Participants: • Student mobility: 2 students enrolled in the BTSA Landscaping curriculum spent a two-month placement together in an English landscaped garden in Kent, they were motivated by their training and mobility, although with a rather beginners’ level in English before the mobility. • Staff mobility: one Socio-Cultural Education teacher, very committed professionally and with a very good level of Spanish, has completed a 5-day mobility at IFA of Jaca. This mobility helped her to understand the school’s training system, and participate in pedagogical lessons and tutorials. Thanks to her participation in a field trip she was also able to compare professional practices regarding the management of natural landscapes and forestry. Realized activities: • Student mobilities: briefings for the entering classes, preparatory meetings and help with setting up the mobility (finding an internship placement, applications, administrative files, and requests for grants), organization of a day for cultural preparation before the departure, overseeing and visiting the interns with OM funding, organizing time for debriefing and personal and professional evaluation after the return, organizing time for a questions and answers session between the students who have already been abroad and the student candidates. These activities were organized mainly thanks to the Erasmus+ correspondent’s allocated hours. • Staff mobility: collaborative work with the candidate teacher in order to define the programme, organization of the mobility and the settlement of administrative and financial matters, contact via e-mail during the mobility, discussion after the return, organizing time for a presentation at a teacher plenary meeting. Results: • Student and staff mobilities worked out perfectly, all participants were very satisfied with their gained experiences and acquired skills, both linguistic and professional. The mobilities were an opportunity for many personal and very rich cultural exchanges and have further increased the motivation for international studies or an experience abroad. The supervision of the internship mobility made it possible to specify pedagogical expectations and check the quality of staff members and accommodation. Training-related mobility resulted in a partnership in Spain. Despite a slight delay the students received pre-financing and grant payments. For the staff mobility, the school paid transport tickets and gave an advance payment for other costs. Impact: • These mobilities have a ripple effect on the institution’s European dynamics: students’ applications for European and international internships are multiplying and an educational team of teachers has been formed for carrying out European projects. After returning from her mobility the teacher started a student international club and voluntarily engaged in many international cooperation activities. • Teams responsible for management, administration, and accounting have developed methods that improve effectiveness in contractual and financial terms. Progress in the dissemination activity should even improve that impact in the future. Long-term benefits: Progress in the quality of our mobilities is a step towards the improvement of our pedagogy, the development of our partnerships, and implementation of strategic partnerships.
Up2Europe Ads