Background and objectivesThe Childcare and Education department (BUF) of Eskilstuna Municipality, Sweden, and its upper secondary schools have the ambition to constantly develop and improve education. Within vocational programs, there is a desire to make the programs more attractive, as Eskilstuna has a great need for qualified labor in the vocational fields. The municipality is struggling with youth unemployment, and it is important that youth complete their education at upper secondary school to be able to get a job and / or continue their studies at university. As the labor market becomes increasingly global, young people also need good language skills. Furthermore, Eskilstuna is a multicultural town. The consortium has a need to constantly work to increase tolerance and understanding for other people and cultures. During 2018-2021, the Childcare and Education department in Eskilstuna had a consortium project within Erasmus + KA1 VET, with internships and job shadowing activities. The consortium consisted of the upper secondary schools Rekarnegymnasiet, Rinmangymnasiet, S: t Eskils gymnasium and BUF's administration office which was the coordinator. Based on the needs of the municipality (above) , the consortium had the following objectives:1. Make vocational education more attractive by offering internships abroad for students2. Internships would lead to great personal development of the students, which in turn would motivate them to complete their education, make them better equipped for the labor market and make it easier for them to get a job.3. Increase the language skills of the students4. Increase students' tolerance and understanding of other people and cultures5. For the teachers doing job shadowing activities: See new influences in pedagogy and didactics, be able to discuss syllabi and lesson content with colleagues in another country to develop the program, improve their language skills and develop international cooperation.ActivitiesThe activities consisted of internships abroad for 64 students from the vocational programs Hotel / Tourism, Hairdresser, Childcare, Healthcare, Restaurant , Business / Administration, Vehicles / Transport and the introductory programs IM / Construction / Vehicles. The students did internships for 2-5 weeks at our partner organizations in Germany, France, Spain, Poland, Malta and the UK. In addition, three teachers from the Vehicle / Transport program participated in job shadowing activities in France. Originally our plan was to have many more students and teachers participate, but due to the Corona situation and Brexit, among other things, it did not work out.ResultsOne of our objectives was to make vocational education more attractive. Because so many factors are involved when choosing an upper secondary program, it is difficult to say how much the internships abroad affect the choice, especially during a pandemic when nobody could travel. When comparing the numbers of 2018 with those of 2021, we see that there is no difference. Both years, 37% of the students started a vocational program and 61% started a college preparatory one. The students developed greatly on a personal level. In the evaluations, they expressed that they had gained self-confidence, courage and problem-solving ability, as well as developed their sense of responsibility and their ability to adapt to new situations. All of these abilities play a major role in completing studies and being better prepared for the labor market, having a greater opportunity to get a job and daring to take the step of looking for work elsewhere if necessary.A majority of the students also developed their language skills and thought that they had become more fluent in English. During their internship abroad, the students experienced a different culture and met people from a different background. An overwhelming majority of students expressed that they had become more tolerant of other people's values and behavior and had become better at collaborating with people from another culture.The teachers who job-shadowed colleagues in France learned a lot about what the French vocational training in vehicles / transport was like. They could compare the programs and observe how the subjects were taught. They got ideas about how they could develop their own teaching. The teachers also visited companies where students did their internships and got an insight into how internships were organized. The teachers' language skills improved and they also learned a lot about French culture. During the school year, the collaboration developed so that teachers and students from the French school came here for job shadowing and internships.During this project period, the vocational programs have expanded their international contacts overall. Collaboration regarding internships, job shadowing and teaching have begun, which is promising for our future projects.

This project is part of the ongoing development by Merthyr Tydfil College to provide enhanced and enriched educational and social development opportunities for the people of Merthyr Tydfil and its surrounding areas. Recognizing that many barriers exist to employment and social enhancement within the South Wales valleys area, the college is sustaining a proactive approach to ensuring that as many of its student cohort as possible are able to experience a wider opportunity for personal, social, financial and career improvement. We place great emphasis on improving the confidence and desire of our students to be unrestrained by self and locally-imposed barriers to their ambitions. Our aim is to encourage the personal mobility of students throughout Europe as a means of improving their life opportunities and enriching social integration. Utilizing the previous Leonardo da Vinci funding opportunities in past years to great effect, we are now hopeful of achieving similar success with the Erasmus+ programme. This bid was for Key Action 1 Mobility of Individual, applying for participant numbers of IVT AND TRADES: •48 Level 3 Business Studies students;•48 Level 3 Information Technology students;•24 Level 3 Childcare students;•20 Level 2 Engineering students; •20 Level 2 Motor Vehicle students;•24 Level 2 Hairdressing students;•24 Level 2 Beauty students;•24 Level 3 Travel and Tourism students;•20 Level 1 Construction students; and•20 Level 2 Construction students.The overarching objective of this bid was to provide a coherent platform for participants to experience work placement in Germany, linguistic development, cultural awareness and improved motivation and self esteem. The experience has the benefit of being able to fulfill major requirements of the Advanced Welsh Baccalaureate qualification that the participants are working towards and thus provides for formal qualification accreditation of many of the mobility action requirements. The AIM of the project was to offer two-week practical work experience in Germany. The visits involved structured and accredited work experience with German companies to help the students prepare for the UK and European labour markets. The project idea complies with Ldv Mobility National Priorities 2015 for both:1. Applications which primarily target participants who are facing particular difficulties in the labour market and2. Applications which work primarily with apprentices and which can evidence labour market/sectoral need for their support.The mobilities took place between November 2015 and June 2017.NEEDS ADDRESSED:1. The target group lacks professional experience in European training institutions and employers for the work placement.2. The students´ poor linguistic proficiency in German was improved, as the project fostered the learning of German (general and sector-related terminology).3. The students have never benefited from such a bespoke foreign experience, so the project allowed acquiring intercultural competences.OUTCOMES:1. New networks with businesses overseas.2. Potential to develop new projects in the future.3. Acquisition of new theoretical and practical competences in Business studies and Information Technology Studies to document in the EUROPASS MOBILITY DOCUMENT and CERTIFICATES OF ATTENDANCE received.4. Enhancing employability prospects in the UK and European labour market.5. Improvement of the students´ linguistic and intercultural competences.6. Attainment of wider key skills at the appropriate levels in:•Working with others, •Problem solving and•Improving own Learning and Performance.7. General improvement in awareness of a European perspective on education and employability.8. Accreditation of vocational units through assessment of real tasks undertaken in the work placements.9. Accreditation of language skills, work experience, Essential Skills and other components of the Welsh Baccalaureate Qualification such as Wales, Europe and the world, also the Individual Investigation component.

<< Background >>As a college we have been involved in previous Erasmus+ Projects and Leonardo da Vinci funding opportunities. These projects give us the opportunity to provide our students with an experience that they would not be able to have otherwise. Merthyr Tydfil is an economically deprived area, in 2019 the Welsh Government published in WIMB (Welsh Index Multiple Deprivation report summary), Merthyr Tydfil was ranked the 7th most deprived area in Wales. Without projects like this many who have taken part would never have been abroad or able to experience another culture, ways of working or be able to grow personally in areas like their trust in their own ability, their confidence and independence. As a college we recognise that these barriers are real and effect future employment and social inexperience for many. The colleges approach is a proactive one, striving to ensure that our students are able to experience as much personal ,social, financial and career improvement as possible. We place a great emphasis on this and encourage the personal mobility of students throughout Europe as a means of improving their life opportunities and enriching social integration.<< Objectives >>By implementing the project we wanted the student to have these new experiences, both personally and socially, and also be able to use the experience to fulfil a major requirement of the Advanced Welsh Baccalaureate Qualification that they complete along side their main qualification. Some departments that take part, Hair and Beauty and Business, also have a number of placement hours that the students need to complete in order to achieve their qualification.<< Implementation >>As laid out in the project bid, the activities planned between ourselves and the host countries were to provide the students with a ten day practical and relevant work experience. The relevance is to be directly related to their main course or a part of the Advanced Welsh Baccalaureate Qualification. We also worked with the hosts to organise a number of cultural activities and excursions so that the students have the opportunity to experience their host counties and immerse themselves in a new culture.<< Results >>The results of our project were severely hindered due to Covid 19 and the subsequent lockdowns, travel restrictions and colleges though out Wales uncertainty on whether these could be restarted safely for both students and staff. Although the results of the flows that did go ahead in 2019 were positive. Four departments were able to take part, Hair and Beauty - Germany, Sport - Germany, Business - Italy and Construction - Italy. The results of these flows was very positive, utilising partners that we know and have used in many previous projects and new ones the students were able to acquire a great amount from attending which you can see below in both the Activities section and Learning outcomes and Impact section.

This project is part of the ongoing development by Merthyr Tydfil College to provide enhanced and enriched educational and social development opportunities for the people of Merthyr Tydfil and its surrounding areas . Recognizing that many barriers exist to employment and social enhancement within the South Wales valleys area the college is sustaining a proactive approach to ensuring that as many of its student cohort are able to experience a wider opportunity for personal ,social,financial and career improvement as possible. We place great emphasis on improving the confidence and desire of our students to be unrestrained by self and locally imposed barriers to their ambitions. our aim is to encourage the personal mobility of students throughout Europe as a means of improving their life opportunities and enriching social integration. Utilizing the previous Leonardo da Vinci and Erasmus+ funding opportunities in past years to great effect we are now hopeful of achieving similar success with another Erasmus+ programme . This Bid is for Key Action 1 Mobility of Individuals The mobilities are planned to take place between November 2017 and May 2019 and will include the following student cohorts over two academic years: 2flows of 12 Level 3 Business Studies students 2flows of 12 Level 3 Information Technology students, 2flows of 12 Level 3 Childcare students, 2flows of 10 Level2 Engineering students 2flows of 10 Level 2 Motor Vehicle students 2flows of 12 Level2 Hairdressing students 2flows of 12 Level2 Beauty students 2flows of 12 Level 3 Travel and Tourism students 2flows of 10 Level 1 Construction students 2flows of 10 Level 2 Construction students 2flows of 10 Level 3 Construction Students 2flows of 10 Level 3 Health and Social Care students 2flows of 10 Level 3 Engineering Students The overarching objective of this bid is to provide a coherent and developmental platform for participants to experience work placement in Germany, linguistic development, cultural awareness and improved motivation and self esteem. The experience has the benefit of being able to fulfill major requirements of the Advanced Welsh Baccalaureate qualification that the participants are working towards and thus provides for formal qualification accreditation of many of the mobility action requirements. The AIM of the project it to offer 2-weeks practical work experience in Germany. The visits will involve structured and accredited work experience with German companies to help the students prepare for the UK and European labour market. The project idea complies with Ldv Mobility National Priorities 2016 for both: 1. Applications which primarily target participants who are facing particular difficulties in the labour market 2. Applications which work primarily with apprentices and which can evidence labour market/sectoral need for their support. The mobilities are planned to take place between November 2016 and June 2018. NEEDS ADDRESSED: 1. The target group lack professional experience in European training institutions and employers for the work placement. 2. The students´ poor linguistic proficiency in German will be improved, as the project will foster the learning of German (general and sector-related terminology). 3. The students have never benefited from such a bespoke foreign experience, so the project will allow acquiring intercultural competencies EXPECTED OUTCOMES: 1. New networks with businesses overseas 2. Potential to develop new projects in the future. 3. Acquisition of new theoretical and practical competences. to document in the EUROPASS MOBILITY DOCUMENT and CERTIFICATES OF ATTENDANCE received. for 4. Improved main Qualification success rates of Participants 5. Enhancing employability prospects in the UK and European labour market. 6. Improvement of the students´ linguistic and intercultural competences. 7. Attainment of wider key skills at the appropriate levels in :Working with others, Problem solving and Improving own Learning and Performance. 8. General improvement in awareness of a European perspective on education and employability. 9. Accreditation of vocational units through assessment of real tasks undertaken in the work placements. 10.Accreditation of language skills, work experience,Essential Skills and other components of Welsh Baccalaureate Qualification such as Wales,Europe and the world, also the Individual Investigation component