Íz-Unió 2.
Start date: Jun 1, 2015,
End date: May 31, 2016
PROJECT
FINISHED
The mobility programme with preparation and dissemination took altogether 12 months, of which 6 weeks have been spent in Schwerin and Bremen, Germany as well as in Viborg, Denmark. Students spent 8 weeks in working places both in Tallinn, Estonia and Gerardmer, Moulin-Yzeure, France. The cooperating partners organised a well-planned and pedagogically successful learning experience for 12+6+6+15+8+6, altogether 53 young students to the destinations listed above. Participants were young vocational students from Gundel Károly Vocational School of Catering and Tourism, Budapest. All students sudy at catering and tourism section, namely cooks, waiters, confectioners. We managed to implement six mobilities in four countries in three languages within one project as they show very similar content and methods.
The programme organiser partners are well known for their dedicated and professional work. The German partner is a nonprofit civil organization, with officies all around Germany and the Baltic states, while the French and Danish are big school complexes. Each of them have been organizing and carrying out successfully such programmes for years and two of them are also sending institutions
The receiving partners have chosen the work placements, restaurants, hotels in a way that they ensured the programme to be carried out successfully. They signed contracts with the work placements and during the placement period they checked whether all the requirements listed in the contract have been met and also the development of the students.
The aims of the project are to improve the beneficiaries’ second language skills, to enable them to use technical terminology with ease. Also, to satisfy the needs of the beneficiaries that is to make them competitive on the labour market, to gain industrial experience, self confidence and maturity, to obtain employment outside their familiar surroundings, to make them acquainted with the specialities of the EU concerning career, employment and profession. According to the ECVET priorities we introduced a different way of evaluation during mobility, namely a list in three languages containing steps and learning outcomes units to be filled by the students'own vocational teachers (at the beginning and at the end of the programme) and the mentors of placement work places. Our institution is working on how to recgnize these learning outcomes. The evaluation of the mentors at the work placement is included in each students' Europass folio.
The beneficiaries are vocational school students, some of them still minors, so we sent one teacher accompanying them for the first week at each mobility except for the Danish mobility. As that has been a new mobility, our accompamónying teacher split her one week attendance into two parts: four days at the beginning and three days at the end of the mobility.
Steps of the programme: discussing and agreeing upon the conditions and circumstances, recruiting beneficiaries on the basis of their application, preparation at the sending school (students going to Estonia have had an Estonian language course after their arrival to Tallinn), travelling, work placement, travelling back home, evaluation and dissemination.
The tutorial and monitoring process run parallel with the programme therefore the opportunity has been offered to intervene whenever required.
The aim of the preparation period at the sending school was to provide beneficiaries with the chance to improve their language and professional skills needed during the work placement. Students got acquainted with the essence and rules of the programme and the laws applicable to the employees in the receiving countries. Furthermore a programme had been provided which helped students to adapt themselves to the local surroundings.
After the preparation period students attended 6 to 8 weeks of work placement. Placements had beeen organized in establishments with a close link to the host organization and reflected the ability and chosen field of the respective participants.
Students have been writing a work diary in which they described their own experiences.
The skills and learning outcomes acquired during the programme have been acknowledged on the one hand by certificates issued by the work placements on the other hand by accepting them and the work placement abroad as professional practice on the part of the sending partner.