45 male and female participants from different socio-economic backgrounds aged between 18 and 33 undertook a vocational training placement abroad. Completion of a work placement is mandatory on all full time courses in Coláiste Dhúlaigh, College of Further Education in order to achieve a full QQI award. We offer the opportunity to complete this abroad in order to enhance trainees? personal and professional development, to develop intercultural awareness, and to increase trainees? confidence, independence and maturity. Through international exchange we aim to give our students better employment opportunities in Ireland and abroad. An important goal of our college as a whole is to raise the profile of VET with learners, their families and society in general. All trainees followed the curriculum in the areas of social care, nursing, architecture, fashion, interior design, graphics, outdoor education, media and languages. Between February and April 2015 they worked for 3 weeks in office administration, retail, education, social care, health care, architects, design and advertising offices, Radio, and in sailing schools in 6 countries: Germany, Holland, Hungary, Sweden, Finland, France and France (Corsica). These were organised in cooperation with local partner organisations who are experts in their fields and provide us with excellent quality placements. Trainees covered the normal syllabi of their courses, including Communications and IT, and extra linguistic and cultural preparation before they went on placement. The project gave participants the opportunity to experience living and working abroad. They applied the practical skills they had learned in all the modules previous to their work placements. Besides experiencing real working life they needed to adapt to a different way of working and living in unfamiliar surroundings in a different European culture and language. The aims were to introduce students to the wider European market, to give them more employment options, to support and nurture students? interest in travel and adventure, to instill curiosity in discovering new cultures, to broaden their minds and enhance their personal development, to increase students? confidence in themselves, to develop their international awareness and understanding of cultural diversity , to develop a sensitivity towards people from other cultural backgrounds, to enhance their professional expertise and to expand their linguistic ability. Students were to develop survival skills and coping strategies in very unfamiliar surroundings in formal, semi-formal and informal situations. They were to learn that speaking a different language and coming from a different cultural background is not a hindrance to working in a foreign environment. All this was achieved and more. They adapted to different lifestyles, developed team working skills, a sense of responsibility, and became more mature, tolerant, flexible, and resourceful. They developed empathy towards migrants since they experienced what it is like to be living and working in a foreign country. Initial aims and final outcomes were well matched. They managed well outside their comfort zone, learned from positive and negative situations. They forged friendships with other international students which will continue beyond the project and encourage further travel. They received good to excellent reports from their employers. Employers were happy with the performance and are very interested in continuing collaboration. All students acquired the Europass. Some were offered employment in their placements which boosted confidence immensely. We have established links with universities in England and Ireland which secures students who do well access to the first year of 3rd level courses or even advanced entry into 2nd or final year of University courses. Some of the nursing students were accepted on to degree course of University of Wolverhampton in UK where our college has established a link; others got accepted to level 7 and 8 courses in Irish universities and all of them were accepted into their next year of further study. Trainees mentioned to us that they were sure that the experience abroad helped to achieve their successful application. On return Irish participants gave presentations to their colleagues in Communications, Social Studies and other relevant classes and discussed experiences among themselves and on twitter and facebook. Some also keep in touch with their mentors abroad, informing them about their progress which is a great compliment to the companies and helps to disseminate the project and its benefits. The college held an international culture day which was broadcast live by the local radio station NearFM and some participants contributed on the programme talking about the Erasmus+ project and their time abroad.The placements are a great marketing tool for Coláiste Dhúlaigh and Dublin City ETB and help improve the image of Further Education

Coláiste Dhúlaigh intends to send 40 participants, and 10 staff on accompanying and training assignments of participants to partner institutions abroad in 2017. At a transnational Cooperation seminar held in Malahide in November 2015 we expanded our partnership to a second college in Finland where we want to send nursing and childcare students in the future. We also have increased the fields of expertise in the City of Helsinki College, our longstanding partner in nursing and social care. With City of Helsinki college we have now included Graphics, Animation and Media. Staff from this college will visit us in February and we are planning to visit them in September/October with the view of sending students on placement in the following spring. They are also interested in a possible cooperation in a KA2 project in the future. We have also included a new partner from Malta in this application which will provide a wonderful opportunity for our Tourism students, in making this connection we are benefiting from the experience of our sister colleges within CDETB who have been sending students to Malta for many years. This placement will allow our tourism students to learn many of the skills of customer service in one of Europe's premier tourist destinations. As we intend to send a bigger number of students (16) on this placement and it is a new destination for us we would like to send 2 accompanying persons in the first year. Many of the students in the tourism programme are just school leavers and may not have had the experience of traveling unaccompanied by parents/guardians previously. Unfortunately we had to cancel our previous arrangement with Hungarian partners and we hope to put the extra resourcing into these Maltese placements . As Principal of the college I have seen first hand the benefits of participation in this project and the impact it had on students, accompanying tutors, and all in our college first hand. We want to increase the impact of the mobility project in our college even further by including staff mobility with the view of expanding student mobilities. We have an opportunity to become involved in a KA 2 project in the area of media, however our capacity does not allow for it at this moment in time. This would greatly increase the impact. We have identified the need for progression in Animation. Helsinki City College offers Media courses through English, so our students could progress to Helsinki if they were interested in taking on gaming within Animation. Our own course is more a traditional animation course. This in return could attract Finnish students to our animation course. We are very excited about this development and want to send tutors in September/October to examine this possibility. This would greatly increase the impact of the project at an international level and be in line with our intention as stated in the charter application of including staff mobility into future projects. As always we send accompanying tutors with the students to ensure their safety and to settle them into the new culture and working environment since many of our students are from less privileged socio economic backgrounds and have not been abroad before. With the new addition of tutor assignments we want to upskill tutors and develop new course content and research future skills needs. This would impact further on internationalization strategy of Coláiste Dhúlaigh. It would energise staff and bring valuable input of new ideas. The College is at present involved in a European Project called Skills for Work and as part of the work on that project we have researched/observed the tools and methodology used in evaluating work placements in 4 EU countries (Germany, N.Ireland, Slovenia and Austria) and we are ready to pilot tools which we can use for the evaluation of future work placements including these project placements. Previous mobility projects have helped to identify skills gaps and especially the important link between industry and education. From our partners abroad we wish to gain an insight into how they organise these links and how they interact with industry and discuss and identify new developments and industry needs so that this can be integrated into the college curriculum.Our students cherish the experience that this project provides and for most it is the high point and most remembered part of the college year. The staff involved take on a lot of extra work, but they are highly rewarded by the positive feedback from the participants and they value the opportunity to see different colleges and work places.Our college has a wide variety of courses and it can be challenging for our students to find relevant placements in Ireland, the European placements fill this gap and gives all a glimpse of relevant industries in another country. This project allows us to prepare our students for successful participation in Irish and European Society.

"One of Europe's priorities for 2020 is to invest in education and to encourage people to “learn, study and update their skills in order to increase employability across Europe"".In this context, our objective was to offer the opportunity of undertaking a vocational training placement abroad to 48 male & female students of a wide age range between 18 up to 60, and from different socio-economic backgrounds. All of these students have been following the curriculum of a variety of courses in order to secure quality jobs either in the local community or further afield. A work placement is compulsory in all courses. In addition, we offered this opportunity to create awareness of other cultures, to learn more about their own culture, increase independence and greater maturity. We open up the wider world of the European labour market to our students and bring Europe into the classroom. We promote intercultural awareness, tolerance towards others, and active European citizenship. This project addressed some of the key competences outlined for lifelong learning in the ET 2020. The real life working environment brings about an improvement in language and foreign language competency, in cultural awareness, in personal growth, in team working and in strengthening professional technical skills relevant to participants’ course of study. Participants were selected via application form and interview, and placed in suitable placements which were organised in consultation with our partner colleges abroad. In the case of Hungary, Skype interviews were held in advance of finding the placements. Partner institutions follow similar programmes and are centres of excellence providing best practice and expertise in their fields. The training content is directly related to participants’ course of study and is certified using the QQI Level 5/6 Work Experience Module. The courses involved were Languages & European Studies, Outdoor Adventure Management, Social Care, Health Science (Pre-Nursing), Special Needs Assisting (Childcare) and Business.Unfortunately, due to insurance issues, learner mobilities in Hungary for our Graphic, Architectural Technology, Interior Design and Media students did not take place. All placements were for a period of 3 weeks between January 2016 and February 2017. There were student flows to, Sweden, Finland, Holland and Hungary and 2 separate flows to destinations in France. Participants experienced real working life with the extra bonus /challenge of doing this in a foreign country. Foreign language students worked in offices, shops and schools and stayed with host families. Total immersion in the foreign language and culture helped improve their level of understanding of language, culture and different work practices as well as of speaking the language.Outdoor Adventure Management students worked in top class sailing schools, prepared boats and equipment for the new season and also took part in some training activities with clients. Social Care students worked in pre-schools, youth centres and Special Needs Assistants worked in special needs centres engaging and supporting clients with mental and physical disabilities. They interacted with clients and had to use body language and be very creative when interacting with the children and young adults. Nursing students worked with the elderly and assisted in the intimate care of the clients. Three Business students in Hungary worked in hotels and 2 worked in a media company. The students in the media company gained invaluable experience in digital marketing and were assigned tasks on a daily basis. Participants were monitored and mentored by a tutor from the partner college and by a supervisor in the company. A tutor from the sending college also accompanied the participants at the start of the placement to settle them in and to view the placements and make sure all was up to standard. Participants were in touch with their own co-ordinator via email and contacted the mentoring tutor from the partner college where any issues arose. Evaluation of the placement was carried out by the mentoring tutor and supervisor at the end of the placement. The supervisor’s report contributes to 40% of the assessment marks for the QQI Work Experience Module. Participants were required to write a preparatory report, submit a daily reflective diary and a reflective evaluation for completion of the full module and were assessed by their course tutor and certified by QQI. The impact of the project is that it increases confidence, maturity and self-development of participants, as well as increasing intercultural awareness of participants, staff, colleges and local industries in Ireland and abroad through direct contact with respective partners and students. It has improved the quality of teaching, and increased networks of international contacts. It opens the college and wider community to the whole of Europe and encourages mobility & active European citizenship."

Coláiste Dhúlaigh CFE intended to send 50 learning mobilities, nine accompanying staff and seven staff on training mobilities to our partner institutions in Europe in 2017-2018. In terms of learner mobilities we have continued to strengthen our relationships with our existing partners and also extended our application to include some new partners, new destinations and new programme areas as outlined in our Charter based on our internationalisation strategy. This year two staff from the Media Department engaged in a teacher/training mobility and two students are going for a six week placement in Helsinki Television. We originally applied for four mobilities for three weeks to this placement opportunity but due to the nature of the work placement the partner requested two students for six weeks in order to complete a specific project. This has resulted in us sending 48 learner mobilities in year one of the charter rather than 50 as originally applied for. As evident in the application we will continue our Learner Mobilities in Finland, Sweden, the Netherlands, France (Corsica), Spain and Malta. As part of our expansion Malta is deemed a very suitable destination for our tourism and design students as it is an English speaking destination with a strong heritage and with UNESCO sites. We launched a new partner mobilities with Slovenia, and we reengaged with a partner from previous years in Hungary. Our Hungarian partner was offering placements in the building and construction area but during the recession the numbers of students studying in this area had become depleted and now that students are interested in studying in these disciplines again we were happy to reengage with these partners. Our partner in Finland hosted 2 staff members from the Media Department, one who was also an Assistant Principal in this college, who reported back on how the management of this college of a similar size and provision catchment in the city of Helsinki is managed. A short video of this trip was made and show to the senior staff (available at which has directly led to the idea of the development of a traineeship in cooperation with the Animation industry locally. As part of year two of our charter relating to Staff Mobility we are going to send two more tutors to the Helsinki Vocational College in Finland to share learning and best practice around the ever evolving Media industry. In this application, we are re-establishing our partnership in Budapest with the view to sending business students in 2018. During the year we acquired a new partner; Club Mistral in Fuerteventura, Spain which is a windsurfing school and presents a wonderful opportunity for our Outdoor Education students. Our first four learners are due to go there in April 2017. In this application we have included two new partner, the first is in Slovenia called ZNI and they have been recommended by the fellow colleagues within CDETB. We were also part of a consortium involved in a 'Skills for Work' KA2 project in which a college from Slovenia was one of the partners and we were impressed by their work placement procedures in the VET sectors and how they engage with industry. In our Charter we committed to extending our provision within the college. The Science and IT Department have expressed an interest and so a new partner has been established with ZNI in Slovenia. The coordinator has reassured us that there are relevant quality placements available to our learners. In this application, a staff mobility for professional development is planned for in the following academic year. Following the VET GET Connected Seminar held in Dublin in November 2016, a new partner in Seville was established. Albert Einstein College is considered an appropriate partner for our learners as it has a very similar student profile, disciplines, size and structure to our own college. In this application we are seeking a staff mobility to that college with a view to observing different teaching methodologies and practices. The college has been facilitating internships for Spanish students from Rua Saint Clemente in Santiago de Compostela and we are now seeking to formalise this exchange of best practice by seeking a staff exchange with this college in this Erasmus application. Ideally we would like an accompanying tutor with each flow as many of our students come from disadvantaged backgrounds and would not have had the opportunity to travel abroad previously. In line with our charter for year two we have expanded learner and staff mobilities. As College Principal with a long involvement in European staff partner projects, I am aware that these placements have the ability to energise staff and leads to the development of new ideas and different ways of doing things. This application seeks to extend the opportunities for learning for our students and staff. This project enables the college to enhance relationships with other European VET colleges and es

In the year 2019, Coláiste Dhulaigh CFE sent 51 students on learning mobilities, 8 accompanying staff & 8 staff on training mobilities, to our partner institutions in Europe. The applications saw some early amendments as our starting date was the 1st of January & we were tied to the academic year (The learner mobilities had to finish in early May 2019, while the staff mobilities could run throughout the calendar year). These changes had no impact on the budget & allowed us to open the Erasmus + opportunity to other programs within the college. As a result, we sent 5 science students, 1 teacher on training, 1 accompanying staff (like last year) & an extra 5 learners from the social care, child care & youth activities worker programs to Maribor, Slovenia. Most of the students had very little travelling experience & the aim was to give them real industry experience, putting theory into practice. The feedback from the learner, the staff on training & the accompanying staff was very positive & it was mentioned that (for both the science & social studies department) placements exceeded what would have been on offer in Ireland (sometimes, the industry can become saturated). Students who did not know each other before departure became best of friends & described the mobility as “the best time of their lives” & mentioned that it was too short! While we are still very keen on Malta as a destination for mobilities, we weren’t 100% satisfied with the provision of our existing local agent (quality of service and placement, accommodation & on site support) so for that matter, we decided to investigate & trial a second agency for half of our flows (14 and 2 accompanying staff). Lexema turned out to be a good choice, they provided a good service throughout the project, provided learners with relevant placements & were complimented by learners & accompanying staff. The other agency unfortunately did not provide suitable placements for all students & issues arose. We continued our partnership with the 2 sailing schools in Corsica (5 outdoor education & 1 youth activities worker students with 1 accompanying staff). While they embraced the tasks & picked up a lot of valuable skills for their chosen career (boat maintenance, water sports, navigation etc), they did not quite engage outside the work place & to some extent missed out on what the island has to offer. 4 students travelled to club Ion in Fuerteventura... one can only describe the setting as a windsurfer’s paradise. The 4 got stuck in with every aspects of the centre, from customer care to gear maintenance, to shadowing on the water sessions. They also had the opportunity to improve their personal skills on the water. 1 accompanying staff visited the centres, met up with the supervisor & staff & received positive feedback on the learners & their program. In Budapest, the 4 architect students were instantly immersed in the culture & had the opportunity to carry out real life projects (interior design, 3D printing, site surveying, attending planning meetings etc). They really thrived & came back full of dreams and aspirations. They did really well in their studies & are progressing to university in Sept 19. The accompanying staff was equally impressed by the quality of service provided by the local contact & by the placements. Unfortunately the agent which we have use for many years is not retiring so this is not an option to repeat next year. We continued to use our excellent partners in Helsinki Vocational College where 2 Media students went for a 6 week placement to complete a production. Helsinki also received 2 social care students to work in a local youth centre & 4 pre-nursing students to work in elderly nursing homes specialising in general care as well as dementia.As it had gone so well, we decided to continue the new partnership with Mikelli in Northern Finland & send 2 child care students. They worked in local creches and lived closer, on this occasion, to the placement. 2 pre-nursing students travelled to the Netherlands, with strong placements in a home care nursing environment. Our strong partnership with Helsinki Vocational College continued to thrive with the staff training mobilities from CDCFE Media Department. We sent 2 staff from the Graphic Design/Media IT course which proved very successful. They shadowed the staff in the equivalent Department, gaining new ideas and methods of teaching their modules. They worked with students on relevant projects offering their expertise & sharing knowledge of how Graphics work in Ireland. The summer saw our Principal on a placement in Brescia (Italy) where she was immersed in a vocational college and the local tourism chamber and cooperative movement, she had the opportunity to share practices and investigate their relations with local businesses, enterprises and chamber of commerce. October saw our last 3 tutor placements in Spain, sharing practices on blended learning and distance learning. The tutors attended and job shadowed their teachers and also gave some English and programming classes. This trip was very focused and beneficial as a result we are now implementing an online delivery mode to many of our programmes.