Opening up to Europe has been regarded as a key area of development and identification for the subject area of Business and Administration taught in our school. The school’s educational project is based around 3 key notions; self-belief, judgment and self-development. Going toward the other, sharing, building up, opening one’s mind, challenge, citizenship, relationships with others or growing up are keywords to illustrate these ideas and are fully compatible with our commitment to the development of a genuine European citizenship for our students . Our desire for this European dimension is part of this approach and fits in perfectly with this ambition. All the students who have completed their studies in Business and Administration in our school have been offered a trip abroad to a major European city at some point. Since 2004, the school has taught European Classes in English and Spanish on a voluntary basis with vocational subjects taught in English. The school has been involved in three European funded projects for nearly ten years : The Comenius, Leonardo and Erasmus Projects. A financial contribution has been granted by the school for each student having a work experience abroad. This 24-month mobility project is intended to students in our vocational school studying Administration, retail or Sales. The target group consists of students who were not allowed to attend schools that teach academic subjects therefore seeing themselves as failing at school. Only a few of them came here because they wanted to , most of them being here because they have no other choice. The factors that could motivate the students do not seem to appeal to them. This project will therefore help to remotivate them, to highlight their efforts and restore their self-confidence, to bring them back the pleasure of learning and doing their schoolwork regularly but also to make them aware of the European reality in all its diversity and richness and help them realize all the opportunities that Europe can offer. This group of 8 boys and girls who are in the final year of a 3- year course will go to Bristol for five weeks from mid-September to late October. Most of them who are 17 to 19 years old, belong to the European class designed to prepare them at school for this experience abroad including extra English lessons and extra lessons of vocational subjects taught in English every week. In Bristol, they are placed in a host family on their own with no other guest. The mobility starts with a week of intensive English Language courses organis ed by Académie Aquitaine,our intermediate partner for five years, Debbie being also the contact person and their tutor during the stay. Practising English and role-plays in working situations help them build self-confidence before the training period starts the following week. This 4-week internship from late September to the mid-term holiday is set, according to the dates of the fifth training period done by all our students in their final year. On their flight to Bristol, the group is accompanied by their English teacher who takes this opportunity to meet the companies and shops’ managers again and remind them of the objectives to reach. At the end of the mobility, two teachers in Sales and Administration visit each workplace to fill in the official Assessment grid together with the student and the tutor and then fly back with them. This project also supports the attainment of training objectives in a European context where company practices are different. These assessments are taken into account in the vocational subjects of their final exam. This experience abroad is also tested during an oral exam which helps the beneficiary graduate with the European class option. The Europass portfolio and the Europro certificate are given to the students on a special European evening at the school. Through mobility the beneficiaries can certify the skills acquired and the competences developed such as integration, independence, open-mindedness, communication in a foreign language. We have been able to assess the progress made by the students in: - the need for mobility as many plan to have other work experiences in Europe - job and career opportunities on the European market - their ability to adapt to a new context (personal or professional) - European citizenship - diversity of European culture and cultural understanding - increased self-confidence and a greater maturity - more educational opportunities at a higher level. Today our school wants to play an important role in the European projects and disseminates the benefits. We have been contacted by The house of Europe in Bordeaux for a few projects and by the Specialist Schools and Academies Trust in London, the organisation which oversees specialist schools in England, to organise a vocational study visit for teachers to Bordeaux. The focus of the visit was to look at good practice in the areas of vocational education/bilingual teaching.