"The interdisciplinary project """"Training on the Move: Growing by Exchange - Exploring and Comparing Vocational Training and Education Structures in the Learning Space of Europe"""" for students, trainees and teaching staff of our vocational education college Berufskolleg Simmerath/Stolberg is on the one hand based on the fact that we have a growing range of organisational, logistic and financial opportunities to open up and discover Europe as a space for learning and on the other hand on the motivating awareness that we are life-long learners, regardless of age and status. Discovering something new, enlarging knowledge already acquired and being able to put familiar things into question during an exchange with people from other cultural backgrounds, these are skills which are of increasing importance in view of a rapidly changing and globalized world.The objectives of our project are therefore:- Sensitizing participants for different structures and approaches by taking a different point of view,- Enhancing intercultural competence by """"immersing"""" in complex and different professional environments and situations,- Developing and strengthening self-confidence and empowerment by engaging in different everyday lives and working structures and by getting to know and experiencing different value systems,- Enhancing perseverence and the ability to remain calm when coping with unfamiliar situations, - Getting to know the languages and approaches of colleagues, business partners and customers and learning how to work and communicate in these languages without misunderstandings,- Providing learners and teaching staff with competences which enable them to adapt more easily to technological and organisational changes within complex social structures and a diverse and multilingual information society,- Improving the quality and efficiency of vocational training by fully exploiting the plurality of spaces for learning both at home and abroad,- Improving chances, flexibility and competitiveness - employability - of young people in different professional fields on global labour markets,- Encouraging learners and teaching staff to actively """"live"""" mobility and cross-border cooperation by widening their perspective and their personal and professional range beyond national borders: Feeling """"at home"""" elsewhere in the world,- Giving teachers the opportunity to explore the common workplace and place for learning called Europe and to initiate and shape Europe-wide learning cooperations.The project participants come from completely different job and training backgrounds but they all have something in common: They all learn, study and work in a multicultural environment characterized by diversity. Taking part in this project will enable them to work more efficiently in internationally orientated enterprises and organisations, especially with regard to people coming from different cultural backgrounds and speaking different languages.For the teaching staff the project offers the chance, to enlarge and enhance their intercultural competence both professionally and personally in a European context and to get new input and ideas for their work at school.All in all: Our main objective is to motivate students, trainees and teachers to get to know people living in different cultural contexts , to exchange knowledge and experiences, to discover something new, experience diversity, broaden their horizons as much as possible and use the qualifications, skills and experiences thus acquired as a basis for further learning and training.The most important topic of the project is to encourage people, regardless of age and status, to stay open-minded and curious, to discover the diversity of ways of life and of approaches, to change their familiar point of view and their learning environment which means to increase their mobility through which they will acquire more competences enabling them to cope with rapidly changing situations and to communicate with people world-wide.In the course of the project different procedures and measures will be necessary to carry it out. These measures include for example work placements for students and trainees of different vocational training courses or assignments for teachers to initiate cooperations with colleagues in Europe to exchange professional knowledge and ideas.Thus preparation measures which accompany all the different project flows vary according to participants and include for example intercultural training and tailor-made language courses.During the implementation and follow-up of the project different ways of documentation will be used, ranging from presentations via releases in the media to different kinds of printed materia.The results of the project will ensure a sustainable development and growth of each participant's personality and will provide strong evidence for vocational training structures and the public community."

The Ministry of Labour, Welfare and Social Insurance, through the Department of Labour and in collaboration with Higher Education Institutions of Cyprus created the program “Work Experience ARound Europe” (W.E.AR.E.) in order to give the opportunity to young graduates to gain work experience in their field of studies, in organizations of their choice in the European Union countries, and in order to promote youth mobility.The basic idea was to put young graduates to organizations of their choice in European countries in order to gain work experience that could facilitate their integration into the Labour Market, since work experience is very important for employers when selecting a candidate for a job and therefore young unemployed without any work experience have a much greater problem in finding a job.The Erasmus+ Consortium is consisted of the following Higher Education Institutions: University of Cyprus, Cyprus University of Technology, University of Nicosia, European University, Frederick University, Neapolis University Pafos, UCLan Cyprus and Cyprus International Institute of Management.The program was implemented in the period 01/06/2015 - 31/05/2017, giving the opportunity to twenty-one (21) new graduates to gain work experience in their area of interest and academic studies in an organization of their choice for a period of 2-6 months, in nineteen (19) different organizations, in eleven (11) countries (Greece, United Kingdom, Spain, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Netherlands, Portugal, Sweden, Ireland, Latvia). It also helped them develop new skills, expertise, intercultural and language skills and networking that would ease their access to the labour market.The fields of study in which the participants obtained professional experience include: Architecture / Civil Engineering, Social Work, Business Administration, Sports Management, Dance, Graphic Arts, Mechanical Engineering, Environmental Sciences and Technology, Music, Music Education, Psychology and Speech Therapy.The participants had a first contact with the labour market, they became familiar with the working environment of an organisation that operates in their field of studies, had to work as a member of a group or individually, developed skills and expertise in handling complex machinery and the latest technology programs, things that in Cyprus would not have the opportunity to do. Moreover, their experience in European countries contributed to the personal development of the participants both in linguistic and intercultural level and has given them, apart from professional experience, general knowledge, confidence and other skills that will help them in the pursuit of work. Almost all participants found work immediately after the end of their training period, in Cyprus and other European countries.