The project objectives were to create opportunities for vocational students particularly for students from disadvantaged backgrounds and with low career readiness that were either relatively early in their study year (the covid virus would eventually impact on younger students accessing the project) or completing their studies . Targeting and using European Commission accredited companies was essential in providing workplace environments with well-designed placements that matched students with employers. The project would facilitate career exploration linked directly to their course work through engagement with public, private and voluntary sectors that would help to reinforce the positivity of career exploration for students. Following completion of the project, the overall outcomes would be that students had expanded their knowledge and skills, understood the importance of work ethic and worked toward workplace readiness relevant to the skills that employers sought from employees.
The Corporation of NCG (NCG) is considered one of the leading providers of education, training and employability across the UK with the focus for this project centering on Newcastle and Carlisle colleges due to their geographical positioning combined with student profiling that met with the project's outcomes. The project was designed to accommodate over ninety participants spanning two sectors (sport and uniformed public services) that aimed to increase their workskills, upskill students within their respective sectors and increase their confidence both within and outside of the workplace. The work based placement offered participants the opportunity to build on their existing knowledge and absorb and practice new ways of working with their European host providers in addition to experiencing wider cultural activities to support their personal and social development. Specific targeting would reach those with fewer opportunities relevant to a number of recruitment factors including their educational status and the potential to increase their qualification through engagement with the mobility project. Other participants were selected on different criteria that acknowledged their social status, those that needed to prepare for work skill development and to reward those performing within the NCG's lifestyle and excellence academies. NCG wanted to use this mobility project as an intervention that encouraged career-exploration (in sports and uniformed public services) that provided work based experiences to create a better understanding of the extent to which engaging in different forms of workplace learning could reduce gaps in graduate employment outcomes, and improving employability through broader access to professional experience while abroad.