The project included the organization of mobility for apprentices and trainers for the Oslo and and Akershus region. The partnership between these two regions has been successful for several years and is based on a mutual strategy of strenghenting vocational training through international mobility in order to support educational strategies. 48 apprentices took part in the project.They participated for the most part in 13 weeks placements with language course and training in company. 9 of them participated in a 6 week placement often because they were not permitted to have a longer placement by their employer. The apprentices are selected on the basis of their motivation and their personal and professional project. In order to achieve their goals, we offer them a placement abroad that included a language course and a placement in a local company. This allows them to learn new techniques, to experience life abroad and to reflect on what this experience can bring to them in the future. We cooperated with institutions in 10 European countries for organizing the placement: Austria, Denmark, England, France, Greece, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Portugal and Spain. We offered not only a large range of destinations, but also a large range of professions: - childcare workers- healthcare workers- baker- automobil mechanic- electricians- IT workers- cooks- office and administration workers- receptionists - carpentersChildcare workers are the most represented vocational training and we placed 14 apprentices in England, Spain and Italy. We look forward to deepening our ties with our current partners in this field. Only 2 trainers were placed abroad for a duration of 4-5 days, both in Italy (childcare and service/catering) . The aim was to improve the awareness of the training enterprise about the benefits of international mobility and hopefully trigger “internationalization at home” by using the international experience for training VET learning in Norway. The aim is also to benefit from the trainer’s professional expertise to define better the specific learning outcomes of some specific placements for apprentices. The feedback from the 2 trainers was positive, though we experienced that it could be challenging to send both a trainer and its trainee to the same place. We have learned we must prepare trainers better to complete their task.

The project Competence Without Borders (CWB) results from a cooperation between the counties of Akershus and Oslo. It continues the implementation of the long-term international strategy within vocational education and training of the county of Akershus. This strategy aims at fully integrating international mobility as a means to support the achievement of the main objectives of the county's educational strategies. It could be summarized by improving recruitment within vocational education and training, providing equal opportunities between vocational and general pathways, improving the general quality of vocational training by offering challenging and innovative learning opportunities The project includes the organization of mobility for trainers and apprentices. The mobility of trainers aims to improve the competence of the trainers, but also to broaden and strengthen the impact of our international engagement by triggering “internationalisation at home.” We plan to send trainers abroad for a duration of 4 to 5 days. We will expose them to other methods and techniques in order to improve their professional skills and competence but also their awareness of the benefit of internationalization. We expect these trainers to use their newly gained international experience and competence in the training of VET learners in Norway afterwards. Thus, they would enable us to provide international output to publics, which does not have access to international mobility yet. Furthermore, we believe that it would increase the recruitment of apprentices for work placement abroad. Finally, we will benefit from the trainer’s professional expertise to define better the specific learning outcomes of some specific placements for apprentices. We will give priority for trainers in the fields of technical and industrial producation, electro and health and social trades. We apply for support to the placement of 98 apprentices from Oslo and Akershus. The figure was calculated for matching our development plan, which includes a progressive increase of the number of placements for apprentices from 50 apprentices in 2016 to 70 in 2020. The 98 mobilities are thought to be used in 4 flows: 15 at the autumn 2018, 35 in Spring 2019, 35 at the autumn 2019 and the remaining 13 at the Spring 2019. The figure is designed to allow us to have an activity, which would have a significant and visible impact on the VET at large (we have over 4000 apprentices in our counties). The apprentices will be recruited within the 40 different trades in which we have training opportunities abroad. The majority of the apprentices will perform long term placements of 13 weeks, which would include language course and training in company. A few apprentices will perform only 6 to 10 weeks placements. The duration of 10 weeks is introduced for trainees that do not need language courses, it would mostly applys to placements in English speaking countries. The 6 weeks placements will enable us to include new publics, such as apprentices following YSK curriculum (vocational studies with university and college admission certification) and apprentices with weaker social or economic background. It also aims to increase the number of mobility from participants following a vocational training in the private sector, especially in industrial, electrical and mechanical trades. Indeed, we noticed a significant reduction of the number of applicants from this sector in the last two years. There are several explanations for this phenomenon, but we think that proposing short-term mobility would make work placement abroad more accessible. We will cooperate with institutions in 9 European countries for organizing the placement: Austria, England, France, Greece, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Portugal and Spain. This allows us to offer training opportunities in a wide range of professions, our aim being to act upon vocational training at large and support individual projects initiated by apprentices themselves. The dissemination of the mobility flows between the participating countries takes into consideration the experience of the last years, the training offer in each country and the expected profile (and thus needs) of the applicants. We expect the participants to achieve a large degree of independence, develop cultural awareness, develop their ability to work in a foreign environment and last but not least, strengthen their motivation and professional skills. We expect that the reflection born from this experience will provide better trained skilled workers that will feel equipped to cope with an increasingly more integrated and globalized society. We plan to continue the gradual implementation of ECVET principles for improving the quality of the placements. We will continue to focus on strengthening the procedures for matching between apprentices and training establishments in order to increase the benefits of the mobility and secure better learning outcomes.