THE GOALS AND IMPORTANCE OF MOBILITY, VERY SIMPLY said, what we wrote down for parents and others at the project presentations. - Mobility is very important for young people. Projects allow us to : a unique opportunity to go global, getting to know yourself and your peers, increasing employability, participation, listening and adapting to each other The project has demonstrated and continues to demonstrate that we have met the specific objectives set by the Erasmus+ programme in the field of VET. We improve the level of key competences and skills in line with labour market needs. We are promoting the emergence of a European Lifelong Learning Area to complement policy reforms at national level, to support the modernisation of education and training systems, to improve language learning and to promote the EU's broad linguistic diversity and intercultural awareness.Other objectives of the project under this priority (to complete a PUP) are: - to acquire the relevant competences for further work - to acquire intercultural competences - to apply foreign language skills in concrete situations - to contribute to increasing mobility and to strengthen partnerships for further cooperation, including with other partners - to improve knowledge in the gastronomy and tourism of another country. The contribution of mobility projects. Mobility projects have a major contribution to make: - improving international cooperation and action in an international environment - finding new methods, practices and ways of educating young people and adults - creating synergies and embedding good practice in the work of organisations. Summary of the use of the experience and competences acquired: our aim is to have as many participants as possible who will gain experience in the international field, in an international setting. We will (have for many years) incorporate their experience in our further development, as mentioned in the dissemination of results. The experience will be useful for the sending institution to continue to participate in the Erasmus+ programme when we act as a host organisation. This is our added value. We are always proud of our experience in international cooperation with many countries. Some of them have been contacted during this call period, and we are always ready to act as a partner organisation, in the role of host organisation. We will also use this experience to work with businesses in our area, where our guests will be doing their PUPs, and where our students are also successfully doing their PUPs. The participants in the project are likely to be VET trainees, who are likely to have some familiarity with the apprenticeship system in Portugal. As this is new for us, being part of the national apprenticeship project for vocational education, it is also very important for our visibility at home and abroad. This will be very important for everyone, as it will make it easier to: - disseminate information - imagine how similar education systems are implemented elsewhere - compare with others.
We applied for a project that lasted two years, with two streams of participants in the VET. The project would be implemented in Portugal and Malta (in 2019 and 2020) in conjunction with the respective partner organisations, Aplicaprosta Lda - Braga mob, Portugal and European School of English, Malta. Action 1 is for students participating in VET, divided into 2 streams. 10 students in each stream (the courses we teach), the project coordinator and possibly an additional companion (to replace the coordinator halfway through the stay) will be the participants in the mobility project during this call period. That's what the project application said, but COVID-19 has changed all that. After the approved extension of the project time into this year, we decided, in consultation with the project administrator, to take all the participants (20) to Portugal to carry out the PUD, Aplicaprota Lda remained the only partner organisation and I will therefore only describe the experience we gained there. We decided to work with them because of the good credentials of the partner organisation. Students were placed on PUPs there. They acquired new competences (knowledge and skills) relevant for their future profession, studies and life, which our hosts, as very experienced in the field, were able to offer us. We also used a low-cost carrier to get to the airport (low-cost airline). In Portugal, transport was organised by a partner. During their stay in Portugal, participants took part in a number of excursions and individual visits, depending on their interests. Participants subsequently put their knowledge and experience, as well as their formally recognised and valued skills, into practice immediately after returning to school, and later on in their studies and job search. The ECVET tool was used to assess the quality and comparability of work in our country. During the mobility, we had two accompanying persons who took care of all the formalities and safety, and were otherwise helpful to the participants. 2 accompanying persons at the same time because there were 20 participants. Participants shared their experiences with other students, teachers and others. Soon after our arrival, we started publicising the implementation of our mobility project. We were visited by journalists from two radio stations and one newspaper. We will of course continue to use the presentation of the project when presenting our school to those interested in enrolling at our school and of course to our guests, our partners, as things happen throughout the school years. We organised an event to which we invited the parents of the participants and the school staff. The expected results of the programme included all the main areas of improvement: - language competence of the participants, the participants were in constant contact with English, which will be the main working language and will therefore improve their level of knowledge, - professional skills, the main objective of the project was to gain and exchange experience between the participants and their mentors. They will take home the knowledge they have gained, into their daily lives, which will be evidenced by a certificate and a record in their CV - the reputation of the sending school, with the successful development of the project, the participants are expected to transfer all the knowledge and experience gained during the mobility into their daily lives, thus improving the education at the school, and furthermore, by disseminating the results, the public opinion and the reputation of the school will also increase, opening the door to further European cooperation with institutions. - to learn about the cultural diversity of the EU, one of the main objectives of Erasmus+ is intercultural exchange. Introducing participants to a new country, broadening their horizons (environment and culture) by providing them with different experiences, career methodologies and lifestyles. They also learn a few words of Portuguese. We decided on this theme because we wanted something new, something different, something more. Students are highly motivated to go on mobility, following on from previous mobility experiences. Students who intend to continue their studies in a similar field to their current one are particularly motivated, as they are aware of the importance of work experience abroad, upgrading their foreign language skills and acquiring new professional competences.