IDEA originates from a study on the relationships between job and school education, carried out by the Italian Industrial Union, data by EUROSTAT concerning young unemployment in the UE, a McKinseys report on the italian economic situation and studies of the School of Management of Milan. Collectively these informations indicate the presence in Italy of a gap between jobs and school education, an aspect that is dramatically worsened by the large percentage of unemployment among young.The specific objective of this project - involving 27 schools located in Lombardia, Piemonte and Emilia Romagna - is to create a professional figure required by companies/firms that is not offered by the italian educational system. Additionally, the project will haver positive benefits on about 28.000 students and 3.800 teachers, and 1/3 of the total italian firms. Moreover, the professional figures predicted by the project will receive competences from i)advanced informatic knowledge, ii) ability to use the cloud computing system in a foreign language, both in the productive areas and in the commercial offices to facilitater their internationalization, and iii) increase the qualification on the commercial and informatic micro-languages related to: german, spanish, french and bulgarian that are, in this order, the most requested by the firms in the four regions involved in the project.318 students selected from the classes of the fourth and fifh year of 25 Technical, Professional Institutes and High Schools in Economics and Informatics specialization will attend a training stage of 5 weeks in firms located in Frankfurt, Vienna, Cadige, Valencia, Portmouth, Malta, Sofia, Cannes. The stage will be done during June, July and August 2015. In addition the students will receive, in their destination countries, 40 hours formation session dedicate to improve the specific commercial and informatic microlanguage.The departure will be preceded in Italy by an extracurricular formation period of 400 hours through e.learning sessions, in place learning and training stage in the firms. Twenty teachers will follow the same formation program as the students in the firms.In addition to the specific objectives, the project will have positive consequences on both the participant schools and the italian educational system as follow:1-to introduce into the schools the education for employment procedures, with a constant collaboration between school and firms on the territory connected with the Industrial Unions, Unioni Territoriali and Category partners, that will produce as outcomes an enhancement of the italian educational system, joining it with the professional figures emerging from the job market2-to increase employment among young people by promoting their hiring in the firms participating to the partner Category associations3-to start a constant international collaboration between schools and firms to I) introduce into the italian educational system a pragmatic approach to the international job market, and ii) gain a better knowledge of each other, and iii)strenght the teaching of the commercial and informatics micro-lanuages4-help the knowledge among the partner schools of the German dual formation system; this has the scope to promote the formation of an experimental program in the partner schools in collaboration with the firms willing to join this experimental program5-create a common procedure in the italian evaluating system based on ECVET, this for the coomprehension of the competences and knowledges acquired by the students, both in school and in the working area at National and International in order to facilitate the international mobility of the students to favour their employment.Finally this project aims to develop a data bank useful to the tracking of a participant student from the end of the project to the actual employment and working as data source for future analysis on the educational project integrated to the need of the job market.The ambitious scope of this project are justified by the web by involving partners that have competence, knowledge, and financial means to sn the project action. In particular, the fact that only the constant interaction between National and International education and work abilities, will allow the solution of the dramatic issues connected to the unemployment of the young people.The main actors in this projects are the partners schools, the Industrial Union in its territorial entities, the Goethe Institute collaborating with the British Council and Cervantes Institute for the linguistic formations and the ECVET in collaboration with Dr. Faggioli of INDIRE, the international partners for their connection to the firms on their territory, the Office XVI of MIUR-ER for the validation of the congruity of the project with the MIUR.The long term benefits are the enhancement of the interaction schoool-job

"The origin of the project is the gap between higher education and the world of work that aggravates youth unemployment.The territories involved in the project are manufacturing areas and production density, which are coming out of the recession with the export and the conversion into high value added products for the marketing of which require integrated logistics management skills for export.Cooraltur has brought together Higher Institutes and Local Authorities, CGIL, Radici and Scame (the two most important companies in Val Seriana for production, turnover, employment and exports) with partners from Germany, Spain, Belgium, Bulgaria, England and Malta.The priority objective of the project to train the unavailable figure of the logistics technician integrated with the IT and professional skills of the mapping / organization of the operational procedures supporting international trade with minimum linguistic competence B2 has been reached and there are already the first insertions work of beneficiaries in local businesses.The already stable partnership network was strengthened to enhance international internships and the study was launched to include the project figure in the PTOF as a German model of dual education.The one hundred and twenty students of the fourth beneficiaries were selected by linguistic, computer and professional tests in the six INSTITUTES of the consortium. The following twenty students were added in the ranking with costs for the consortium.The training took place and learning (one hundred hours) on a dedicated site with lessons prepared by entrepreneurs and experts in the field and learning tests plus a fifty-hour sedentary training in Castione attended by the beneficiaries, hosting partners, tutors escorts, Radici trainers, Scame, Cgil, BCC, Confindustria Reggio Emilia and the Goethe Institute which certified the language level before the students' departure.In Castione there were managers of the host companies to illustrate their companies and how to enter internships.The computer training of the participants was strengthened with exercises in the laboratories of the sending INSTITUTES.The five-week internship in two shifts from June to August took place for sixty jobs in companies in Frankfurt, five in Bulgaria, eleven in Malta, seventeen in England, for thirty-five in Spain where basic skills were acquired of integrated logistics and linguistic skills have also improved with an on-site computer and economic microlanguage course.During the internship the beneficiaries completed a daily ""logbook"" where they analytically described the activities carried out, difficulties and successes met and the company tutors drew up reports indicating the tasks performed and the skills reached by the beneficiaries during internships and the Europass Mobility.The partners have defined the quality, management, evaluation and certification aspects of the competencies and Cooraltur's legal department has drawn up agreements and partnership agreements in compliance with the laws of the host countries integrated by MOU, Learning Agreement, Trainesheep Certificat and Europass Mobility for the detection of skills acquired in internships.The Goethe Institute has issued language certification to pass a B2 level exam supported by the beneficiaries to return internships, while for the on-the-spot language training a certificate has been issued indicating the arguments and the results achieved.The students were followed by specially trained tutors who interacted with each other to ensure the best success of the training and internships and drafted modules to record the activities carried out and the results obtained by Cooraltur.The project results were monitored by specially prepared tests, transposed into statistical data together with the data provided by the certified Trainesheep and by the linguistic certifications.The data were then evaluated by three different commissions made up of experts in the sector, by teachers of the sending INSTITUTES and by Confindustria officials, and the database of the participating students is being set up to follow them in the two years following the closure.All partners are proceeding with the dissemination of project data and an important conference is being organized to return the experience to the territory.The fallout of the project is higher than the expectations both in the INSTITUTES and in the medium-sized enterprises that are activating for the recruitment of students and to build a network of collaboration with the companies that have hosted them in stages promoting the local economy and producing a remarkable spirit of appreciation for European membership that is not taken for granted in historically isolated valleys."

"Main activities - internationalization strategy The mobility plan proposed has involved 51 students and 10 teachers/ staff in training activities and it is aimed at: - Stimulating the integration of the international guidance into the curriculum - Developing and updating teachers’ skills in planning the students’ placements abroad - Strengthening the awareness of the skills required by the current labor market. - Modeling the links established with the labor market actors, both in the creation of internships and in the development of partnerships. The internship activity has been consistently integrated into the curriculum, revisited following the 2010 reform and organized by competences. The school strategy chosen for the European internationalization was based on a careful consideration of the final competences of the different courses to ensure its consistency with the training requirements of the territory, characterized by innovation processes and the export vocation to the global markets. The training activities planned have consolidated partnerships with the different stakeholders and have bridged the gap between study and labor market in line with ""Europe 2020"" and the '' Agenda for New Skills and Jobs "" 2) Change of scope of the mobility flow Students The 51 three weeks' internships were aimed to integrate into the curriculum international mobility with an approach geared towards Personal Learning Environment (PLE). This implies that students used different methods and techniques designed to enhance soft skills: e-Learning on one side and the experiential self-learning in the company on the other hand, without distinction between the two different times.The 51 beneficiary students come from the different programs the school offers: Computer Studies, International Relations, Tourism, International Course. Most students involved came from International Relations and Tourism programs. The working environments were in most cases consistent with the students' professional profiles:- Travel agencies; tour operators; front desk and conference halls - Office jobs in admin departments; marketing; international relations activities- A few internships were held at Charity Shops Chain of stores, to explore this sector still underrepresented in Italy but very important for the social economy The placements have allowed to: - Address the specific needs of the local territory and the professional profile of each trainee - Experience transversal skills in the real production environment - Broaden the horizons of young people and educate them to mobility - Strengthen the future employability through experiences that can add value to the curriculumThe students developed interpersonal skills; team working; critical thinking; autonomy and pro-activity by interacting with representatives of the business community with whom to share objectives and interests and exchange information and knowledge. The internship also represented an important opportunity to put into practice the language skills acquired and to promote linguistic diversity. The active collaboration with the Polish branch of Leonardo Company Finmeccanica Group has created awareness and interest in the Polish language. The participants in placements in Poland attended a short literacy course to Polish in order to use the national language as the language during the internship. The 10 one week's internship experiences have involved both teachers and staff into job shadowing in companies, offices, and education departments of the hosting organizations, enabling them to: - Analyze the soft skills required by the companies appearing on the target markets of local companies - Receive incentive for educational innovation and test new forms of cooperation in the education sector; - Plan work placements in an international context; - Improve language skills; - Promote the transfer of new organizational methods based on collaboration and teamwork 3) accompanying Teachers As provided by the guidelines of Erasmus+ and according to the application each stream of trainee has been accompanied by a sending school official for a short period in order to optimize the cost / benefits, but enough to : - To verify the insertion of the trainee in the new reality - Check the quality of accommodation - Make arrangements with the host institution's tutor and the company’s tutor - Ensure the integration in the company and subscription stages of Learning and Training agreements."

"PARTNERSHIPThe partnership “Keys to Employability” was submitted by a Consortium of three secondary schools located in the Province of Varese, together with the entrepreneurs' association of the Province (Univa), the Chamber of Commerce, the Regional School Board, the Region Lombardy and a Consulting Company, Noviter. The Consortium started to cooperate with three large multinationals (PZL-Swidnik, CKA GmbH and Bauknecht Hausgerate GmbH) and three important education and training centres in Ireland and in the UK to organize and implement :- 100 traineeships for students in initial vocational training in order to motivate young people to open up to training opportunities and professional vacancies beyond frontiers and to experience mobility in an international environment, while getting familiar with the ongoing changing of the labour market. Over the course of the project, a few changes took place: a new training centre in Germany entered the partnership together with a transport company from London (UK), while Bauknecht Hausgerate GmbH was forced to withdraw due to internal management issues.GENERAL OBJECTIVESThe project ""Keys to Employability” - has contributed to the growth and improvement of education from a European perspective and for the development of occupational mobility in Europe; - has contributed to enrich the beneficiaries’ training process by fostering the acquisition of cross skills needed for the faster and faster changes in the modern labor market; - has allowed to integrate the activity of transnational traineeship as a complementary tool qualifying the educational path of the students sent by the vocational schools.SPECIFIC OBJECTIVESThe specific objectives of the project were:- To develop and acquire basic communication skills in an international working environment; - To practice and enhance the competences to acquire in the field of business and information and communication technology such as: cultural interaction, teamwork, foreign language skills in multicultural social and operating contexts, the ability to make comparisons between the National and International work systems in an intercultural perspective- To foster entrepreneurship while offering a better understanding of the advantages of mobility and job opportunities abroad;- To widen their horizons and boost their job chances in the future. MOTIVATIONS AND NEEDS""Keys to Employability” has met the need to enhance the exchanges and the mobility of the students in initial training and of their teachers and has allowed the participants to comply with the challenges of Lisbon aiming at developing knowledge in Europe, at promoting employability, social cohesion and, last but not least, personal and professional fulfillment. The project of transnational traineeship has contributed to - improving the quality of the teaching planning of the last two years of studies, in harmony with the activities already planned such as the work related learning, the use of virtual enterprise and the experimentation of real case study in the teaching of vocational subjects. The importance of the learning mobility abroad lies in the cooperation of different stakeholders, companies, education, associations and other boards operating in the territory and supports the development of a quality education and vocational training, necessary to strengthen the competition in Europe. - updating the curricula to be consistent with the needs of the labour market- innovating the teaching/learning methods to develop the transferable skills and to allow schools to be able to evaluate such skillsThe project has opened up the schools’ doors to the Wider World, has promoted the exchange of ideas and the culture of reflective practice and transparency by using Europass Mobility and the Common Framework for Europe Competence.The project has also moved a first step to create a net of long-term collaborations , meant to innovate and to put in contact the different European education systems, in order to overcome the barriers limiting the chances of a work placement abroad and to cooperate in the acquisition of those skills and qualifications in accordance with the rapid evolution of the modern labor market.It has represented a pilot experience of good practices we can transfer in the future to the other high schools of the Province of Varese which cannot boast an experience in the organization of placement activities abroad."