45 male and female participants from different socio-economic backgrounds aged between 18 and 33 undertook a vocational training placement abroad. Completion of a work placement is mandatory on all full time courses in Coláiste Dhúlaigh, College of Further Education in order to achieve a full QQI award. We offer the opportunity to complete this abroad in order to enhance trainees? personal and professional development, to develop intercultural awareness, and to increase trainees? confidence, independence and maturity. Through international exchange we aim to give our students better employment opportunities in Ireland and abroad. An important goal of our college as a whole is to raise the profile of VET with learners, their families and society in general. All trainees followed the curriculum in the areas of social care, nursing, architecture, fashion, interior design, graphics, outdoor education, media and languages. Between February and April 2015 they worked for 3 weeks in office administration, retail, education, social care, health care, architects, design and advertising offices, Radio, and in sailing schools in 6 countries: Germany, Holland, Hungary, Sweden, Finland, France and France (Corsica). These were organised in cooperation with local partner organisations who are experts in their fields and provide us with excellent quality placements. Trainees covered the normal syllabi of their courses, including Communications and IT, and extra linguistic and cultural preparation before they went on placement. The project gave participants the opportunity to experience living and working abroad. They applied the practical skills they had learned in all the modules previous to their work placements. Besides experiencing real working life they needed to adapt to a different way of working and living in unfamiliar surroundings in a different European culture and language. The aims were to introduce students to the wider European market, to give them more employment options, to support and nurture students? interest in travel and adventure, to instill curiosity in discovering new cultures, to broaden their minds and enhance their personal development, to increase students? confidence in themselves, to develop their international awareness and understanding of cultural diversity , to develop a sensitivity towards people from other cultural backgrounds, to enhance their professional expertise and to expand their linguistic ability. Students were to develop survival skills and coping strategies in very unfamiliar surroundings in formal, semi-formal and informal situations. They were to learn that speaking a different language and coming from a different cultural background is not a hindrance to working in a foreign environment. All this was achieved and more. They adapted to different lifestyles, developed team working skills, a sense of responsibility, and became more mature, tolerant, flexible, and resourceful. They developed empathy towards migrants since they experienced what it is like to be living and working in a foreign country. Initial aims and final outcomes were well matched. They managed well outside their comfort zone, learned from positive and negative situations. They forged friendships with other international students which will continue beyond the project and encourage further travel. They received good to excellent reports from their employers. Employers were happy with the performance and are very interested in continuing collaboration. All students acquired the Europass. Some were offered employment in their placements which boosted confidence immensely. We have established links with universities in England and Ireland which secures students who do well access to the first year of 3rd level courses or even advanced entry into 2nd or final year of University courses. Some of the nursing students were accepted on to degree course of University of Wolverhampton in UK where our college has established a link; others got accepted to level 7 and 8 courses in Irish universities and all of them were accepted into their next year of further study. Trainees mentioned to us that they were sure that the experience abroad helped to achieve their successful application. On return Irish participants gave presentations to their colleagues in Communications, Social Studies and other relevant classes and discussed experiences among themselves and on twitter and facebook. Some also keep in touch with their mentors abroad, informing them about their progress which is a great compliment to the companies and helps to disseminate the project and its benefits. The college held an international culture day which was broadcast live by the local radio station NearFM and some participants contributed on the programme talking about the Erasmus+ project and their time abroad.The placements are a great marketing tool for Coláiste Dhúlaigh and Dublin City ETB and help improve the image of Further Education

We created our joint project out of respect for significant historical events in our past, which each partner land can approach and identify with from different perspectives. As educators, we feel a strong need for such events to be remembered and understood by this generation, to ensure that we never forget a tragic period of time that affected the entire world. Likewise, we celebrate the unity of people power to challenge and defeat oppression and domination. Many of the youth during WW II lost their lives or were injured by events and we will be approaching our project with our 200 participants being of a similar age to those called to make the ultimate sacrifice. Again, there was a strong youth presence in the toppling of the Berlin wall, with the aspects of peer working addressed as to forge unity for good purposes. By enabling our students to interview and examine first hand witnesses to these major events, we will empower them to understand attitudes, responsibilities and loyalties, together with duty, honour and respect. Fear played a great role in ensuring cooperation, and we expect to empower our students with self-confidence, a sense of peer to peer involvement and determination to succeed against oppression. They will find that unity for a common good exists not just within their limitations, but forms bonds and trust throughout communities, lands and nations. It will become clearer to them that what happens in one EU land, more often than not has rippling effects through more countries or all. Through visits to museums, and establishing their own online, students will examine, collect and record materials to discuss, share and treasure for future generations to come. Swapping recipes and targeting footfall peer traffic within our colleges and schools will raise awareness through fun activities, we will address sharing by making and distributing themed banners to identify with the periods, and the sense of a collective community spirit that we believe is more and more lacking within today’s youth. A sense of both national and European pride will emerge as we find students accept that they were not responsible for the past, but their actions today shape our present and determine our future, and our exchanges will enable them to meet and live with other cultures and better understand their joint role in how we live and trade together today. Our joint efforts will be recorded, documented and most placed online within our museum. For such tasks students will develop their investigation, research, editing and IT skills, whilst being faced with many of the materials being in a number of foreign languages, and thereby how to tackle and overcome such barriers, thereby improving their linguistic skills. Flows will also mix students from a wide diversity of wealth, ethnic, economic and cultural backgrounds etc, presenting multiple opportunities for discussion, understanding and healthy debate. It will become clear how people from those time periods endured and suffered to extents we can barely imagine today, and we will focus on these issues and how ‘today’s generation has never had it so good.’Finally our project will come to a head with the creation of an Epub compiling the best components of our online museum and experience. Our events will be shared peer to peer, generation to generation and through all the usual media outlets available.In the past silence was an isolating enemy, today speaking out is our common friend.

Our project brings together students from 5 countries (Turkey, Poland, Germany, Romania and France) from 15 to 20 years old. The goal was to study and develop natural sites. For this, we proceeded in several stages. Using a protocol developed by the French partner, we have identified the animal and plant species present on the sites. Each school was able to educate students about the environment and the practice of a scientific method. This work required the collaboration of town halls (Olstyn in Poland for example), competent authorities (Sylvique in Romania for example), local institutions (University of Kocaeli in Turkey for example) and associations (association of hikers in France for example).Various intellectual productions were produced at this time of our project: lexicon (Romania), prospectus (Poland), page etwinning (Germany), calendar (France), page Padlet and logos for all.We then carried out various concrete actions on the various sites: cleaning (Poland and Germany), installation of educational panels (Turkey, France and Romania), pedestrian route route (France and Romania). In partnership with town halls and tourist offices, leaflets with symbols and common layouts were made available to the population.In each school, the group of participants was in their twenties. During the mobilities, each partner brought between 6 and 12 students. These students were volunteers to invest in a European project and their participation was only their goodwill.Our schools have long been part of a citizen and European approach. Through these actions, we promote the learning of autonomy and the initiative of our students.Our students have no particular qualities or difficulties. However, we want everyone to have the chance to progress at their level and to flourish in an original and rewarding way.Three of the partners have already collaborated in the past; they formed an effective and complementary team with the two new partners. This subject has allowed to progress in foreign language and autonomy while exploiting their various specialties (scientists for natural species, linguistic exchanges, artistic panels and logos).Thanks to a precise and feasible schedule and to our monthly meetings on Skype, the different deadlines were respected. The mobilities were the occasion to expose the results and valid the steps.We have all noticed in our students progress in foreign languages ​​and taking initiative. During the mobilities, the different groups of students quickly mixed and everyone found that he was able to communicate. Since then, progress has been visible. Many students stayed in touch via social networks. Everyone was also able to discover new cultures.In addition, students visited and studied natural sites close to home. They discovered the fauna and flora around them.The benefits for our students have been many: open-mindedness to foreign cultures, discovery of nature (local and foreign), use of foreign languages, fostering eco-responsible behavior, taking initiative. For partner cities, the benefit lies in walking routes, exchanges with local primary schools and tourism promotion.

As the only Lippe based vocational college within North Rhine-Westphalia afforded European School status, our college strives to enable our students to experience a wide variety of diverse European projects. Accordingly, to maintain and support this goal, we find it essential to encourage, provide and support ongoing learning opportunities for our teaching staff to acquire and expand their own knowledge of what is new and modern, not just nationally but throughout Europe.We involved 7 teachers, tasked with different areas of responsibilities within our college (teachers, officials, school management team) and we their productive training was subsequently disseminated throughout their peers, further enticing other colleagues to reach their own potential by undertaking their own courses. Acquired skills were transferred into valuable teaching practices and materials which ultimately benefit the majority of our students.Through their attendance at positive events such as workshops, job shadowing, and or participation in mutual events with partner organisations, our teachers received constructive support in the development and expansion of their own international skills. Naturally, not only has our college’s own worthwhile network of international contacts continued to grow and strengthen, our ventures attracted newly qualified teachers to embrace our college, whilst giving both our current and future students the ability to better evaluate their learning and career path when attending or applying to the HNASE-Berufskolleg. By providing such important EU events, we therefore both energize and motivate our current staff and students, whilst motivating new staff and students towards the HANSE for their own EU pathway in their future. The project lead to another application for international staff training which has also been approved.

VOur Erasmus+ MEETING project is part of the internationalization policy of ROC Mondriaan. Through our policy and in connection with the excellency funds of the Ministry of Education, we have been able to give further content to the promotion of mobility. More students have gained experience abroad and also in more countries. Not only within the EU but also outside. We have achieved the standard of 6% (Lisbon). Schools other than the usual school for Tourism & Recreation and the International Hotel and management School also use Erasmus+ mobilities. In fact our Hotel school doesn't use mobilities for students internships.With the help of excellency means, students went to the Antilles, based on their own Personal Excellence Plan. A student went with a tour in Canada. Students of the school for Dance and Performing Arts went to Hamburg. There are good contacts with employees of schools in Finland and the Ministry in Sweden. The Finns and Sweden come back to the Netherlands in October 2018. We help with the curricula building, examination and quality assurance of a Hotel School in India, special active in the development of Dalits. We establish cooperation agreements with a number of schools in China for, among others, Technical courses (Automotive, IT, Mechatronics), Health, Care and Well fare . In short, activities that lead to a foreign experience for students and staff : exchange of knowledge, teachers and students.Incoming mobility is in the field of delegations. From queen Maxima together with the queen of Jordan, the Benelux ambassador of Uzbekistan to the secretary of a Hotel school of Malta. our position in The Hague and the close by Ministry of Education, Culture and Science, Nuffic, CINOP, SBB and the MBO Council we are regularly asked to receive delegations from abroad. We do this with pleasure because those contacts also give other possibilities. We actively tackle the exploration of opportunities. In addition to mobilities, we are also active in Ka-2 projects: Watts Team (Technical courses) and Sherpa (Adult Education for migrants) is walking to the end, a new project with Greece starts in autumn 2018.From Mondriaan own training fees an education team for Entrance and special target groups in Spain has been dedicated for specific training in this area.Students and staff come back with a foreign experience and are enthusiastic about what they have learned and shared abroad. Teams become enthusiastic and the in 2016 planned internationalization platform in which our 23 VET schools (faculties) are represented now works for a year. in the platform meetings there is sharing of knowledge and experiences and help each other for and in new ideas. From that platform action is taken to give content to the VET week in November 2018.Our Mondrian policy, local as well as global, is due for a new update. It states that an internationalization office will be started and that it will support the European associations in which we are administratively active in: AEHT, EUHOFA, INNOTECS. In addition, we have a board member in EfVet-NL and we are initiator of the establishment of a European association for Sports schools (MOVES). We have a representative in de Core Group Internationalization of the VET-council, Internationalzation with which we aim at gaining international experience, has been clearly integrated into Mondriaan in a few years. Partly because of the success we also have new plans: a Practice Internationalization (a practical operating lector in the field of VET) starts in September 2018 is collaboration with ROC van Twente and research is being done on Internationalisaton @ Home. A possibility to reduce the inequality between students in our target groups and also give the lower level programs an opportunity to give an international orientation.