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Kentering
Start date: Sep 1, 2016, End date: Aug 31, 2017 PROJECT  FINISHED 

Brussels based Emanuel Hiel Athenaeum is a rather small-scale Dutch secondary school in the municipality of Schaerbeek. One of the requirements in the Reception and Public Relations curriculum is the completion of an internship for graduation students, which offers a wide range of learning opportunities outside the classroom environment.The main goals of this internship include the following: gaining experience in a professional environment by practising and further expanding the students’ professional knowledge, competences and attitudes; acquiring general skills; and gaining an insight in the different career opportunities. Conducting an internship abroad will accelerate and intensify the accomplishment of all these goals, as well as creating and expanding a vital network, improving (foreign) language skills, building stamina and willpower, learning how to cope with stressful situations, learning how the live together and to make and keep arrangements. Other assets include the stimulation of self-reliance and assertiveness, taking up responsibilities and last but not least, knowing yourself and what you are capable of.‘Combating failure in education’, ‘equal opportunities and gender equality’ and ‘career guidance’ are the most relevant topics addressed by the project. The population of Emanuel Hiel Athenaeum is as a very heterogeneous one. Most of our students receive close monitoring and guidance in order to make sure that everybody gets equal chances and opportunities (Equal Education Opportunities Programme). By limiting our group of contestants to 15 students we can allow for individual guidance, assistance in budget and time management and Personal Developping Plan.During the course of their internship our group of students will be accompanied by two staff members of the school who will stay in the same hotel, carry out regular visits to the different internship locations, participate in all group activities, and be at the students’ disposal day and night. The companies abroad in which the students will conduct their intership have been meticuously selected. Every individual student will be assigned an internship position in a four- or five-star hotel in Funchal. They will carry out an array of front and back office tasks, all of which require a high standard of service. During their forty-hour working week the participants will cover morning, afternoon and evening shifts. In their spare time they can go shopping, practise sports, prepare meals, relax and get acquainted to the other tourists and the inhabitants of Funchal. Every weekend the students will go on one or more organised excursions, including a levada walking tour, a visit to the city of Funchal, a boat excursion to the island of Porto Santo and the city of Porto Moniz, horseback riding and cycling tours.The students will not leave unprepared. English and German classes will focus on vocabulary and conversations which are commonly used in the field of hotel and hospitality, two teachers from the Czech Republik will teach workshops on how to carry out a professional phone call, a Red Cross employee will teach a first aid class, a ULB Art History professor will lecture on ‘Aspects of Flemish Art in Madeira’, and a lecturer of Erasmus School for Higher Education will introduce the students to the Opera Hotel Booking Software System. There will also be a few information sessions on rules of conduct, contracts and insurance.The students will draw up a list of competentions which they already possess and formulate competentions and goals that they will work towards. They will make a daily evaluation of their progress and make adjustments based on the comments of their mentor, hotel guests, co-workers, fellow students, and their supervisor. The impact of the whole experience on the students’ professional and personal level will be intensified by a thorough and intense guidance. Even if the long-term effects of this experience are currently not entirely clear to this day, it goes without saying that the participants will remember their internship abroad as the highlight of their secondary school career.A photo report of the preliminary activities and the actual internship can be found on the Public Revelations Facebook page : https://www.facebook.com/Public-Revelations-216626638482524/?ref=hl.

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