Boarders of European Union continue to evolve and the development of skills for our European workers is essential for today’s and tomorrow’s challenges. Indeed, crafts and companies are dealing more and more with international exchanges and facing a multinational competition, for both professionals and production technics. Qualifications and skills are therefore need to be updated. In order to move on that direction, it is primordial to provide each apprentice with the possibility to be trained and to work on a European level. Les Compagnons du Devoir et du Tour de France which train apprentices and young professional, by traveling, community living and knowledge transmissions, have always had a strong commitment to European mobility programmes. Long-term mobility projects have always existed in our Association. It is part of our specific professional training “Le Tour de France” to have a one-year experience abroad. So far, almost 7400 of our young graduated have already benefitted from such an amazing experience.Since 2004, more than 17350 apprentices have therefore benefitted from a 3 weeks mobility project in European Union, owing to our trusted partners, in any of our trades (industry, construction, building, baking, leather and textiles trades). Driven by our strong desire to institutionalize the mobility project abroad for our apprentices, we have mention the European mobility period into the training program for all our level 4 apprentices, under the framework agreement signed in 2009 with our ministry of National education.Thanks to Erasmus + agreement for 2017-2019, we exceed our objectives and financed mobility for 1222 apprentices in gathered mobility projects together with their class and their trade teacher (107 teachers in total); 152 young professionals gone for a one-year individual mobility; 8 post-apprentices who went abroad from 6 to 12 months in order to continue their apprenticeship; 39 young participants in a 2 weeks technical training and 4 staff members, gone for a job shadowing or a training.The enhancement of the quality of our project is owing to the pedagogical projects developed by our trainers and hosting partners, who suggest a precise program compatible with the specificities of the host country. This approach is necessary as mobility period are included in our training programs in France and comforts also the employers of our apprentices, worried about this mobility project abroad of their employee. Indeed, the project allowed our participants to acquire professional, language, intercultural and cross-disciplinary skills. Indeed, apprenticeship and trades are different from one country to another. Travelling is also a way to develop its adaptability and flexibility, two qualities required in the labor market. Our partners involved in our projects are training organizations, companies and intermediate organisms in 23 countries. Mobility is more and more recognized in those countries; therefore most of the previous work placements are renewed year after year. Years of experience with our partners allow us to organize those projects in mutual trust and prepare at best each participant for his mobility.Each apprentice’s mobility has been validated and recognized through a Europass, and for our post-apprentices, their skills and competences are highlighted on our online pedagogical platform “Aquisav”. With the mod-term puropose of using ECVET system, our partners already signed the “Memorandum of Understanding”. For this project, the International Service has maintained relationships with partners and developed new partnerships, ensured the administrative and financial monitoring of the fellowships, created necessary tools to help pedagogical teams. The service also helped their training centers in France for organizing the gathered mobility projects if needed and they supported young professional going abroad for one year (individual mobility) and the ones who were following a 2-weeks technical training.This ambitious project couldn’t have been organized without the considerable investment of our staff members involved, in particular educational staffs and trainers, for which we are very grateful.

Boarders of European Union are quickly expanding and the development of skills for our European workers is essential nowadays. Indeed, crafts and companies are now dealing with international exchanges and facing a multinational competition. Qualifications and skills are therefore put into question. In order to contribute to this expansion, it is primordial to provide each apprentice with the possibility to be trained and to work on a European level. It is our duty to offer our learners such training. Les Compagnons du Devoir have always given priority to the long life learning and perform to value on-the-job learning and mobility, mainly through shared experiences, human relations and knowledge transmissions. Long-term mobility projects have always existed in our Association. It is part of our specific professional training “Le Tour de France” to have a one-year experience abroad. So far, almost 7000 of our young graduated have already benefitted from such an experience.Since 2004, more than16120 apprentices have therefore benefitted from a 3 weeks mobility project in European Union, owing to our trusted partners. Our experience allows us to choose the most suitable partners to provide our apprentices quality trainings in any of our 29 trades (industry, construction, building, baking, leather and textiles trades). Thanks to Erasmus + agreement for 2016-2018, we financed mobility for 733 apprentices in gathered mobility projects together with their class and their trade teacher (66 teachers in total); 138 young professionals left for a one-year individual mobility; 24 apprentices and post-apprentices went abroad from 6 to 12 months in order to continue their apprenticeship and 30 young participants in a 2 weeks technical training.In September 2009 we managed to officially join in the learning annex of the apprenticeship contract the 3 week mobility project abroad for all our level 4 apprentices, which show our strong desire to institutionalize the mobility project abroad into the training program of our apprentices.The enhancement of the quality of our project is owing to the developed teaching skills of our partners, who suggest a precise program compatible with our apprentices’ modules in France, with the specificities of the host country. This approach brings a value to our programs in France and comforts the employers of our apprentices, worried about this mobility project abroad of their employee. The project allowed our participants to acquire professional, language, intercultural and cross-disciplinary skills. Indeed, apprenticeship and trades are different from one country to another. Travelling is also a way to develop its adaptability and flexibility, two qualities required in the labor market. Our partners involved in our projects are training organizations, companies, social partners, consular chambers and intermediate organisms in 23 countries. Mobility is more and more recognized in those countries; therefore most of the previous work placements are renewed year after year. Years of experience with our partners allow us to organize those projects in mutual trust and prepare at best each participant for his mobility.Each apprentice’s mobility has been validated and recognized through a Europass, and for our post-apprentices, their skills and competences are highlighted on our online pedagogical platform “Aquisav”. With the idea of using ECVET system, our partners already signed the “Memorandum of Understanding” (MoU). For this project, the International Service has maintained relationships with partners and searched for new ones, ensured the administrative and financial monitoring of the fellowships, prepared and coordinated the pedagogical projects if necessary. The team also helped their training centers in France for organizing the gathered mobility projects and they supported apprentices who were following a 2-weeks technical training or going abroad for one year (individual mobility).This ambitious project couldn’t have been organized without the considerable investment of our staff members involved in those actions, in particular educational staffs and trainers, for which we are grateful.

Many years of experience of the Goldenberg Europakolleg (GEK) – both a college of further education and a vocational school- offer an established project background and a perfect basis for ERASMUS+. Both school’s locations are situated in major economically important areas near Cologne. Our cooperation with many successful, internationally active companies (in the fields of agricultural machinery, chemistry, metalworking industry) demands a vocational training which prepares trainees, and the teaching staff as well for the challenges of a growing European job market. The GEK is a European School which highly values on their European oriented education. We offer a variety of language courses (English, Dutch, French, Spanish) and consider it to be important that our students have the opportunity to use these languages in real-life professional situations, which take place during a three week internship work placement abroad. Here, our project background and our project objectives are closely linked. The VET mobilities of trainees as well as trainers lead to an increased cross-cultural understanding of a common Europe. The experiences of our students abroad lead to a higher self-confidence and encourage them to seek for job possibilities beyond their country borders. Another project objective is that “Europe” is part of the school’s curriculum. Lessons in various subjects deal with topics that are relevant for a European way of thinking. This is supported by the school’s “student-project-week“, which offers a variety of projects focusing on Europe. Under the pandemic pressure only half of our almost 100 participants had the chance to travel and work abroad in the 2018/19 project These participants have been chemical lab assistants, metal workers and technical assistants in the field of design. So far, we have organized VETPRO-projects for trainers and teachers which took them to our partners abroad for one week. They worked under the title “Teaching the European Way”. Our IVT-projects under the title “Different Places-Different Faces” enabled our students to work for three weeks in Finland, Rumania, Malta, Great Britain and on the island of La Palma. All those activities are coming together with ERASMUS+ and the GEK is offering future participants to work under the title “IVT quality+”. Therefore, our teachers already had the possibility to take part in trainings for one/up to three weeks abroad. But the GEK does not only send students abroad, we also welcome our partner school’s students from Finland here in the Rhineland area. The teachers and trainers of the GEK organize accommodation and internships with our cooperating companies in the field of electrical engineering, chemistry, and design. These internships usually last from four to six weeks. Our project implementation has been consistently improved and is now divided into 3 main stages: 1. The application phase: In this stage students qualify by participating in cross-cultural preparation lessons. Here they also create a europass CV in English and pass a mobility interview, to show their motivation to work abroad. The participants take part in the OLS-test before travelling abroad. This stage ends in an intercultural evening which prepares all the participants for their upcoming departure day. 2. The actual stay abroad: During this time, the students are monitored, both by the local partners as well as the responsible teachers and trainers of the GEK. The participants work as interns in local companies in their field of profession. They document their linguistic, social, personal, and professional impressions and experiences in a travel diary called “Travelog”. It is an important instrument of the third stage of the mobility project. 3. The evaluation of the experience abroad: With the help of the Travelog their gained competences are documented and can be comprehended. Later, these competences are evaluated in our competence overview, which are used to fill out the europass Mobility certificate. Conclusively the participants take part in another OLS-test after their return. The project results, their benefits as well as their impact are closely related. The Europass Mobility is one example. It is used for future applications by our trainees after the end of their vocational training, as well as by our teaching staff for better career chances. This document increases their career prospects on the national and European job market. Our collaboration with regional companies that employ apprentices of our foreign project partners, often results in the decrease of language barriers and more cultural acceptance. By implementing our European mobilities we spread the idea of Europe within the GEK and on a regional level. The pandemic and its resulting cancellation of many mobilities has shown the great disappointment within students and teachers on their missed chances to experience working in Europe.

Boarders of European Union are quickly expanding and the development of skills for our European workers is essential nowadays. Indeed, crafts and companies are now dealing with international exchanges and facing a multinational competition. Qualifications and skills are therefore put into question. In order to contribute to this expansion, it is primordial to provide each apprentice with the possibility to be trained and to work on a European level. It is our duty to offer our learners such training. Les Compagnons du Devoir have always given priority to the long life learning and perform to value on-the-job learning and mobility, mainly through shared experiences, human relations and knowledge transmissions. Long-term mobility projects have always existed in our Association. It is part of our specific professional training “Le Tour de France” to have a one-year experience abroad. So far, more than 6276 of our young professionals have already benefitted from such an experience.Since 2004, almost 14900 apprentices have therefore benefitted from a 3 weeks mobility project in European Union, owing to our trusted partners. Our experience allows us to choose the most suitable partners to provide our apprentices quality trainings in any of our 29 trades (industry, construction, building, baking, leather and textiles trades). Thanks to Erasmus + agreement for 2015-2017, we sent 825 apprentices in gathered mobility projects together with their class and their trade teacher (72 teachers in total), 168 post-apprentices for a one year mobility and 65 apprentices in a technical training for 2 weeks.In September 2009 we managed to officially join in the learning annex of the apprenticeship contract the 3 week mobility project abroad for all our level 4 apprentices. The enhancement of the quality of our project is owing to the developed teaching skills of our partners, who suggest a precise programme compatible with our apprentices’ modules in France, with the specificities of the host country. This approach brings a value to our programmes in France and comforts the employers of our apprentices, worried about this mobility project abroad of their employee. The project allowed our participants to acquire professional, language, intercultural and cross-disciplinary skills. Indeed, apprenticeship and trades are different from one country to another. Travelling is also a way to develop its adaptability and flexibility, two qualities required in the labor market. Our partners involved in our projects are training organizations, companies, social partners, consular chambers and intermediate organisms in 21 countries. Mobility is more and more recognized in those countries; therefore most of the previous work placements are renewed year after year. Years of experience with our partners allow us to organize those projects in mutual trust and prepare at best each participant for his mobility.Each apprentice’s mobility has been validated and recognized through a Europass, and for our post-apprentices, their skills and competences are highlighted on our online pedagogical platform “Aquisav”. With the idea of using ECVET system, our partners already signed the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU). The International Service maintained relationships with partners, prepared and coordinated the pedagogical projects if necessary. They helped also their training centres in France for organizing the gathered mobility projects and they supported apprentices following technical training or going abroad for one year (individual mobility).This ambitious project couldn’t be organized without the considerable investment our staff members involved in those actions, in particular educational staff and trainers.

Eleven years of experience of the Goldenberg Europakolleg (GEK) – both a college of further education and a vocational school- offer an established project background and a perfect basis for the new European programme generation ERASMUS+. Both of the school’s locations in Hürth and Wesseling are situated in major economically important areas near Cologne. Our cooperation with many successful and internationally active companies in the fields of agricultural machinery, chemistry and the metalworking industry demands a vocational training which prepares trainees for the challenges of a growing European job market. The GEK is a European School which highly values on their European oriented education. For example the variety of language courses on offer such as English, Dutch, French and Spanish. We consider it to be important that our students had the opportunity to use these languages in real-life professional situations. These took place during a three week internship work placement abroad.Our project background and our project objectives are closely linked. The VET mobilities of trainees as well as trainers lead to an increased cross-cultural understanding of a common Europe.The experiences of our students abroad lead to a higher self-confidence and encouraged them to seek for job possibilities beyond their country borders. Another project objective is that “Europe” is part of the school’s curriculum. Lessons in various subjects dealed with topics that are relevant for a common European way of thinking. This way of thinking was supported by the school’s annual European week which offered the students a variety of projects focusing on Europe. With the start of ERASMUS+, the GEK was able to offer almost 100 mobility participants the chance to travel and work abroad in 2015/16. This was the largest number of participants so far and follows the plans of our district council in Cologne to raise the number of vocational mobilities to 10%. These participants were for example technicians for illumination advertisements, electricians for automation engineering, chemical lab assistants, metal workers and technical assistants in the field of design.So far we have organized VETPRO-projects for trainers and teachers which took them to our partners abroad for one week. Last year they worked under the title “Teaching the European Way”. Our IVT-projects under the title “Different Places-Different Faces” enabled our students to work for three weeks in Finland, Rumania, Malta, Great Britain and on the Spanish island of La Palma.All those activities are now coming together with ERASMUS+ and the GEK is now offering future participants to work under the title “IVT quality+”. In addition to our successful student mobility, we have applied for strategic partnerships for those students who won’t be able to stay abroad for that long. But the GEK does not only send students abroad, we have also welcomed our partner school’s students from Finland here in the Rhineland area. The teachers and trainers of the GEK organized accommodation and internships with our cooperating companies in the field of electrical engineering, chemistry and design. These internships have usually last from four to six weeks.Our project implementation has been consistently improved and was divided into three main stages: The first stage was the application phase. In this stage students qualified by participating in cross-cultural preparation lessons. Here they have also created a europass CV in English and passed a mobility interview, to show their motivation to work abroad. This stage ended in an intercultural evening which prepared all the participants for their upcoming departure day.The second stage was their actual stay abroad. During this time, the students were monitored, both by the local partners as well as the responsible teachers and trainers of the GEK. The participants documented their linguistic, intercultural and professional impressions and experiences in a travel diary called “Travelog”. The Travelog was also an important instrument of the third stage of the mobility project. This is where the evaluation of the experience abroad was taking place. With the help of the Travelog their gained competence were documented and comprehended. Later on these competences were used to fill out the europass Mobility certificate. The project results, their benefits as well as their impact are closely related. The Europass Mobility is one example. It is used for future applications by our trainees after the end of their vocational training. This document increases their career prospects on both the national and European job market. Our collaboration with regional companies that employ apprentices of our foreign project partners, often results in the decrease of language barriers and more cultural acceptance. By implementing our European mobilities we did not only spread the idea of Europe within the GEK but also increasingly on a regional level.