The project WPA III(‘Work placements abroad III‘) is a follow-up project to the project ‚WPA’ that commenced in 2011 and was awarded that year with the Leonardo da Vinci Mobility Certificate by the NABIBB (National Agency Education for Europe at the Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training in Germany) and WPAII as an ERASMUS+ project starting in 2014. The project is applied and coordinated by the ‚Berufskolleg West der Stadt Essen‘, a vocational college in Essen in the German federal state of North Rhine Westphalia, Germany. The European partners are either vocational colleges working as mediating partners or companies - all of them are situated in six nations of the EU. WPAIII focusses on both mobilities of apprentices in initial dual vocational training on ISCED level 4 education in courses related to chemistry, security services and engineering and ‚TANDEM mobilities’ of teachers and in-company instructors from partners in initial dual vocational training. The main sustainable objectives of this project are to continue previous work and to contribute to the “Europe 2020 strategy“ by encouraging the learning and working within a European context and by collaborating with companies and educational institutions within the region, i.e. consolidation of the internationalisation strategy of the Berufskolleg West and collaboration with training companies and the Chamber of Commerce and their complete integration into the implementation of mobilities also with regard to the quality commitment in learning agreements and ECVET transparency instruments.Therefore…• involvement of the stakeholders in vocational training and those in the labour market in order to strengthen the region as a business location and enhancing its competitiveness• providing training personnel of the vocational college and instructors in companies adequate instruments for the encouragement of individuals to pursue work placements abroad• effecting quality objectives in vocational training by implementing mobilities and its outcomes into curricula and in-company training• sustainable development of social and personal skills (soft skills) of apprentices including flexibility, communications skills, team spirit and tolerance through vocational work experience within a different cultural context• sustainable development of apprentices’ technical skills by taking into consideration both the level of training and individual requirements and hereby increasing their opportunities on the labour market• development of language skills, primarily the knowledge of English as lingua franca