The school community of KOGEKA organises an international training project, according to the LED-principle (Freely translated: 'Lifelike, Contemporary, Sustainable): 1 flow of pupils of the study field of Agriculture (6th year of Biotechnical Sciences and Animal and Agricultural Sciences), 1 flow of pupils of Business Management, IT & Office management & Communication, 1 flow of pupils of Wood and Construction and one of pupils in Catering. "TIP2" or "Training in Progress Part 2" refers to the continuing 'learning/training', but also 'living' and further developing your personality in a European country, different from your own. Within this project we would like to combine/unite several partners/countries. The project and the training will be part of the pupils' thesis. They will choose a subject about which they do research during their training. If possible, the training places will be chosen according to specific features of a country (eg. moose and forestry in Sweden, ICT in big hotels in Prague, veterinaries in the UK...). Our network is varied and cross-sectoral. All our partners have expressed full engagement and willingness to participate. The aims of the project are: -to let our pupils gain a real and stimulating on-the-job experience, to let them find out how company cultures might differ, which tools and methods are being used on the working floor in other European countries, to let them gain expertise and to help them to grow towards becoming skilled young professionals. -to increase our pupils' language and intercultural knowledge -to help our pupils become responsible European civilians, who realize what the significance of 'Europe' can be in everyone's life -to increase our pupils' tolerance, cross-cultural awareness, social skills and problem-solving capabilities It is very interesting for pupils to make a comparison between the different countries. Depending on the topic, they can help each other to collect information (pictures, brochures, oral explanations...). Secondly, by working in a foreign country, they will learn new working methods, competences and approaches. They can apply their usual activities in a completely new situation and find out what the differences are and also the pros and cons. Finally, but even more importantly, the pupils also live in the host country for a couple of weeks. This gives them a unique insight in life in another European country. This also needs to be described in their training report/thesis. Being submerged in a foreign country, motivates pupils to communicate in a foreign language and also to make their own decisions and take initiative. Intensive preparation for a few months prior to the training will help them to deal with this more easily. Finally we look at our pupils' future: increasing employment for our pupils and involving them more and more in the present day Europe. Besides all the experiences and valuable encounters, this training will have a 'comparative advantage' for the future of our technical and vocational pupils, both for their personal development and the chances they will get on the labour market. The expansion of the EU nowadays has triggered an expansion in the labour market. A training abroad gives our pupils an opportunity to learn about their strengths and weaknesses, and it will make an impression on their future employers. It shows that also secondary pupils are able to take risks, show entrepreneurship, have the ability to adapt and be flexible in many ways. Besides, teachers will follow a training in the companies that accept pupils as trainees. They will: - go on job shadowing en do some observations; - look for probable new partner companies; - make cross-sectoral contacts with local actors to expand our network; - follow an in-house training in one of our partner companies; - take part in in-house workshops.