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Mobilité de l'Académie de Strasbourg
Start date: Jul 1, 2014, End date: Jun 30, 2016 PROJECT  FINISHED 

On the initiative of the Local Education Authority of Strasbourg under the guidance of the International Unit of the LEA of Strasbourg (DAREIC) and based upon the expertise of the GIP FCIP Alsace, the MOSTRA project - MObility of STRAsbourg - aimed at creating a consortium of vocational schools (13) and 1 apprenticeship centre in order to favour the international mobility of both apprentices / learners and staff. Based on the evidence that the apprentices and vocational schools students were less mobile than their general studies peers, Mrs. Le Pellec-Muller, chief education officer of LEA of Strasbourg in 2014, wished to give priority to the vocational field in agreement with the academic project. At the end of July 2014, the project was approved and the first mobilities took place in november 2014 (time needed to establish agreements and communicate). The project showed some weaknesses at its start: - the launch of the project was not matching the school year calendar ; - many changes in the staff : 4 heads of the GIP FCIP Alsace succeeded one another over the two-year lifetime span of the MOSTRA project and the departure of the 2 writers of the project have obstructed the proceedings of the project ; the change of the team at the internationale unit led to the postponement of some staff mobilities to Finland and Great-Britain ; - when school started again in September 2014, one school announced that they withdrew from the MOSTRA project, while a second one let us know that they cancelled one hundred six-week mobilities. A third one performed no mobilities at all - neither for pupils, nor for staff. Finally, hospitality and catering schools using the summer break to allow their students to long periods of in-companies-training (6-8 weeks) were unable to include this training periods in the MOSTRA project ; - there was a mistake in the registration of the accompanying teachers in the application as some accompanying staff had been registered as learners, plus there was an underestimation of the accompanying staff needed ; There were several objectives to the MOSTRA project : galvanize the international mobility in the vocational studies field so as to increase both language and professional skills of the students while increasing their self-confidence in order to lead them to a continuation in their studies and to a better integration of the job market. For the staff, the MOSTRA project aimed at allowing them to enhance their professional training and both their academic and language skills and at the same time to experience other school systems. As far as the schools are concerned, the goal of a consortium was to encourage and reinforce a network of schools in order to pool ressources and enrich good practices and innovative tools, to create a network of the same vocational fields of studies, and to strengthen the links between schools and the world of work. The students were mainly National Vocational Qualification Level 2 and Level 3, many of them ranged from 16 to 18 when they first went on mobility. About thirty learners left, which is not simple as their managers are not very likely to let them go for several weeks. In the hotel schools, some technological field students also benefited from these mobilities. A majority of young women went on mobilities. Most of the activities for the learners was organised by the French teachers in partnership with their foreign colleagues and with the tutors in the companies. This required a preparatory collaborative work beforehand and then a constant follow up through visits by the accompanying teachers and via regular contacts, and to finish with the evaluation lead collaboratively by the teachers and the tutors in the companies. The International Unit also helped for the search of placements by means of its academic partners. Concerning the staff, the schools benefiting from a traditional partner organised their trainings. For the others, who mainly wished to go to England or to Finland, the International Unit organized the training periods with 2 before mentioned partners in Finland and in England. For the students, the results in terms of learning benefits are assessed in the professional field with the acquisition of new working methods, in terms of social skills (autonomy, adaptability to an unknown environment, …) and in terms of language skills (assessed after the mobility in language lessons). The impact on the staff are more intangible: their language level has increased and they have discovered new professional practices. What will remain for the students on the personal development level will be a gain in maturity, a bigger open-mindedness and a bigger appetence for languages. The image of the school has changed, it is more perceived as rooted in a dynamic of employability thanks to its international opening. For the LEA of Strasbourg, we notice a new implication of the directors in the international opening policy.

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