"The European automation and automotive industry has been able to produce the safest, the most silent, the most efficient and environmentally friendly vehicles and products in the world. Its production accounts for a fifth of the world market and employs more than 12.1 million people. It is obvious that this sector is one of the most important field of investment, with 41.5 billion yearly expense for research and development. Nevertheless, the industry needs to modernize constantly, in order to be always competitive.With this purpose, ICT may play a significant role in maintaining the position of automotive industry in the world market. As a matter of fact, both are characterized by the need of increasing the competences of internal resources - from top Manager to qualified employee - and investing, in a process of continuous update and training of its staff, as regards non only the operational activities, but the development of wide competences as well.In this contest, the project “TECH in VET - Technology in Vocational and Educational Training” aimed at promoting mobility experiences abroad for 100 recent graduates in the field of automotive and ICT industry, which had the opportunity of carrying out a 122 - day internship abroad, more precisely in Belgium, United Kingdom and Ireland. In order to facilitate their entrance in the labour market, the participants had the opportunity to participate in professional experiences in hosting companies abroad, characterized by: - the use of innovative learning methods and tools based on the “learning by doing”; - the cooperation and connection between the School and the labour market, in order to have a real and concrete exchange.""TECH in VET"" has achieved the specific objectives set, producing a positive impact on the participants, measurable both in qualitative and quantitative terms:- 30% of the participants received a job offer/continued professional training in the host company abroad;- 35% found work opportunity in Italy on return, in companies operating in the sector of reference;- 25% opted for the continuation of the higher education (University, advanced training courses) in order to complete the personal job profile;- 10% is made up of those who intended to carry out other professional experiences to enrich the technical and practical skills before finding a job (some participants have, for example, taken part in other Erasmus + mobility projects);- moreover, 85% of the participants declared that they have improved their technical and professional skills through mobility, considering, moreover, increasing the chances of finding work both in Italy and in an international context;- the mobility experience served to clarify future expectations and professional goals for approximately 90% of participants;- 80% of participants said to have improved transversal skills (critical thinking, flexibility, spirit of initiative, problem solving, team working), in addition to communication and expression skills in the foreign language.The achievement of these percentages, together with a medium-high level of satisfaction expressed by the totality of the participants, is indicative of a generally positive impact of ""TECH in VET"". As for participating organizations (Educational Institutions, the Municipality of Bologna, Unindustria Bologna, Formamentis Srl, Confimi and the companies involved), the partnership has obtained an improvement in the ability to cooperate at a European level by strengthening the collaboration with some institutions and establishing new contacts with foreign actors; the acquisition of new working methods to improve the training offer in the field of vocational training and the adoption of an innovative working modus operandi, in line with the European proposals and the international context; the development and implementation of the internationalization strategies of the single entities; the improvement of training evaluation and verification methods together with the collection of inputs for the integration of learning and teaching approaches adapted to the professional needs of the local companies."

The mobility project „ECHO“ is open throughout Germany to students who do an initial vocational training in the fields of health, care, social issues (e. g. nurses, educators, ...), Catering and hotel business. Another target groups are social workers and vocational trainers. Participating countries are Ireland, Austria, France, Finland and Norway.After a dual-phase preparation, 38 people altogether can undertake an individual traineeship in one of these countries. The participants receive the Europass Mobility.

„Quality management in the company – an inclusive project with hearing and hearing-impaired trainees“ provided a 5-week learning mobility for 18 trainees of Robert-Schmidt-Berufskolleg (RSIBK) and Rheinisch-Westfälisches Berufskolleg (RWB) in Essen.The participants were trained in the German dual system of vocational education and training. Students of RSIBK trained to work in occupations related to business and administration, RWB students additionally trained in industrial occupations.During the 5 weeks they did a workplacement in companies. They also worked on their learning agreement on QM. They improved their job related knowledge and skills, improved their command of the target language, improved their communicative skills and learned to work in a virtual team using a web-based learning platform.Most of them intensified their insights about Europe, some of them made friends with other Europeans and want to hold on to these friendships. The Brexit vote of June 2016 has led to a different understanding of the EU. They do no longer take the EU for granted, but now see it as an achievement. Some of the participants had a mind-opening experience from discussing the latest developments and worries with their Irish and British colleagues.Planned receiving partners were Etalä Kymenlaaskon ammattiopisto, a college of vocational education in Kotka/Finland, Green Horizons in Cork/Republic of Ireland and the training network of the Carinthian University of Applied Science library in Austria. During the project we came across three new partners which we could integrate into the project: three participants were offered work placements in the UK (WMK UK and Atlas Copco UK), one participant worked in the library of the University of Boras/Sweden.In June 2015 and 2016 workshops were held to prepare the participants (Friday afternoon and Saturday morning). Apart from professional, geographical and intercultural preparation participants also received training in working with the web-based training platform. With the hearing impaired student we discussed what kind of handicap compensation he would need.We could continue our cooperation with „Rheinisch-Westfalisches Berufskolleg for the hearing impaired“, which not only helped us to include hearing impaired participants but also led to more awareness in the hearing participants.As we did not know in advance if there was a hearing impaired participant in each flow, we addressed hearing impairments in the preparatory workshop. In 2015 a hearing impaired student took over this part together with the teaching staff involved in the project. In 2016 we did not have a hearing-impaired participant. However, the hearing participants were very interested in the subject and learned about causes for a hearing impairment, about communication rules, national sign languages and the use of the finger alphabet. They also did some exercises and were informed about the Spreadthesign App which you can download on your mobile (Spreadthesign is a sign translating project sponsored by the EU).According to most participants the project improved their chances on the labour market where they have to compete with university graduates once they have passed their final examsKnowing more about QM increases their professional knowledge. Participants who went to countries where they had to use English increased their command of the language in everyday communication; they also learned special terms needed in their respective occupation.Participants who went to Finland and Sweden learned basic phrases of Finnish and Swedish. All the participants improved their soft skills such as communication skills, intercultural awareness, autonomy, asking for help and providing help.Participants who went to Caranthia in Austria learned that some professional terms used in Austria differ from those used in Germany. Initial problems with regional accents could be overcome very fast.All participants worked with the web-based learning platform to write blog entries and to upload project tasks at the appropriate dates. They improved their ICT competence.Our participants improved their chances on the European labour market.

Euroform RFS internationalization strategy aims at improving educational opportunities and giving an added value to its projects through fostering transnational mobility activities offered at the end of students study program. Training needs have been identified according to the training offers of the sendingpartners and the requirements of local labour market which primarily is in request ofworkers specialized in the area of ICT, education and social services, Territory, Environment and Construction (CAT) and Tourism.Direct beneficiaries of the project were 72 participants, who were involved in training activities in Spain, Lithuanian, Portugal, Ireland and Poland. More specifically, the target group was bounded by:N. 5 apprentices, N. 50 recent graduates (no longer than 1 year), N. 22 VET Learners, N. 11 VET STAFF.The project had a duration of 24 months and the following plan was implemented:WP 1 PLANNING AND PROMOTION WP 2 PROJECT MANAGEMENT WP 3 SELECTION, PREPARATION AND MOBILITY ACTIONS WP 4 EVALUATION, COMPETENCEResults:1. Implement successful transnational internships respecting deadlines and fixed costs;2. Improve Competences (both hard and soft skills) of participants; Validate and Certificate them;3. Contribute to personal development and to social adaptability of participants;4. Meet the demand of the labour market for trained professional figures;5. Implement agreed work plans, allowing hosting companies to increase their productivity and their innovation capability, as well as to improve their international position;6. Implement staff mobility actions with the aim of learning methods techniques about how to manage training in dual system as well as measuring the quality of WBL. Long term benefits:a) reduce school dropout rate;b) foster employability of participants;c) reduce youth unemployment rates in the Calabria region;d) improve performance and innovation of local SMEs.e) implementation and updating of the internationalization strategy

This application aims at the integration of the European dimension in vocational training. Since 2011, the Hansa Berufskolleg has been entitled European School and firmly established the European guiding principle in the school program and all types of curricula. This becomes especially evident in the close co-operation with the local training companies which mainly act on the international market, i.e. industrial companies in the field of textile and steel trade which increasingly demand training of cross-border qualified employees. Target markets of these companies include the Netherlands, England, Belgium, Poland, Turkey and Italy. Since the year 2000, the Hansa Berufskolleg Unna has organised three-week internships with European funding. In addition, bilingual industrial classes and Europe classes are offered. Voluntary exams in Business English (KMK - tests ) complete the qualification for the European labour market.Being abroad means gaining international experiences: The internship serves to acquire intercultural competence, to gain self-confidence and to improve language skills. As part of the final annual ceremony the participants proudly share their individual experiences with the fascinated audience and later receive their EUROPASS to certify their performances.From 26.09. - 17.10.2014, 30 business trainees and 5 students of the business grammar section may again receive experience abroad. The beneficial outcome of the three-week stays have convinced us of adding the new qualification Industrial clerk EU for the first time, which implements a much longer stay abroad. This year 10 industrial clerks of the bilingual class in their second year of training will have the unique opportunity of doing a training section in Cork, Ireland for 3 months. Based on the positive experience of the pilot phase in 2013 during which 4 industrial clerks had spent two months in Cork under the leadership of the Irish agency Green Horizons, we felt encouraged to bring this new project on the way. The Chamber of Commerce in Dortmund supports this long-term stay in all areas and welcomes the additional title of Industrial clerk EU . This title enables participants to acquire a significant professional qualification for the global labour market and will be validated in accordance with ECVET-elements. The stay is provided from 29.08.2014 - 21.11.2014 .Due to the long-standing European activities further EU projects have been developed:- For 5 years there has been a Skype-Project with our Dutch partner in Waalwijk. Here, two German and two Dutch students act as founders of a fictitious company. The bilateral development and presentation of these business ideas is done in English. Technical support is offered by the IT department of the district of Unna.- Currently we are playing an active part in an innovative Comenius Regio project (2012-2014) together with our Polish partner in Nowy Sacz. This projects aims at the development and training of cross-culturally competent employees.- Due to the numerous stays abroad, a significant increase in the number of participants in the voluntary English tests (KMK - tests) could be detected.Overall, the implementation of these EU projects has significantly contributed to improved co-operation between local and foreign companies , the district of Unna and the Hansa vocational college. Thanks to many regional conferences with neighbouring vocational colleges more applicants now feel inclined to apply for similar EU projects.