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Erasmus+ mobility project for 2018-2019 involves students, the Support Office Staff, teachers of general subjects, adult education staff and professional teachers of Järva County Vocational Training Centre. In addition, an IT specialist was included to this mobility. The main aim of the project was to offer a large-scale education to meet the needs of the labour market in European Union, to support people involved in vocational education by offering them knowledge, vocational skills and qualification that is recognized in Europe, and to continue to popularize vocational education. During the period of 1st August 2018 to 31st August 2019, in total 25 students were included to the work placement mobility in Hungary, Poland, Germany, Sicily, Sweden and Cyprus. Students involved are studying one of these specialities: car technician, building and road construction, ICT junior specialist, customer service assistant for logistics’ companies, home economics, cook, equine management and veterinary assistant. Through the staff mobility, in total 19 employees were sent to gain work experience (job shadowing) in Germany, Sicily, Belgium, Cyprus, Hungary and Lithuania, and one IT-specialist and ICT trainer-teacher was invited to JKHK to teach our ICT students. The purpose of involving support staff and general education teachers was to gain direct experience regarding different methodologies and tools that are in use in other European countries in order to cope with students with special (educational) needs (inclusive education). Teachers (home economics and cooks) wanted to learn about local traditions, customs, cuisine and working methods in hotel service in different countries, so they could teach students all about it and make changes to our respective curricula. The aim of involving adult education staff was to improve the quality of continuing education and retraining and to offer courses that are not yet available in vocational schools in Estonia. We are confident that staff mobility helps teachers increase their confidence and learn about different approaches on how better support the learner; also to generate new ideas on how to integrate subjects in order to improve the teaching quality, so that the learner is more motivated to learn, and that the knowledge helps them in the future life. The involvement of trade and logistics is necessary in order to continue the development of apprenticeship, which started last school year (Erasmus+ 2017 project). In addition, we valued life-long learning key competences: developing of foreign language skills, motivating them to study other foreign languages and to get interested in foreign cultures, teaching both students and teachers self-confidence and initiative. The project activities offered opportunities to broaden their minds by learning more about foreign traditions, cultures, technologies and work-specific vocational skills. In the mobility project, we included students from the second and third year (except students from veterinary assistant course, as it lasts only 1.5 years), because they have already gained the knowledge and professional skills and have some work experience. Nevertheless, application requirements were the same for every student, and the opening was announced in school website and social media. All the participants were offered full support by both sending organization and hosting organizations before and during the mobility. Sending organization was responsible for the preparation of participant’s language skills, cultural awareness, travel arrangement, required documentation etc.). Host organization arranged, according to pre-agreement, pick-up from the arrival point in the destination country, public transport, accommodation, food, work placements, certificate etc. Our experience shows that thanks to the student mobility, their professional skills are even better developed, they are more aware of real life working situations and understand the work culture. The professional experience helps the student to adapt to new working environment and working team. Students entering the labor market straight from school tend to be more insecure, have less courage and less (diverse) practice. Doing the work placement abroad and getting a foreign experience makes young people more privileged than their classmates, also proves their courage and initiative to achieve more. Also, teachers who take part of the program are more eager to cooperate with different countries: learn about their work ethic, methods and in return share their knowledge. As a result of the mobilities, our adult education staff tried out a new method and are eager to start a new cooperation in order to develop new curricula, cook staff have already educated our teachers, students and adult learners about cuisine in Sicily, Italy and Cyprus. After IT specialist's visit students are looking forward to another experience like that, where a foreign specialist teachers them.
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