In the face of globalisation, migration and heterogeneous classrooms schools have to improve the qualifications of staff and students. Passing on and acquiring international and intercultural competencies is gaining increasing importance. Within the European Union one fifth of under 15-year-olds attain only the most basic level of proficiency in reading and almost 15% of 18 – 24-year-olds leave school prematurely. Nearly a third of the European labour force is low skilled, but according to some estimates, by 2010, 50% of newly created jobs will require highly skilled workers and only 15 % will be for people with basic schooling (2010, Youthpass Guide) In order to increase our students‘ opportunities for the participation in the European employment market, our transnational project aims at optimising their skills for successfully completing an apprenticeship as well as on boosting their use of the English and German language. A factual background for our project provide high youth unemployment figures in Slovakia and the constant flow of refugees in Germany (Rhein-Zeitung, a local newspaper in Koblenz, of 9 th March 2015: “10,360 refugees came to Rhineland-Palatinate in 2014 fleeing war, prosecution and poverty, 17,000 are expected in 2015“). In order to develop our students‘ key competencies, both partner schools are going to focus on the internationalisation of instruction, the improvement of media literacy, methods of German language teaching, English translation methods, the career training concept and the cooperation with our commercial partners. In doing so, motivation for learning and labour mobility should be improved. Phases of learning at school and practical trainings will be closely connected because of cross-curricular instruction (German, English, career training, ICT…) Altogether 32 persons are involved in the project – 12 students and 4 teachers per school. The teachers are trained in the field of homepage, career training and they have studied German and/or English. (for further information, see choice of partners and competencies in E). The students attend classes in years 7 to 10. Project activities include joint training courses for the teachers (career training, German language teaching especially for learning German as a second language) as well as short-term exchanges for the students in Koblenz and Bratislava. The students are going to visit our commercial partners and will gain experience in different fields of employment. Preparation and follow-up of the project activities are going to be dealt with in the weekly lessons by both Erasmus-Teams and will be completed during our real meetings in Koblenz/Bratislava. The young people are going to gain experience in communicating in different surroundings and in teaching their fellow students. In addition to that, they are going to experience systems of school and apprenticeship in Germany and Slovakia. Further opportunities for communicating and getting to know each other will be provided by going on excursions in Koblenz and Bratislava. Parameters of success will be students‘ presentations of job descriptions and their reports about the practical trainings which will be digitised. In Bratislava, one parameter of success will be the implementation of the concept of career training. In Koblenz specific methods of German language teaching, especially for teaching German as a second language against the background of the flow of refugees, will have been established by the end of the project. Spreading the results of our project via both school homepages, the local press in Koblenz and Bratislava as well as at events like the career information days in Koblenz and open days at both schools we aim at disseminating the project results. Having been disseminated like this, our project results are going to be of long-term benefit. Issuing a certificate like the Youthpass, both schools will support their students to start an apprenticeship on the national as well as on the European employment market. The work will also be published on the product database of the European Shared Treasure. Schools will offer to take part in conferences and will introduce the project to an interested audience. At both partner schools, our joint transnational project aims at improving our students‘ key competencies in order to enhance their learners‘ motivation and to improve their chances on the European employment market. Moreover, the teachers‘ job profile will be developed.
Our transnational project aimed at optimizing our students’ skills for successfully completing an apprenticeship as well as at optimizing their language skills. It supports them in living and working in the European information society. Having participated in our project, the students’ chances on the European employment market have improved. The partner schools developed their students’ key competences in focusing on the internationalisation of instruction, the improvement of media literacy (ICT), methods of German language learning, oral English skills training and testing , the development of the career training concept and the cooperation with our commercial partners. In doing so the students’ motivation for learning and for international mobility has been increased. Cross-curricular instruction (German, English, ICT, career training) closely connected phases of instruction and practical training. Altogether 12 students and 4 teachers per school participated regularly in the project. The teachers are trained in the field of home page, career training and they have studied German and/or English. (for further information, see choice of partners and competencies in E). The students attended classes in years 7 to 10. Project activities included joint training courses for the teachers (career training, German/English language teaching) as well as short-term exchanges for the students in Koblenz and Bratislava with peer practical trainings for the students with our commercial partners in Koblenz and excursions to commercial partners in Bratislava. Preparation and follow-up of the project activities were dealt with in the weekly lessons by both Erasmus-Teams and were completed during our short-term exchanges in Koblenz/Bratislava. The young people gained experience in communicating in different surroundings and in teaching their fellow students. They improved their learning competences. They experienced systems of school and apprenticeship in Germany and Slovakia. Teachers and students from Bratislava participated in the annual Job Information Day at the Realschule Plus auf der Karthause, in job information events of the Agentur für Arbeit Koblenz as well as in the annual local job fair for young people in Koblenz. They experienced practical trainings and the “Praxistag”. In the face of globalisation, migration and heterogeneous classrooms schools have to improve the qualifications of staff and students. Within the European Union one fifth of under 15-year-olds attain only the most basic level of proficiency in reading and almost 15% of 18 – 24-year-olds leave school prematurely. Nearly a third of the European labour force is low skilled, but according to some estimates, by 2010, 50% of newly created jobs will require highly skilled workers and only 15 % will be for people with basic schooling (2010, Youthpass Guide). Our project’s most important development unfolded during the transnational teachers meeting in Bratislava in June 2016: We had found out that the concepts of DAF/DAZ didn’t meet the German partners’ needs as much as we had hoped for. The teaching material was not especially helpful for teaching refugees and the numbers of refugees arriving had decreased. Therefore, we had to shift our focus from German to English. Visiting our partners’ English lesson in Bratislava, we got to know their newly-installed English Certificate preparation. The English teachers in Koblenz had been working on oral skills teaching and testing formats for a while and found in Bratislava the perfect form for preparing and testing . The students from Koblenz sat a mock exam during their short-term exchange in Bratislava in November 2016. The results of the English mock exam and our students’ feedback affirmed our decision to change one project focus from German to English in order to get the best benefit for our students. In the school year 2017/18 the Realschule Plus Karthause offers a preparation course for the English exam as well as an English drama club for the first time. Both courses aim at improving our students’ oral skills and at developing and testing new teaching methods for English classes at our school. The students from Bratislava are going to participate in annual practical trainings in Koblenz.