By implementing this project we want to give more opportunities for our students at international level. We wanted them to become more European citizens.When preparing the application form some objectives have been set: to increase employability for students in a national and an European labour market; to increase the employability and life skills of VET learners and there by contribute for the competitiveness of our country in the European economy; to support the strengthening of European cooperation on Education and Vocational Training (objectives of the Bruges Communiqué); to develop tolerance for multiculturalism; to abolish stereotypes; to develop self-confidence; to recognise the differences in the workplaces of the different countries; to promote the learning of foreign languages, in particular the use of English and Spanish; to improve the information and communications technology; to improve the communication skills of learners by giving all our students an European view of the world in the labour market. We would our vocational learners to deep their knowledge in their own vocational areas and adquire new cultural competences that would make the difference in their future career.
Escola Secundária de Vila Verde applied for this project because we would like to continue with our work of internationalization to all our vocational courses . We are inserted in a rural area and the most part of our students, are from disadvantaged families. Some of them had never been in another country nor experienced a flight. This opportunity of having a work/training experience abroad with Erasmus + financing translates a big chance of becoming closer to all of our European partners demolishing barriers and having a closer approach to all our european peers. The main objective of the project was to create new opportunities for graduates of different vocational courses of Escola Secundária de Vila Verde, as well as, creating new working tools for our current vocational reality in vocational courses and the future life of our students. We chose five different vocational courses: Informatics, Accounts, Social Support, Tourism and Digital Services, since these are the courses with a bigger number of candidates in our school/region and which mostly represents the needs of the labour market in our region. It would also be an opportunity of attracting more learners of vocational courses to our school.