This project, "Discovering new beauty treatments abroad," was born about a year ago, as the new Erasmus + team established itself in our school. Following our first work meetings, we agreed it was best to widen our range of partners and thus offer all of our beauty school students, not only a work placement abroad during their 3rd year of training, but also a gateway to Europe in their first year at the school. Thus began our collaboration with the Professional Institute in Turku, Finland, which offers a wide range of courses, including Beauty care. The main objective of this project is to allow our students to begin their journey as European citizens as soon as they arrive in our establishment. For this exchange, we will have four different points of focus; the first is professional, with an exchange of new professional Spa techniques, a Finnish specificity. This is all the more relevant because our school is opening, at the start of the upcoming school year (2019) a brand new "spa and beauty" facility. In our Spa, our French students will able to practice new treatments discovered in Finland during the trip scheduled in the Spring of 2020, and they will share their own techniques with Finnish students during their visit to France in the Spring of 2021. The second focus of the exchange is linguistic, with a strengthening of language training, especially in English, spoken by many Finns. The two additional points of focus in the exchange program are related, on the one hand, to individual and collective responsibility in protecting the environment- Finns have a very special relationship with the nature surrounding them- and, on the other hand, to students' roles as citizens, with a lot of reflection on democracy and equality; values particularly present in Finland in the professional domain between men and women. Practically speaking, it is a group of French students in their first year of Vocational Baccalauréat studies, who will exchange with a group of Finnish students in their second, or first year (if a new class is formed in September 2019). Indeed, our establishment, in France is adapting its program offer to the economic reality of the sector; beauty school classes are opened based on the possibility of students finding employment (following their studies). The students concerned by this project are between 15 and 17 year old, and will be accompanied by their Beauty school professor, but also their history, geography and civic education teacher. Different acitivities will be organized to begin this exchange: first, linguistic activites with the English teacher, in order to create an initial correspondance between both groups of students, whether by writing (email exchanges) or orally, with skype. Also, two other professors, in Beauty and in Physical Education, will carry out some of their teaching in English, as they are both certified to teach their discipline in a foreign language (English DNL Certification). Thus, students will be able to practice their language skills (in English) in three different subjects, including one related to their professional domain. French students will also discover Finland and Finnish student will discover or France, through research in geography, history, population, culture and politics. They will have to present the results of their work to all of the class' professors but also to the school as a whole, (using powerpoint) and displays. The objective here is double scaled; at first, at a class level, and then school wide, to promote awareness amongst other students, regarding Europe. Then , there will also be activities related to the professional work environment, in which students will have to find information about, learn and train in using Finnish or French professional techniques. Thanks to this project, the short term results expected are a better implication and a better preparation of students for their professional domain, thus avoiding school dropouts at the end of the first year. We also hope, in the not so distant future, for a better use of the English language in order to open more possibilities to those more reticent students, propose European mobilities to all students in their 3rd year of training, and multiply the exchances between France and Finland. Through this program, we will increase of knowledge about training periods and increase our presence. Finally we hope, in the long run, that the young teenage students participating in the program will become young European citizens, as adults, highly involved in the future of their country and in the future of the European Union, as, more than ever, we need to reinforce the links which unite the different peoples of Europe.
This project "Discovering new beauty treatments abroad" brought together two vocational high schools, one French, the vocational high school Saint Joseph l'Amandier, and the other Finnish, the school TAI in Turku, around a common training course, beauty care, and a partnership for school exchanges. Initially planned for the two school years 2019-2020 and 2020-2021, these exchanges were finally carried out only during the school year 2021-2022 because of the Covid-19 pandemic. Thus, the French pupils involved in this project were in vocational first year in 2019-2020 and therefore in vocational third year in 2021-2022. For the Finnish pupils, it was different because the pupils involved in 2019-2020 were not involved in 2021-2022. It was therefore new pupils who participated in the exchanges. Despite this, the objectives and priorities of the project have remained the same. These are : to include the pupil in a European citizenship programme from the moment he/she enters secondary school through different subject areas and to promote his/her professional integration by improving his/her language skills. The objectives set were achieved thanks to the implementation of the various project activities. Only the planned timetable was disrupted, but the good relationship between the schools allowed for a good adaptation. The participating organisations are two vocational high schools : with approximately 400 students enrolled each year, the Saint Joseph l'Amandier vocational high school offers several courses : hotel and restaurant management, sommellerie, bakery and pastry-making, and beauty care. It prepares students for the French CAP qualification (NVQ equivalent) and an A Vocational Baccalaureate (A level) in all these fields. Since 2004, European mobility has been offered to students in the final year of the A Vocational Baccalaureate. Thus, each year, about fifty students go abroad for their professional training. This desire to open up to Europe has led to the signing of a partnership with the Turku Vocational Institute. This is a very important vocational school in Turku and in Finland. It offers 26 different vocational qualifications to 4,000 students and 6,000 adult learners and offers European and international mobility to around 100 students each year. The project thus brings together two professional establishments around the same training: beauty care. Various activities were implemented as part of this project. The two main ones were exchanges of groups of pupils. During one week in October 2021, the French pupils were able to discover the TAI establishment, its beauty care training and the Finnish culture. And during one week in January 2022, the Finnish students discovered the French beauty care and the culture of the country. It was a very fruitful exchange even if the pandemic and the school calendar of the year 2021-2022 of the vocational third year students did not allow to optimize it. However, following the first exchange in October 2021, educational activities were set up in November-December, such as feedback on the chocolate and mud wraps done in Finland. The results of this project were generally achieved. Following the two exchanges, a self-evaluation highlighted the success of the partnership. Indeed, a large majority of the pupils said that the project had increased their sense of European citizenship and given them the desire to travel and work abroad. In addition, these pupils improved their professional and linguistic skills, which increased their motivation for the rest of their schooling up to the vocational third year. For some students, this partnership has helped to prevent them from dropping out of school, a theme addressed in this project. Another result achieved was the influence of this project within the school. Even if the pandemic has frozen European mobility during the 2020-2021 school year, the ErasmusDays organised in 2020 and 2021 within the school have highlighted this partnership and have accentuated the European openness of the school's students. The impacts - benefits identified are, on the one hand, an increase in the number of students who wish to continue their studies in BTS, post A level Vocational Training Certificate, with the possibility of an internship abroad. On the other hand, this project has led to an increase in the number of European mobilities of students in beauty care training for the 2022-2023 school year, especially since new internship locations have been created thanks to this partnership. Finally, an increase in the number of students in the European section was identified during the last pre-registrations.