Through this project, we will offer 300 VET-SHORT and 40 VET-PLONG mobilities. Our target group are young people, aged 16-25, who are often disadvantaged and have had limited/no previous opportunity to travel or live independently. The mobility provides an opportunity to push them out of their comfort zone and broaden their horizons and perspectives, developing their confidence in a supported environment. We have a strong understanding of the needs of our participants and can offer a range of placement and accommodation models, appropriate support mechanisms and strong training model to meet these needs. Our flexible approach will support us to achieve our European Internationalisation Strategy (EIS) goal; to increase the volume and breadth of young people we engage. At REY Europe, we offer young people employability training, with a mobility placement embedded as an integrated component of the course. Using non-formal training methodology, we aim to support young people to develop their confidence and readiness to enter the labour market. Project delivery is staggered throughout the year and we work in partnership with a number of UK organizations who have large volumes of participants who can be signposted to our projects. These partnerships are a key component in our model of recruitment, engagement and support for young people. One of our EIS goals is to diversify our UK partnerships. In this context, we plan to engage local youth employment organisations, as well as FE Colleges and we will invest resource in mapping out and developing this work. We offer our employability course to vocational learners, up to Level 3, who are studying in the following areas; Hair & Beauty, Computing, Business, Travel & Tourism, Catering, Sport and Construction. Our placements are located in Greece, Spain, Czech Republic, France and Portugal. Students are offered the employability course as an enhancement of their vocational qualification and the mobility activity is open to all students enrolled on the course. . The course offers unique benefits in terms of vocational, employability focused and soft skills development. Placements are aligned to each student’s vocational course of study, giving them a chance to simultaneously develop their technical and soft skills, whilst considering aspects such as communication in the workplace, interview techniques and self development. Participants will be joined by an accompanying person (AP) for the first and last week of their placement, at a ratio of 1:10. As our participants will have little, if any experience of travelling abroad or living independently, the AP will provides a crucial function in supporting participants to settle into their host country and accompanying participants whilst they are travelling. Our proposed VET-PLONG activity will be our first offer of longer terms placements to learners. We will offer 40 x 3 month placements to Level 3 graduates of VET construction courses (in Seville) VET business courses (in Prague) This is an opportunity for students to develop their industry standards, knowledge and experience within the sector, as well as developing their soft skills and confidence in a work place environment. We have included, as an Annex, a more detailed plan for the roll-out of our VET-PLONG placements. We have effective quality management and due diligence processes in place to ensure that our European partners meet our minimum standards and offer high quality, structured, well supported and safe placements for participants. Through regular face to face and remote contact and a clear quality assurance framework, we have set the tone for strong, productive working relationships with European partners. The impact on participants is that they gain professional and personal skills, that will enhance both their employability and their technical aptitude in their vocational area. At a local level, this leads to improved motivation and workplace readiness amongst participants, and ultimately, increased employment and better employment opportunities for participants. Through the project, we will put participants in the strongest position to obtain employment, either locally or regionally. We aim to inspire staff and, more widely, other VET training providers to get involved in mobility activity. We will encourage collaboration, good practice sharing and joint training events for participants and staff across different organisations. Host organizations will benefit from a clearer framework for effective partnership working, a better understanding of the UK vocational sector, and more experience of working with our target group, including safeguarding and support requirements. Capturing the impact of our work is one of our EIS goals and we are exploring ways to diversify the way we gather and present our impact, so that we are presenting our work in a way that is meaningful and relevant to our audiences.

This project has provided an opportunity to build on Barking & Dagenham College's (BDC) existing KA1 projects. It has contributed to the College's steady increase in the breadth of vocational areas and the volume of international placements that we can offer our learners. Through the project, we were able to provide 181 BDC learners with a European work placement lasting between 2 - 3 weeks, during the 2018/19 and 2019/20 academic years. The project also provided professional development opportunities for staff acting as Accompanying Persons within the project; A total of 33 BDC staff members benefiting form these developmental opportunities during the project cycle. Unfortunately, we were only able to send around 55% of the students projected, as the majority of the groups scheduled for year 2 of the project were cancelled due to the COVID 19 pandemic and travel restrictions associated with this. Nonetheless, we were able to offer mobility opportunities in the vocational areas of: - Business - ICT - Accounts - Construction - Hair & Beauty - Health & Social Care - Hospitality & Catering - Creative Industries - Engineering - Sports Coaching for our Football and Rugby Academies Participants and APs were sent to work within Hosting Organisations in France, Spain, the Czech Republic, Portugal and the Greek island of Crete. By participating in a Mobility, participants had the opportunity to build on the training that they have received in BDC as part of their vocational course of study. The placement provided participants with a number of benefits that include: gaining the opportunity to gain real work experience within a professional environment, increasing their personal and soft skills as well as the independence and confidence that come from living in a foreign country. All participants had gained key knowledge, skills and competences from their college qualification; the mobility experience served to add value to the learners' studies through the provision of a practical element that has increased their employability and significantly improved their chances of obtaining sustainable employment at the end of their studies. All of the mobility opportunities that we have offered have lasted between 2 - 3 weeks. This has been a realistic and attainable time frame for each group to gain valuable work experience; it has also enabled course tutors to structure course delivery accordingly, so that participants didn't miss out on valuable classroom time, which was required in order for them to fulfil their vocational qualification. All participants worked with their tutor to address a specific unit from their course; the units were divided into Learning Outcomes and recorded within a Learning Agreement, which was referred to throughout the mobility and guided the participants' learning objectives. All participants received preparatory training in the UK before they travelled which included some practically focused elements to help to manage the learners expectations effectively, as well as assisting them with advice on suitable items to pack, such as suitable clothing. Participants were encouraged to access the OLS course to support the development of their linguistic skills. The mobility project also benefited BDC staff, enabling them to increase their teaching competences as well as gaining a better understanding of the needs of employers, at European level.

This is a 2 year project, during which time we plan to send 172 learners on vocational placements in Seville, Crete and Prague. Placements will be 3-6 weeks long, with the exact length of stay determined by the lead tutor for each vocational area. We feel this is sufficient time for students to adjust to work and life in another country, meaningfully gain from the experience and achieve tangible learning outcomes. The destination for each student will be determined by their vocational area and the placements available. Students will be selected from the following departments: Business, Beauty, Travel & Tourism, Sport (Football), Catering and Computing. Our project objectives are - to provide European work placement opportunities to students across a range of vocational sectors - to build on the success of our 2016 mobility project, develop our internal project delivery capacity, and expand our work to offer more students international opportunities - to enable students to apply the theoretical learning acquired on their course in a structured and sector specific work setting - to enable students to develop soft skills & professional competences - to show them different perspectives & practices in a work setting. To promote cross-cultural working and ultimately, broaden their horizons We aim to make our students highly employable and enterprising by developing the skills employers want. The project will enhance our students' learning experience and increase their employability. The placements are framed by a supportive pre, during & post placement structure, with group training and individual support offered in order to fully prepare students for the placement, and provide a debrief and careers guidance on how to maximize their learning on their return. The models of support that we offer our learners will be tailored to their individual needs, recognising that support needs will differ between participants and at different points in the project. Each group will be joined by an accompanying staff member from the College and will have a designated placement supervisor, as well as local partner support. The participants for this mobility will all be students at Bath College, studying up to Level 3 in one of the following vocational areas: Beauty (Level 3), Business (Level 3), Catering (Level 2), Computing (Level 3), Football (Level 3) Travel & Tourism (Level 3). Our tutors have strong existing relationships with learners and a good working knowledge of how best to engage and retain them, and design a project that is responsive to their needs. Learner needs are: - To gain sector specific practical work experience and apply the technical skills and theoretical knowledge they have acquired through their course in a practical setting - To develop their soft skills (such as self assurance, adaptability, communication) and their language competences - To provide participants with international experience, pushing them out of their comfort zone in a supportive environment Ultimately we hope this will put them in a stronger position to gain employment in the sector on completion of their course. In order to have a competitive edge in the labour market, we know that students need to develop personal competences such as team work, confidence and adaptability. We hope the mobility will increase their aspirations for a career in the sector. Learners will develop the confidence to interact in a foreign language setting, an understanding of the sector at European level & insight in to how organisations operate in a different cultural context. In the long term, we hope the mobility will contribute to positive onward progression and raised aspirations amongst our learners. The mobility provides a structured employment experience, with a line manager and a clear set of tasks and guidance, support learners to engage in a 'real' work setting and develop realistic expectations of the working world. The mobility placement will be explicitly linked to learners' course of study. Placement activities will correspond to the specific course units, which gives them the opportunity to enhance their course learning and understand the experience of a work environment. Host Organisations (HOs)will offer placements with activities relevant to the learners’ course of study. Each tutor will identify learning outcomes (LOs) that can realistically be achieved by learners whilst on placement. The LOs will differ between participants and will relate to both the specific qualification that they are working towards in the UK and the role descriptions available. The mobility project enables the College to enhance our curriculum offer, and put our learners in a stronger position to progress after they graduate. It has improved course delivery, learner engagement and performance. The mobility is an opportunity to strengthen our international networks and consolidate some of our aims for internationalisation.