VITALITY aimed to foster students’ employability by improving technical-professional skills and soft skills, facilitating the school-to-work transition. Specifically, it aimed to offer students of CF the opportunity to carry out a 3-week work experience in another European country, in line with the path they have undertaken (to improve their technical-professional and soft skills) and in close relation to the demands of companies; this experience could also incentivize the student to continue training in subsequent specialization paths. Regarding staff members, the project aimed to increase their professional skills through two processes: 1) Participating in person to moments of mobility, 2) Organizing internships abroad for students. Both actions are a great advantage for the professional growth of staff and at the same time increase the quality of training offered by Cometa Formazione. In addition, for all participants it was intended to foster the acquisition of soft skills, language skills, civic and social skills, intercultural skills, and improve the ability to move and adapt in an international context.
The decision to participate in the project is in line with the 2019-2023 ESP of Cometa Formazione (CF) and with the internationalization plan already started in 2015 by joining EfVET and organizing the 2018 EfVET conference in Como. CF was awarded by ETF (2016) and accepted as the only Italian center in the UNESCO-UNEVOC international network (2018). The response to the call was thus in line with the consolidation of international activities through: 1) The accreditation of CF as a European center of excellence: In July 2020, the EC approved the project "GIVE - Governance for Inclusive Vocational Excellence" under the special initiative "Centers of Vocational Excellence." GIVE represents, for CF, the transition from experience to practice, coordinating the work of several foreign partners. The GIVE project aims to design and develop a European platform of centers of excellence dedicated to inclusion. There are now 20 networks of excellence active in Europe, and GIVE is the only one of them with Inclusion as its theme. 2) The strengthening and expansion of existing international cooperation; 3) A more systemic and planned approach, particularly with regard to mobility actions (students and staff).