The participants for the project are people with learning difficulties and disabilities. Our project enabled this target group to complete a professional internship abroad. As in previous years, Atempo wanted to enable people with learning difficulties to have the same opportunity to gain professional experience abroad. The aim was to find for all beneficiaries a suitable learning and internship place abroad, where he or she could complete a theoretical and/or practical part of the training. Basically, it is an important experience for each person. To acquire content and experience outside the familiar environment. The most important thing was to create the closest possible approximation between the offer of the receiving organization and the specific needs and learning and professional goals of the beneficiaries. For the beneficiaries, this means broadening their professional and personal experience. Our experience shows that a stay abroad results in increased professional motivation among the target group as well as the opportunity to acquire training content that is not offered at all or in a different form in Austria. The number of Austrians with learning difficulties who have gained professional experience abroad is very small, and only a few organizations abroad already have experience with trainees with learning difficulties. For this reason, networking at home and abroad plays an important role. Our goal was to maintain and strengthen existing collaborations with host organizations. Furthermore, we wanted to increase the quality of mobility. It is our concern to adapt the stays abroad in terms of form, content and organization to the target group in the best possible way.
Modern vocational education should include opportunities for transnational learning mobility. Practical experience abroad strengthens people in many different ways and on many different levels. In addition to the acquisition of new professional skills, intercultural and linguistic experiences can have a positive effect on personal development and independence. In times of inclusion, people with learning difficulties and disabilities should not be excluded from this opportunity. The project enables people with learning difficulties and disabilities to complete a professional internship abroad. People with learning difficulties and disabilities are people who need more time in learning or cannot learn or do certain things and therefore need support in learning and getting a job. The aim of the project was to create as much convergence as possible between the services offered by the host organizations and the specific needs and learning and career goals of the beneficiaries. For the beneficiaries, this meant broadening their professional and personal experience. Our experience shows that a stay abroad results in an increased professional motivation of the target group as well as the opportunity to acquire training content that is not offered in Austria or in a different form. The project was able to make a significant contribution to strengthening existing cooperation with host organizations. A total of 4 persons with learning difficulties and disabilities became mobile and gained practical work experience in 2 partner organizations in Germany. They did internships in the areas of hotel/tourism and retail/food trade. The mobility participants traveled in small groups of 2 and were supported by 2 accompanying persons each during both work and leisure time. The stays abroad had the following effects: Acquisition of practical occupational skills in the areas mentioned, positive effect on the personality of the participants such as more self-confidence, increased independence in everyday life, increased mobility competence in general and in particular abroad.