The aim of the "Improved mobility" project is to identify factors that make it possible to measure the likelihood of successful mobility of trainees in Europe. Strengthening the awareness of one's own strengths increases the likelihood of making use of the offers, such as those made e. g. by Erasmus+. Individual considerations are only one part of the influencing factors. Institutional factors are also considered. The focus will be on the construction sector. The automotive branch has been chosen as a reference sector. Access to the target group is ensured by the composition of the consortium. In recent years, mobility has become an issue of increasing importance for vocational education and training and various institutions have recognised that stays abroad during vocational training are a useful supplement. But how does successful mobility come about? Consequently, we ask ourselves the question: What are the factors for successful mobility? The EU sets a target figure of 6%, i. e. 6% of trainees in Europe should spend part of their training abroad. The Government of the Federal Republic of Germany for example sets an even more ambitious target of 10% (Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung; https://www.bmbf.de/de/in-der-ausbildung-ins-ausland-1363.html). With a number of 520,331 new training contracts in 2016 in Germany, this corresponds to more than 52,000 mobilities per year for German trainees alone. In 2015, the actual rate was 4%. Measures that increase this rate therefore seem to make sense. Since, in Lithuania (7.4% / 3.500 trainees), in Spain about 40.000 students and in Italy (about 10%) of young people take up mobility every year, we assume that the partners involved, with their experience and the different findings on mobility in the individual partner countries will have great added value for this project. Reliable figures for Belgium could not be determined. Within this project it will be worked out which factors in companies are advantageous for mobility. Companies that act as a receiving and sending organisation can take action to ensure optimal mobility. This strengthens their employer brand, which is advantageous for companies due to the arising shortage of skilled workers in many sectors. During the course of the project, three different groups of people are interviewed by means of questionnaires. The first group consists of people interested in using mobility. They can use surveys to find out and reflect on their important personality traits and examine whether mobility makes sense for them. The reflection of one's own personal strengths and weaknesses initiated by a survey goes hand in hand with growing self-confidence. This procedure can have a positive effect, which can also attract additional interested parties for mobility. The second group consists of people who are currently abroad. They learn more about themselves and can also sharpen their self-confidence. Things that work well or badly in mobility become more tangible and solutions to problems can be found. This group is questioned by the members of the project consortium. A large part of the project partners has extensive experience in caring for people who need mobility. The third group consists of people who have completed mobility with one of the project partners. These people are also asked about their subjective sense of achievement. At the end of the project, the first two groups will be questioned again. In particular, the first group is questioned with the aim of finding out whether the first survey was able to help them reflect better on themselves. In concrete terms, the question is whether the participants believe that they have reached a better decision with the help of the first survey than without this self-reflection. The second group will be asked, if the first survey would have helped them before the mobility period. At the institutional level, representatives of training centres (project partners) and their customers or affiliated companies are interviewed. These surveys deal with the specific framework conditions that companies provide. Here, personal interviews or surveys are conducted using questionnaires. The institutions and companies surveyed will learn out of the projects results more about the benefits of mobility. Above all, it is possible to develop factors that facilitate and improve the admission of trainees from abroad. We believe that mobility in an increasingly globalised Europe is an absolute added value for young people, to internationalise their experiences and skills and thus to develop them competitively. The holistic reflection of success factors within the frame work of mobility projects concerning various target groups, but primarily target groups from the construction sector, is the innovative approach of this project. The results of the project will be used to develop proposals for the submission of further project proposals within the framework of ERASMUS+.
The aim of the "Improved Mobility" project was to identify factors that make it possible to measure the probability of successful mobility of trainees in Europe. The idea was that raising awareness of one's own strengths also increases the likelihood of taking up offers such as those made by Erasmus+. The recording of individual factors was only one part of the study. Institutional opinions were also taken into account in the project on the basis of personal interviews with trainers, representatives of training centres, companies and institutions. The sectoral focus of the surveys was mainly on the construction sector as well as the automotive industry, as access to the target group was guaranteed by the composition of the consortium. The project idea came about because the topic of "mobility" had become a topic of increasing importance for vocational training in recent years. Many institutions had increasingly recognised that stays abroad during vocational training were a useful supplement. The basic idea is that globalisation is leading to an increasing internationalisation of jobs. It goes without saying that it is an advantage if the relevant skills are already acquired during training through stays abroad. Consequently, the consortium asked itself, how does successful mobility come about? What are the factors for successful mobility? The project started with this focus. The basis for a proper investigation was in particular the fact that the EU in this context pursued the goal of encouraging 6% of trainees in Europe to spend a period abroad during their training. In Germany this rate was 4% in 2015. After the project idea had already been completed, the latest studies were published in a BMBF press release in July 2018. 5.3% of trainees in Germany had already taken up an offer of a stay abroad during their training in 2017. One year later, the figure had already been 6.3%. The trend is rising with a target which the government of the Federal Republic of Germany had set at 10% by 2020. In the partner countries of the project consortium, the rates at project start were 5.9% in Spain, 4.9% in Italy, 1.3% in Belgium and 7.4% in Lithuania. The quotas indicated that, on the one hand, there was experience and a wide variety of findings on mobility in the individual partner countries, but on the other hand, there was also a need to gain insights into successful factors. In the course of the project, trainees were questioned by means of questionnaires both before and after mobility and it was also worked out which factors in companies are advantageous for mobility. As explained in the introduction, personal interviews were conducted at institutional level with representatives of training centres and their customers or affiliated companies. As far as the trainees are concerned, they were either interested in the topic of mobility and were able to reflect on important personality traits by means of the questionnaires and thus to check whether mobility is useful for them. In addition, trainees who had completed mobility with one of the project partners were interviewed. These persons were asked about their subjective sense of achievement. In this way, it was possible to derive success factors in general and to generate effects of before and after the completion of stays abroad within the scope of a training. All findings were compiled and published under the title "Improved Mobility Final Results & key findings" under the following link: http://improvedmobility.eu/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Erasmus-Improved-Mobility-final-results-EN.pdf. The results can be downloaded in all partner languages at http://improvedmobility.eu/en/final-results/. In summary, the following can be said about the results: In total, the questionnaire survey was able to reach 432 trainees and 46 contacts at institutional level. Essentially, personality traits that could be important during training abroad were examined. These could be assessed by the participants on a scale of 1 (not important) to 5 (important). - "Communication skills" were rated as the most important, "ability to spend time alone" as the least important. - The most difficult personality trait during training abroad was the "inability to leave the comfort zone." - In general, all personality traits considered difficult during training abroad, after mobility, were considered even more problematic. - The "involvement of families" was identified as the most important external aspect for successful stays abroad. - The most important aspect for improving stays abroad in education was "Requested certificate for the execution of stays abroad", while "Support in the search for foreign partners" is rated as was rated less important. Overall, it was found that a "greater availability of information on stays abroad" was rated as extremely important, especially after mobility had been completed, which could indicate that trainees did not feel sufficiently informed.