An internship in another European country is an extension of experience in the field of practice and promotes – in addition to the European interconnectedness – the development of professional competence and identity, as well as the further development of personal and pedagogical attitudes. The objectives of this project were to increase the competences of our trainees in the personal and social field (e.g. independence, commitment, self-efficacy, open-mindedness, tolerance, flexibility) as well as in the professional field (e.g. reflective skills, consolidation of teaching content, project competence, language skills). In addition, the students should deal with the emphasis of the project “prejudice-conscious education at pre-school age” and draw conclusions about their pedagogical behaviour by comparing their professional knowledge and their practical experience. For the teaching staff of the department of social education a five-day training course in Italy was planned in order to broaden their knowledge of early childhood education and prejudice-conscious education and to strengthen their skills in working together as a team.
The department of social education of the Elly-Heuss-Knapp Schule had already participated in the Erasmus+ project with two groups of students in 2018. During their four-week stay, during which the participants completed internships in English kindergartens, the students gained an enormous increase in work experience and competence, especially in the professional field of action called “Living Differences and Diversity”. Gaining an insight into the life and working methods of other European countries, using a different language and interacting with people from another cultural background – and learning with and from each other in this context – is an important opportunity to develop one’s personal and professional competences during the nursery teacher training. As a school of social education, it was clear to us that we wanted to give a large number of students the opportunity to take part in an internship abroad within the EU. Likewise, the teaching staff of our department of social education wanted to participate as a team in an Erasmus+ Mobility project.