Helsinki Vocational College offers high quality and versatile vocational education for its pupils. Internationalisation and its visibility in the everyday life of the college is seen to add to the attractiveness of the college and provides a way of staying abreast of educational developments in Europe. This project will continue the bilateral mobility flow of previous Erasmus+ projects. The aim is to send 134 students for a 2-10 week long practical training period and 50 teachers for a four day job shadowing period abroad.This project aims to increase equality in gaining competences needed in the working life through international activities, thus aspiring for the aims of the Erasmus+ project. With these international competences Helsinki Vocational College aims to meet the needs of the increasingly multicultural working life.The strategic aim is that every student and Staff member is aware of the possibilities given to gain international competences and have an equal opportunity to participate in the international activities and mobility periods. This projects aims to develop mobility periods to take better into consideration the skills and competences of the different students. It aims to find ways to encourage students to participate also in fields of studies where the students are not voluntarily participating in student exchange. The equal opportunity asks for a transparent process of selection of the participants in this project. The main criteria are, that the candidate is willing to learn and has sufficient skills and willingness to adjust and cope. The mobility periods applied for staff aims to evolve pedagogical and guidance practices, develop the participating staffs vocational field and improve the recognition of learning outcomes. The competences gained will be beneficial for the implementation of the ECVET system in student mobilities. It is believed that the participating staff will be more prepared to meet students from a variety of backgrounds as well be more willing to encourage students to participate in international activities. Mobility periods are seen as a process that includes preparation, implementation and evaluation. The aim of the preparatory activities is that the student is aware of all the documentation needed, personal learning goals and has adequate knowledge to make the travel preparations and to manage once abroad.The Strategic aim of Helsinki Vocational College is that these mobility periods are a recognized part of the participant’s studies. The recognition of these mobilities is based on the implementation of the ECVET from the preparation till the evaluation.Mobility periods are documented and each participant is asked to write a report of their experiences. These stories are gathered to the google-maps platform. https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?hl=fi&authuser=0&mid=zc5KXPB2SV0M.kELpo45nfobc Students are asked to send digital postcards that can be shared within the college and will be part of the digital game now being produced.The evaluation of this project follows the principals of evolving evaluation. The material produced for the evaluation supports the implementation and impact of the project. Previous mobility projects have proven beneficial for its participants motivation, studies and later employment. Participants have met their professional goals but as well learned to evaluate the working methods and recognize the cultural basis of the methodologies implemented and use these methods flexibly to develop one’s work. Mobility periods support one’s personal and professional growth, regardless of one’s age, sex and background. Skills beneficial for setting realistic aims in one’s career and for employment.

The main objective of Prime Vocational and International Skills project is to develop international cooperation, activities and mobility processes in Luksia according to the International Strategy. The project has two target groups: 1. Students in the vocational college and adult education institute, 2. teachers and other staff of Luksia. The project consists of 5 or 10 weeks on-the-job learning periods for students, which will be organized together with the international partners. The length of the staff mobility period is one week and the purpose is to learn, develop and update professional competencies, for example pedagogical skills or information and communication technologies user skills. The mobility periods will be organized mainly in companies, but staff training can be realized also in the partner VET secondary institutions. In that occasion, teachers have possibility to develop their pedagogical skills job shadowing or in dialogue with the European colleagues. In addition, the Prime Vocational and International Skills project aims to strengthen long-lasting and reciprocal cooperation with the named project partners.There are in total 90 student mobility periods and 19 staff mobility periods in the project. The participants for the mobility periods will be selected equally from different professional fields. The partner organizations have been chosen according to the International Strategy from the neighbouring regions, which include Estonia and Sweden, and from other significant European countries such as Germany, Spain and United Kingdom. In addition, there is a partner organization from Slovenia, Vocational College for Catering and Tourism Bled, and a new, multidisciplinary partner from the Netherlands. As a result of the project, students have better qualifications to work in the multicultural and international environment. Students' on-the-job learning periods will be usually in small and medium sized companies, which gives possibility to learn entrepreneurship skills. Prime Vocational and International Skills project is based on Luksia's main development plans and it has impact on staff work motivation and well-being as well as competence and pedagogical skills development. This leads to education quality improvement which eventually improves students’ motivation. The project has positive impact on language skills and confidence to work in new environment both for students and staff members. Every participant has to disseminate experiences at least inside the professional study field so that the knowledge of the international experiences and new competencies can be utilized in future. The longer term benefit is that students with international skills can enhance the competitiveness of the local business. Students with the international mobility experiences have also better employment possibilities. In conclusion, big steps are taken to the international Luksia, where students graduate with Prime Vocational and International Skills.

Omnia Around Europe is a multisectoral student and staff mobility project of Omnia, The Joint Authority of Education in Espoo Region. Omnia was awarded a Leonardo da Vinci mobility certificate in year 2009. This certificate was to recognize the capability of managing high quality mobility projects. Omnia is well known for its international activities and projects in capital area as well as in national and international level. Project will be coordinated by Omnia’s mobility team. In addition vocational fields have teachers, who are responsible for international activities. This project will be managed and implemented following the international strategy of the organisation and using Omnia’s mobility processes and good practices from previous international projects. The object of the project is to develop learners’ and freshly graduates’ professional, language and cultural and other lifelong learning skills. This project also aims to improve the possibilities to enter the job market or to get a study placement for further studies. Participating into this project improves learners’ capability to handle different kind of situations in life and interact with people from other cultures. Mobility period abroad also inspires participants to work or study in another EU country in the future. The objective of the staff mobility is to improve Omnia’s personnel’s internationalization competences. The participants get a deeper knowledge of their own vocational field, new ideas for developing own work, teaching methods or the services of the organization. Also the language, cultural and other lifelong learning skills improve. This project will focus on guidance and monitoring of the student’s mobilities. As an important result of the project the guidance skills of the personnel improve, the roles of each staff group clear up and guidance will be part of daily teaching- and monitoring work. Teachers and guidance personnel also get to know and use the ECVET-documents provided by European Comission and are able to make personal plans for contents of each student’s mobility period. The use of new social media enables more people to get to know about the results of the project. Participants represent different vocational fields. In this project there are 234 mobilities for students and freshly graduates and 42 for Omnia’s staff from different vocational units. The age of the learners varies very much, but mostly all the students are in the final year of their studies. The aims and contents of all mobilities are planned individually. The duration of the mobility period can be from 14 days (group mobility) up to 100 days (individual work based learning). For the staff there are one and two weeks staff training and teaching assignment periods. All participants prepare themselves before the mobility period. Omnia has developed a versatile preparation program including language and cultural preparation, guidance for practical matters and preparation of the documents, personal meetings with international coordinator and vocational guidance. Host partners help with the practical issues like accommodation and finding a work placement, give guidance in the work placement and evaluate the skills and competences. After the work based learning period the skills and competences will be recognized and validated as part of student’s studies. In the staff mobilities international coordinators and assistant help participants with the practical matters. The host partner helps to create suitable work program for each participant and is the contact person for the local companies and educational organisations. After the mobility participant disseminates the experiences and results in the home organization in team meetings. There are several impacts in many different levels: student/freshly graduate, staff, organisation, capital area and international. This project has big impact on students’ and freshly graduates’ working life and lifelong learning skills, and also on the possibilities to cope and further develop in the working life. Staffs' experiences and new skills benefit the organization and students by improving the quality of teaching and services provided in Omnia. The staff also get more interested in networking and taking part in international projects and development work. High quality international activities and good experiences from this project makes vocational education more attractive. For Omnia’s partners in the labour market this project gives an opportunity to get ideas and influences from European business field. Mobility projects enable long term mutual co-operation in EU, which benefits the home organization but also the host organization. Omnia’s experiences in mobility and ECVET-projects inspire also the partner organizations to develop their functions.

The BBS 1 Uelzen have many years of experience with various student exchange activities, e.g. with a college in Dallas/Texas and with a Polish and Estonian grammar school. Four years ago apprentices in bakery of the BBS 1 Uelzen did a two-week work placement in Salzburg/Austria. For several years, Estonian and French trainees have completed a three-week work placement in firms in Uelzen. These exchange activities have made it obvious that the BBS 1 Uelzen in cooperation with local companies must support actively mobility for educational purposes and the European cooperation in vocational education. Together with our European partners the BBS 1 Uelzen want to improve the performance, quality, attractiveness and sustainability in training by cooperating closely with our partner schools.Work placements abroad allow students to learn new job skills. The unfamiliar environment in the new firm is a challenge for the students. In addition students must be willing to communicate in a new language and accept the culture and lifestyle of the people of the host country. Prejudices and stereotypes must be reduced. Additionally students are expected to experience the EU as a guarantor of peace, freedom, democracy, justice and social cohesion. The reason for exchanging teachers is gaining knowledge about contents of company training and school curricula in the European partner country and getting open-minded regarding the European Union. Furthermore the exchange of teachers will help to achieve transparency regarding educational contents so that differences between and common ground in educational contents can easily be worked out. During the two years of the Erasmus+ program we sent ten students for three week work placements to Estonia, France and Austria. Students applied for the work placements with the Euro CV. In interviews, the candidates were chosen by the organizers and their class teachers. The interview together with the professional and social skills was used as the basis for the decision who was sent to the foreign partner country.Twelve teachers of the respective departments applied for a one week stay in our European partner countries to the headmaster and organizers. The goal of such a stay abroad was to learn about contents of company training and school curricula, their compatibility with our school system as well as performance measurement and evaluation in the different professions.For Estonia and France language teaching was provided at school in the first week. In the second and third week the students had to work in the firms selected by the partner school. As in Austria there was no need for language training the students started with the work placement in the first week. At weekends and evenings cultural programs were offered.In preparation for staying abroad the BBS 1 Uelzen offered a weekend-seminar used for explaining the characteristics of the host country and informing about organisational details, such as insurance, hints for arrival and departure, adequate behaviour in each host country. Students were reminded that they had to document their work experiences and to present their experiences to an audience, e. g. on the European Day at school.The learning objectives and the contents of the work placement were written down in compliance with our European partners in a learning contract which was the basis for the learning and work experiences that were documented in the Europass Mobilitiy.Evaluation of the work placements was done on the basis of the reports of the participants, filled out at the end of the work placements. Moreover there were feedback talks with our partners and participants.With the implementation of these work placements, we reduce the unwillingness for living and working abroad. We achieve that the students are open to lifelong learning and job mobility in Europe. Students having completed such a work placement improve their career prospects on the European Union labour market.Due to the positive public effect of handing out the Europass Mobility, we reach a better acceptance of Erasmus+ by our students and regional companies.The BBS 1 Uelzen want to achieve the stabilization of foreign work placements of their students in their European partner countries. Together with the regional firms the BBS 1 want to support lifelong learning and job mobility.

"<< Background >>Industry 4.0 (often used interchangeably with the notion of the fourth industrial revolution) describes the growing/most recent trends which encompass:- A set of technological changes to create a coherent framework to be introduced in the manufacturing process;- The application of technology to digitally transform how industrial companies operate, including the application of the Internet-of-Things, the industrial Internet-of-Things, cyber-physical systems (CPS), smart manufacture, smart factories, cloud computing and cognitive computing into the manufacturing and service environment.These recent Industry 4.0 advances/enablers (along with other Industry 4.0 evolving domains such as 3D printing, artificial Intelligence techniques, advanced robotics and automation, big data analytics and cutting-edge wireless communication technologies) have been changing the landscape of industries at a global scale and relevant implementation is highly dependent on the capability of the workforce to apply and optimise usage of advanced technologies pertinent to an Industry 4.0 working environment. In order to develop human capital that will be able to perform in an Industry 4.0 working environment, the role of the initial vocational education and training (IVET) curriculum at the upper secondary school level is crucial in terms of preparing IVET students for an Industry 4.0 working environment. Despite the significant efforts being made by the educational systems in many European Union (hereinafter referred to as: EU) member states, a number of relevant needs have emerged that could be summarized as follows:a)There is a need for defining a clear cut set of Industry 4.0 competences to be incorporated into the IVET curricula at the upper secondary level, including both technical/specialist competencies and non-technical/transversal competencies (facing the challenges of Industry 4.0 domains, future professionals are likely to be increasingly creative, innovative and entrepreneurial, able of building relationships, advancing research and strengthening their organisations).b)Industry 4.0 related educational practices should move beyond the typical/often “one-off” institutional collaboration patterns of the IVET providers at the upper secondary level (IVET centres/VET secondary schools) with regard to the development of the curricula mechanisms. Centres/secondary schools for IVET are confronted with new challenges in anticipating and responding in due time to the fast needs of the Industry 4.0 related labour market/to the expectations of companies/SMEs operating in Industry 4.0 domains, where the speed of change is faster than ever/the “shelf-life” of relevant knowledge, skills and competencies is becoming increasingly short. To address this challenge, the collaboration of IVET providers from different EU member states must become much more flexible and responsive to the need for renewing their offer within the framework of the Industry 4.0 domains. In doing so, IVET providers should ensure more freedom of IVET curriculum goals and learning outcomes at the upper secondary level from national qualification frameworks and sectoral/school curriculum to offer elective/more personalised learning choices for IVET students at the upper secondary level as well for facilitating peer-to-peer learning and mobility, i.e. to enable IVET students from several EU member state to learn with and from each other as fellow learners;c)When it comes to the learning environments/curriculum delivery that should simulate the Industry 4.0 working environment, there is a need for stimulating wider use of the technology-enabled learning, including different combination of physical spaces and virtual/digital platforms with increased diversity and volume of collaboration among peers (IVET teachers and students) from different EU member states<< Objectives >>The objectives of the project “Hybrid Learning Lab for Industry 4.0 Mechatronics” are as follows:-SPECIFIC OBJECTIVE 1: To reinforce the capacities of three initial vocational education and training (IVET) centres/secondary schools from Croatia, Estonia and Portugal for the development of the state-of-the-art curriculum in the field of Mechatronics at the upper secondary level in response to emerging Industry 4.0 paradigm/ the fast changing Industry 4.0-related labour market needs-SPECIFIC OBJECTIVE 2: To strengthen capacities of IVET teachers from three IVET centres/secondary schools from Croatia, Estonia and Portugal for hybrid collaboration in the delivery of the Curriculum Framework for Industry 4.0 Mechatronics.<< Implementation >>The project/work plan is structured in 5 components, each of them being divided in several activities, with strong interactions.COMPONENT 1: Comparative Analysis - Challenges and implications for VET providers at the upper secondary level in respect to Industry 4.0 trends/labour markets needsGiven the diversity of the economies, Industry 4.0-related labour market needs as well as the diversity of the initial vocational education and training (IVET) systems in the countries represented by 3 IVET centres/secondary schools (Croatia, Estonia, Poland, comparative analysis will be carried out with a view to ensuring good-quality integration of the Industry 4.0 content into the Curriculum Framework for Industry 4.0 Mechatronics and envisaged elective subjects. Relevant study/report will be delivered as Project Result 1 (see section Production of Project Results for details).COMPONENT 2: Exchange of competencies and know-how / tailor-made trainingsThe 2nd component of the project will be focused on extensive and direct exchange of competencies and know - how by means of the Short-term joint staff training conducted by the respective project partners and their quest lecturers (external experts/key stakeholders) on the following topics:-Joint staff training 1 – Innovative use of digital education content / advanced remote learning practices in the delivery of IVET programmes in the field of Mechatronics;-Joint staff training 2 - Impact of the Industry 4.0 trends on the delivery of IVET programmes in the field of Mechatronics);-Joint staff training 3 - Application of the Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) methodology in the delivery of VET programmes at the upper secondary levelCOMPONENT 3: Development of the model “Hybrid Learning Lab for Industry 4.0 Mechatronics”Based on the outcomes of the Component 1 and Component 2, the project coordinator and project partners will jointly design the model “Hybrid Learning Lab for Industry 4.0 Mechatronics” The model will be designed so as to offer: -A unique IVET student-centred approach for the wider integration of the relevant Industry 4.0 contents into the “Curriculum Framework for Industry 4.0 Mechatronics” (Project Result 2 - see section Production of Project Results for more details);-Joint provision of the Curriculum Framework and elective subjects by Elektrostrojarska škola (Croatia), Tartu Kutsehariduskeskus (Estonia) and FORAVE (Portugal) to mixed groups of their IVET students in line with the comprehensive methodological guidelines (Project Result 3 - see section Production of Project Results for more details). which will combine targeted technology-enabled (enhanced)-learning methodology “Remote Learning Lab for Industry 4.0” Mechatronics” with (on the basis of the benchmarking exercise) applicable element of other models/methodologies: model “International Networked Curricula, collaboration models (e.g. Globally Networked Learning, Collaborative Online International Learning, Virtual Mobility/Exchange), Content and language Integrated Learning.COMPONENT 4: Piloting of the model “Hybrid Learning Lab for Industry 4.0 Mechatronics” The pilot-testing of the model “Hybrid Learning Lab for Industry 4.0 Mechatronics” will combine elements of the Blended learning: (i) face-to-face and (on-line) collaborative teaching & learning in a situation in which one VET centre/secondary schools delivers an internationalised elective subject to a mixed group of IVET students from different countries., combined with (ii) short-term physical mobilities/exchanges of the IVET student. Such exchanges will be also used for direct/face-to-face exchange of competencies and know - how between IVET teachers.COMPONENT 5: Dissemination & Multiplier Event The dissemination activities will include design and administration of a project-based web-platform with Open Education Resource features. Final phase of the dissemination will be focused on 4 national Multiplier Eve<< Results >>The expected outcomes linked to the SPECIFIC OBJECTIVE 1 of the project are as follows:-OUTCOME 1.1: Enhanced competencies of teaching/non-teaching staff from three IVET centres/secondary schools from Croatia, Estonia and Portugal for the analysis/mapping of emerging Industry 4.0 trends and discipline-specific competencies and skills associated with the Industry 4.0 Mechatronics-OUTCOME 1.2: Flexible curriculum framework that enables agile, future-oriented technical (hard) & non-technical (soft) skills and competence development in line with Industry 4.0 trends is designedThe OUTCOME 1.1 and the OUTCOME 1.2 of the project will be accomplished through implementation ofthe following activities:-Delivery of the PROJECT RESULT 1 - Comparative Analysis - Challenges and implications for VET providers at the upper secondary level in respect to Industry 4.0 trends/labour markets needs;-Delivery of the PROJECT RESULT 2 - Curriculum Framework for Industry 4.0 Mechatronics;-Delivery of the Short-term joint staff training event 2 / mobility of IVET teachers and cross-sectoral experts. The expected outcomes linked to the SPECIFIC OBJECTIVE 2 of the project are as follows:-OUTCOME 2.1.: The delivery of the Curriculum Framework for Industry 4.0 Mechatronics is based on the integration of various models/methodologies adjusted to the specific needs of the upper secondary level - International Networked Curricula, Globally networked learning (GNL), advanced technology-enabled (remote) learning and Content and Language Integrated Learning-CLIL respectively-OUTCOME 2.2.: A comprehensive methodological guidelines that practically demonstrate core quality factors required for hybrid collaboration among three IVET centres/secondary schools are pilot-tested through personalised learning/hybrid peer-to-peer collaboration of IVET students from different countries.The OUTCOME 2.1 and the OUTCOME 2.2 of the project will be accomplished through implementation ofthe following activities:-Delivery of the Short-term joint staff training event 1 and 3 / mobility of IVET teachers and cross-sectoral experts;-Delivery of the PROJECT RESULT 3 - Methodological guidelines ""Hybrid Learning Lab for Industry 4.0-Mechatronics"";-Pilot-testing of the Curriculum Framework for Industry 4.0 Mechatronics/elective subjects under the three Blended learning (combination of different joint learning & mobility modalities) of IVET students carried put in Croatia, Estonia and Portugal."