St. Olav upper secondary school is the only one among the four upper secondary schools in Sarpsborg to offer Service & Transport (S&T), a vocational study program. After 2 years of school, the vocational training should be completed by two years of apprenticeship in a relevant business. However, private businesses are reluctant to offer apprentice contracts. Therefore the school wants to better the situation through improving the students’ preparation for entering the work market. To facilitate this, the school has started cooperation with a large German company. Germany is Østfold’s biggest and most important trade partner. Of all the vocational studies that are offered in Norway, S&T is one of the two most theory oriented. Apart from one day per week that is spent in a business, all teaching takes place in a classroom. The dropout is high. The work placement period in Germany is intended to be an incentive and a motivator for students and should work to reduce the dropout rate. LIEBHERR Verzahntechnik GMBH produces CNC-machines (computer run machines for car production, for instance) and supply big customers both in Germany (f.i. BMW, VW) and abroad (f.i. Honda). Because LIEBHERR is a cornerstone company in Kempten, the project leader has been given assurance from several local hotels that they will accept students from 2. year Tourism at St. Olav for work placement. Under the LIEBHERR umbrella, St. Olav can send 2 students from each of the three second year varieties of S&T. This gives a total of 6 students each school year that we can give work placement in Germany. A large percentage of the students at S&T have minority backgrounds. The unemployment rate for youth with a minority background in Østfold county is high. We consider our cooperative project with LIEBHERR as a preventive measure against future segregation. The selection of students for work placement in Germany will be based on attendance, behavior and reaching passing grade. All expenses will be covered. Therefore all students have equal opportunities to participate in the project, regardless of social networks and the students’ home conditions. The EUROPASS that the students will receive as documentation of completed work placement will work as an important foundation of the individual student’s CV, providing a good starting point for later employment. The work placement in Kempten will open possibilities in a globalized world for the students. They will learn new work methods and gain experience in interacting and communicating with people who speak a different language than Norwegian. The training will include giving service, solving problems and communicating with clients and customers. Through work placement our students will get the opportunity to develop a “tool box” that makes them better suited and more prepared to meet new tasks and challenges at work. Social interaction with other youths and experiencing another country’s youth culture will further develop the cultural understanding and language skills of our students. Even though we cannot provide all our students with work placement abroad, the whole student group will be involved. The project is based on mutual benefit for both partners, and LIEBHERR will send their first two apprentices with Leonardo-funding to St. Olav in April/May 2014. The apprentices will get to know the students at our school and take part in some classes during the first week. The remaining three weeks, the apprentices will be placed in local businesses. St. Olav will facilitate leisure activities together with the school’s students. We wish to inspire curiosity and a hunger for new knowledge and experience in the youths that take part in the project, so that they dare to try new things and take on new challenges. Globalization and technological developments lead to constant changes in the work market. Experience from a globally oriented workplace will widen the horizon of our students and allow them to see possibilities and solutions rather than problems and challenges. Today’s and tomorrow’s workplaces rely on innovators and entrepreneurs. Cooperation and exchange with a big industrial corporation/ hotels in Germany is meant to be an incentive and a driving force that helps our students develop positively. The most important prerequisite for our students to find their place in the work market is to complete and pass secondary education. St. Olav upper secondary school has employed a communication adviser and all school projects are distributed according to St. Olav's Communication plan.