Let's make VET better.
Start date: Jul 1, 2014,
End date: May 31, 2016
PROJECT
FINISHED
In the province of Noord-Brabant there are six regional schools for intermediate
vocational training that have supported each other for years on the developments
of Internationalization. We meet on a quarterly basis every year and during those
meetings anything worth mentioning is shared. Where necessary, teachers’ and
students’ grants can be shared as well. This has been done successfully for years
now and in 2013 the idea was born to apply for a shared-grant for staff mobility.
We thought it would be a good idea if staff members of different schools could
learn from each other during that trip.
To allow as many staff members as possible to participate it was decided to take
departure from the ideas/wishes from staff members instead of from a clear-cut
program.
And because Finland has obtained good results during PISA examinations and
because all vocational schools have partner-schools in Finland, we decided to offer
Finland as the country to visit. In addition, we thought it would provide extra grip
to the staff members. Finally, we decided to apply for a grant for 16 staff
members so that we could visit in 2 groups of 8 people each. A Coordinator of
Internationalization would not accompany them.
That it was a great success was proven from the start. Instead of a group of 8, we
had to form a first group of 12 staff members, because there were so many
applications from all participating schools – and we wanted to allow as many as
possible to go.
Unfortunately, we could only allow 6 people to go in the second group, due to
insufficient funds. Of course, allowing 18 people to go is still better than 16 – even
though we easily could have had a second group of 12 if funds had been
permitting.
After taking care of all applications and intake interviews of staff members, we
contacted those schools in Finland which could meet the wishes and ideas of the
staff members. This led to a 2-day trip to 2 different schools in Finland who had
made a program for our groups.
Both visits were very successful and all 18 staff members were extremely satisfied
about the organization and what was learned in Finland. Each staff member was
given quality time with a Finnish confrere to have his/her questions answered.
Both groups also clearly indicated the added value of traveling with colleagues of
the participating Dutch vocational schools – during liberty time a lot of information
about procedures and methods were exchanged.
As Coordinators of Internationalization we have decided to organize a trip such as
this in the (near) future.
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