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Trainees and teachers gain international competenc..
Trainees and teachers gain international competence and working experience
Start date: Jun 1, 2014,
End date: May 31, 2016
PROJECT
FINISHED
The goal of the project, the improvement of the quality of education in our school, as well as the sustainabel increasement of the job opportunities for our graduates has been reached, even it is almost impossible to directly measure this. This is a long-term result which can not be measured with available short-term tools. The internship abroad in the European Union improved subject and language skills without any doubt. Additionally, the independence, self-confidence, and approach to the Project “Europe” of the students developed very positively.
The proposed project expanded significantly the existing mobility projects at our college. As part of the two-year project, 32 talented and interested young people completed their internships at our partner school’s, or at private-sector companies in other EU countries. ERASMUS PLUS assured the funding and the legal framework for this project. In return, HTL- Villach received approximately the same number of trainees and guest lecturers from our partner schools and project partners.
Additionally, 9 teachers traveled to multi-day “Job Shadowing” programs to learn about the newest technical developments in Europe directly on site. They incorporated the newfound information into their classes at our educational institution which was a classical "know-how" transfer. These Job-Shadowing visits were implemented in brief periods, from four to five days, so that the teachers involved, didn´t not lose too much time for regular teaching in our college. (This was a pre-condition of our headmaster!). Therefore, teachers traveled abroad mainly during school-free days (school holidays / public holidays / extended weekends). This system worked well and can be further recommended. However, case one has to visit annother college, this is mostly not possible during holidays, since they are very simular in all countries.
As a pilot project, two teachers from the HTL Villach switched simultaniously with teachers from our partner schools in Uppsala (Sweden) and Berlin and instructed at the other school for 1 and 2 weeks. We are still at the beginning stages of this process, which will continue to develop, as the national school legislation are not yet attuned to the far-reaching possibilities of ERASMUS PLUS (eg. payment for the expatriate teachers, responsibility for the students in the foreign school, insurance, etc…). The experience gained in this "pilot project" is now available for anybody interested upon request.
Due do this Eramus project we could strenghen and expand our school-partnership relations with partner schools in Slovenia, Sweden, Germany, Italy and Sweden, Croatia and France. Also we could increase our partner company network to many new countries in Europe. (See attached grafic). Our existing network has been very usefull for the sucessfull implementation of this project, but, however, with support of the "Erasmus-family" we are still increasing these network on a permanent basis.
The used quality assurance measures (Learning agreements, MOU`s, work contracts, written evaluation, and ECEVET credit points evaluation) ensured the educational quality of training at a high level. Workshop teachers, language teachers, engineers and general education instructors evaluated the quality of training during the process. We checked wit our ECVET-list not only the technical but also social skills of our students abroad. All internships have been ACCEPTED by or teachers like a the regular INTERNSHIP every HTL student has to perform.
The chairmanship of the implemented project rested with the “Parents and Development Association of the HTL Villach”, which guaranteed for sustainability. The project has been operated through the “Office of International Relations and Mobillity Programs at the HTL Villach”, in specifical via employees with extensive experience in student exchange and international project management.
The reciprocal control in project management, has been ensured due to the employed “four-eyes” principle. The authorities of the management of the project (the project manager as well as his deputies) and the finance management (the chairwoman and the treasurer of the parents association) have been separated.
This was the FIRST ErasmusPlus Project implemented by HTL-Villach. When drafting the first proposal we didn´t know exactely the requirements of our students and teachers and we just could assume their wishes. Now, with the experience of two years, we know much better the need and this has been reflected in our new project proposal.