In the application we stated that we would use the four-week internships to achieve three main goals. 1) The internships integrate the students in an international work environment. Thus, they will gain insights into international work techniques and processes. 2) The opportunities to acquire general and job-related foreign language skills (e.g. as beginners in Spanish) or to expand and improve them (e.g. in English) are opened up. The real-life communication situations will encourage progress in the communicative field. 3) The intercultural immersion poses a challenge to the open-mindedness, flexibility and independence of the participants. An improvement will be achieved in professional terms as well as a in terms of personal maturity. Moreover, the students will gain a deeper awareness of the fact the Germany is a member of the EU. Being "European" is filled with life and the European idea can be experienced first-hand. The teachers of our school, who are responsible for the project, acquire and/ or deepen their experience in the implementation of a European project.
We have carried out this project in order to provide our students with the opportunity to participate in internships in the EU. Students, who are interested in taking part, go abroad for four weeks. Most of our students would otherwise not be able to integrate an international internship into their training. Also, it would be difficult for them to cover the costs that such a stay would entail. With the help of the Erasmus+ programme, the Johann-Friedrich-von-Cotta-Schule wanted to enrich the students’ training in a way that has a lasting effect on their professional lives and personal developments. The participants were able to gain professional experience as well as foreign language skills. They got the chance to grow personally, become open-minded, proactive and independent. The programme encourages professional mobility and contributes to a European awareness. Our vocational school department strengthens its position by offering European internships. It underlines its international orientation by establishing the Erasmus+ programme. This increases the attractiveness of the media-related professions that we teach. The training companies as well as future employers of our students will benefit from the skills acquired abroad.