The name of the project 'EuroVITO' refers undoubtedly to Europe and our school VITO-Hoogstraten. With this project we wanted to stimulate our students to extend their limits: geographical, to explore other countries and cultures and to be open towards other cultures and countries, but also personally to develop their own social and linguistic skills. The annex ’Hoeveproducten-Produits de la ferme’ represented the theme of this project. We strongly wanted to focus on the short food supply chain: from the field to the plate, from farmer to consumer. This sale (and processing) of farm products produced by the farmers themselves is strongly present in e.g. the French regions Lot-et-Garonne and Ardèche. Therefore, this theme was addressed extensively both during the preparation and the internship itself, but also during the postprocessing. The aim explicitly was that, with the acquired knowledge and experience, the participants would be able to develop a project that brings the field and the plate closer together. A farmer’s market was organized during the open house day of our school with products of the internship companies (the Flemish and the French companies). A fruit machine was also installed in our school for the sale of products directly from the school garden (blackberries, strawberries, cauliflower, asparagus, … ) which was a huge success.Agriculture is a sector in which its policy is strongly internationally determined: European, by the EU, as well as world-wide, by the OESO and WTO. There is hardly any question of international contacts at the level of individual companies. Many employers are often physically committed to their company through their activities and working with living plants and animals. We experience this as such with our pupils: many of them grew up into a similar family business but have hardly ever left their own region. With this internship we wanted them to experience the need of international contacts which can lead to an enlargement of knowledge and experience on technical, cultural and social level.EuroVITO is composed of 4 flows. Prior to each internship special attention was paid to a good preparation of the internship in terms of language, culture and a positive awakening of consciousness of EU-citizenship. To this end, language courses were organized, participants themselves did some research (for example, cultural visits in spare time, different possibilities for their journey and their stay, ..). Visits to local farms who sell their products directly to the consumer were made and also a visit to the European Parliament or the European quarter in Brussels. A website and a Facebook page were created with an exact outline of the preparing activities, the progress of the internship and the personal experience of all participants. This information was widely distributed among the participants, parents, sympathizers, agrarian employers and trade unions. Flow 1 and 3 was set up for 18-19-year old pupils of the 6th form BSO Agriculture and Horticulture and took place in the Rhônes-Alpes (dep. Ardèche) region. In accordance with the field of study profile these participants received practical tasks they could perform in group and under immediate supervision. During the internship the participants took part in harvesting activities and the winemaking process in the vineyard of the cooperation ‘Caves La Cévenole’ and the vineyards from the members of the cooperation. Besides the acquisition of practical technical skills, the emphasis was on the acquisition of social skills and attitudes: live together, work and relax in a group, with respect for linguistic and cultural diversity.Flow 2 and 4 was organized for 18-20-year old pupils of the 7th form specified years Horticulture production and Agriculture (BSO) and the 6th form Plant Technical Science and Veterinary and Agriculture Technical Science (TSO). During this education they get a firm theoretical footing and they acquire practical skills. The professional profile of these branch of studies puts an important emphasis on the fact that students can work with a high degree of autonomy in a company. Therefore, the purpose of this flow was to assign the participants individually or in pairs to a company and that they participated in various working activities of that company. To select the companies who are open to internships we have worked together with an agricultural education center, het CFAA47, which itself has a lot of experience with placing interns in agricultural and horticultural companies. To keep down the social threshold, the stay and the leisure activities took place in group. The participants were also accompanied by their teachers during their stay. These internships were situated in the region of Aquitania (dep. Lot-et-Garonne) where you can find a great variety of agricultural businesses. Therefore, these companies could be closely matched with the participants ‘individual interests.

"The 5 Farming Vocational Training Centres in the Aquitaine area want to continue their European mobility plan by applying for a fifth 24-month project. That is to say that a real dynamic has ben set up among the educational teams who wish to carry on their work with their learners. The mobility project initially aiming at apprentices has resulted in professional internships for the staff, in incoming mobilities, in real and not only official reciprocities with vocational institutions across the EU and the writing of other ERASMUS+ projects. The 4 previous MEDAA also guarantee certain expertise in the management of mobility projects for both the project holder and the 4 other participating organizations sometimes involved in international activities. The networking activities that the five CFA lead are always clearly detailed in a schedule and ruled through an inter-institutional agreement setting out the tasks and duties of each partner and a chronological programme of actions.As a reminder, the MEDAA project (European Mobility for the Development of Agricultural Learning) has been based since its creation on the following objectives: personal and professional develoment, European citizenship, employment, a better quality of the training and education provided in the CFA, the strengthening of the reciprocity between CFA, French and foreign organizations. The internships will allow teachers to deepen their teaching practices by updating their knowledge of farming they teach (continuous training). Actually many professionals (employers and training supervisors, professional organizations in the agricultural sector) are interested in the added value that these mobility experiences bring to the entire training system and to the profession.MEDAA 5, the continuation of a regional system that has now demonstrated its effectiveness, would accompany 129 apprentices (from certificates of professional competence to vocational diplomas) for internships from 2 to 3 weeks and 19 accompanying adults in 17 countries. The project also involves 44 staff (10 for the previous MEDAA) who are administration and technical personnel, teachers and management staff.Apprenticeship whose teaching is based on the synergy between the company, the apprentice and the CFA, prepares young people for their future job and their development. It helps them to understand the reality of the world of work. This is why the employers of all the participants will take part in the writing of the mobility agreements to negotiate the objectives of the internship with both the host company and the intern. The linguistic (if necessary), pedagogical and inter-cultural preparation (upstream and downstream) will respond to all the participants' development. Tools created and shared by the referents as well as the national and European certificates will provide them validation and recognition of the competences acquired. Staff will need to clearly formulate their training objectives in relation to their position to their manager. The referent of their site must ensure that the host organization will play its role fully. Staff will also prepare their internship with cultural research and language courses.MEDAA has currently more than 100 partners across the EU (host organizations and professional institutions). They represent all the professional fields in which our learners are trained and are chosen according to their influence at local, regional or even international level. They must have experience in hosting trainees. However, new partnerships are also being formed every year, and the older ones are becoming stronger: committed businesses are keen to host our apprentices again and are opening up to staff. Others even offer to employ our learners at the end of their training course in France.All thes activities are widely communicated to the media, on social network, to the families of learners. It is regularly presented to the Consular Chambers and our territorial partners of the agricultural sector. This valorization contributes to the recognition of our professional education system and is a token of innovation.This sharing of knowledge and practices must become a guarantee for innovation and motivation for participants who can easily reinvest what they have learned through courses, meetings between professionals, within their work team, etc. In addition, the National Assembly adopted definitively and by a large majority the law for ""Freedom to choose one's professional future"" on 1 August 2018. The law was promulgated by the President of the Republic on 5 September. It reforms apprenticeship and vocational training. 15,000 apprentices will have the opportunity to go to ""Erasmus pro"" in Europe every year by the start of the school year 2022."

IES Luces is an Agricultural Vocational Training School. It was established in 1951 and it is located in Colunga, Asturias, Spain. We have been training farming professionals in northern Spain for nearly seventy years. Despite the fact that the number of young people who join the agricultural sector has decreased significantly over the past several years, there is an increasing consumer demand of quality locally grown products. At the same time, the idea that “you don’t need to study if you’re going to be a farmer” is deep-rooted in some people’s minds. We know it is not true but, what can we do in order to change this belief? Our aims with our mobility projects with schools in France and Italy are a) to make our Ecological Agriculture and Farming students aware of how highly-regarded agricultural training is outside Spain. b) to be an incentive for the students’ training, including non-participants. c) to improve the reputation of agricultural training. IES Luces ERASMUS+ KA 102 project is known as SURCOS (LABRANDO CONOCIMIENTO) (Growing Knowledge) and its purpose is that four of our Ecological Farming and Gardening students carry out a twelve day mobility project at two similar schools, CFPPA LOT ET GARONNE (France) and ISTITUTO DE INSTRUZIONE SUPERIORE “VICENZO DANDOLO” (Italy). During these days, our students will join the host schools both for theoretical and practical training, and they will have the opportunity to know the local culture and customs. They will also create learning material in order to make their experience known. This material will be uploaded in a blog for this specific purpose. The project will be based on an active approach; as well as creating learning material under the guidance of teaching staff, participants are expected to share the results of their learning process. We intend to achieve an important improvement in the students’ academic performance and in their future employment prospects. Also, this mobility experience should be an incentive for students to take part in further international projects. Finally, we really hope this initiative to contribute to the improvement of the social image of agricultural training and, as a result, to an increase in the number of students who decide to sign up for it.

“JC1 pone rumbo a tu futuro” has been a mobility project which was designed with the aim of internationalising and improving the quality of our teachings, providing our Intermediate Vocational Training students with the suitable conditions to be competitive when searching for a job, while adding different European languages, values and culture to their curriculums.The development of this project took shape in two directions. On the one hand, a series of actions aimed at teachers were launched so that they could acquire - through 3 jobshadow mobilities to their counterparts schools at the United Kingdom and France - methodological strategies from the educational systems of these countries, incorporating them to their own teaching practice. On the other hand,10 students mobilities were carried out with the aim of improving professional competences - through short-term and long ErasmusPro practice stays- in field-related companies in Italy, Holland and Portugal.Therefore, this project made possible that:-Our educational community increased the quality of our Vocational Training pedagogy, since a range of educational systems from different countries were compared. Hence, new methodological techniques were applied in order to improve professional profiles, promoting an optimal development of professional competences-Our educational community developed students’ professional, personal and social competences within an international environment where teamwork and coordination with our European counterparts were essential to achieve our objectives, while fostering meaningful professional competences.-It offered opportunities which enabled the elimination of social inequality among our students with social difficulties .Hence,they could redirect their future thanks to the support offered by this project.-It strengthened the personal and social dimension of the participants due to the cultural and linguistic immersion in different European societies while showing tolerance,respect and equality values.The project’s impact on our school center resulted in the updating of our teachers’ methodology which clearly contributed to the teaching-learning process, motivating students and fostering their professionalism. Thanks to this project, nowadays JC1 school has a differentiator element in comparison to other nearby vocational training schools: JC1 adds an European methodology to its everyday teaching methodology of vocational training and it offers our students an employment bureau that goes beyond our regional limits.At regional level, this project outcomes had a high impact on those companies related with Chemistry and Assistance to People in Need of Care since our participants together with our school were promoted, fostering not only the recruitment of our students but also a general interest in collaborating with our school center. Moreover, thanks to the dissemination of information among the local companies, they became willing to recruit Erasmus students from European equivalent schools in subsequent years.At national level,the project fostered the development of our students’ personal and social competences in order to facilitate their job seeking mobility. This project’s impact transmission (especially thanks to the technical conference on KA102 and KA103, held on 8 May 2019 in the Regional Library) reinforced our school JC1 image at local and national levels.At European level,the rise of corporate contacts was essential to guarantee upcoming cooperation,experiences exchanges and learning mobilities.The attainment of cooperation with our European counterparts directly fed back into our teaching practice, providing it with an European dimension. Besides, this fact triggered a series of pedagogical collaborations among teachers from different educational levels, which begun a new period in our school JC1.This new period is characterized by a new international perspective within our professional profiles and we foresee the participation of experts on our educational practice.

The Nouvelle Aquitaine region is the largest agricultural region in Europe and ranks first in France in terms of agricultural added value. It is also the world leader for appellation wines (Bordeaux, Cognac et Armagnac) and the first in France for quality/or certified origin products. The Nouvelle Aquitaine region also has the largest planted forest area in Europe - the Landes forest.In this context, a wide range of higher education programmes are offered by Bordeaux Sciences Agro (Post-Graduate diploma in Agronomy) and 8 vocational and technical agricultural schools (technician diploma in Agriculture - BTSA) in the field of life sciences.The consortium was initiated by the regional authority in charge of agricultural education. The vocational schools and Bordeaux Sciences Agro joined in order to improve the European mobility of their students in the framework of 2 to 12 months work placements which are part of the curricula, as well as through academic periods abroad.The consortium partners wish to offer their students another cultural and vocational experience in Europe and encourage the acquisition of transversal skills such as autonomy, adaptability as well as language skills, for an easier professional inclusion on the work market. This consortium aims at building closer links between higher education stakeholders and European partners, whether companies or universities, through a regional approach proposing a much better visibility, by offering a wide range of curricula at different levels and in different fields of the green sector.