Our project focused on three main aspects: The internationalization of vocational students in jobs in the social sector (e.g. geriatric care, nursery) should be strengthened. Topics that should be included in the lesson plans are e. g. the different international types of pre-school education, dealing with the many cultural and social differences in social and caring facilities and European strategies to solve the shortage of staff in nursing homes. The teachers should eventually be able to teach key competences that will enable the students to understand the multi-cultural diversity and the multilingualism of the European community. Secondly, we would like to enhance the options of counselling and teaching socially disadvantaged teenagers with the help of newly acquired intercultural and inclusive skills of our staff. That is why members of our school staff have to be trained accordingly. Members of our school staff need to be (re-)trained in understanding and using the English language. In addition, the training courses in foreign countries will teach the participants intercultural competences and may also help finding new partners for future international activities which may include eTwinning and/or student exchanges.
One goal is to teach our students to be open-minded towards a European citizenship and increase their intercultural awareness, thus changing their views on learning and teaching. Whereas the internationalization of vocational students in jobs dealing with economics is well implemented in our curriculum, the same should in our opinion be done for those students who learn jobs in the social sector (e.g. geriatric care, nursery). To deal with these topics in the classroom the teachers of our school have to acquire knowledge concerning these topics, get first-hand information from staff in other European countries and make their own experiences in a foreign country / society. Secondly, we would like to enhance the options of counselling and teaching socially disadvantaged teenagers. Since 2017 more and more young refugees have come to Emden and have started attending different forms of school at the BBS I Emden. That has led to many students attending our school who hardly speak any German at all. However, some of them try to communicate in English. To be able to talk to them and understand their needs, members of our school staff need to be (re-)trained in understanding and using the English language.