Our name says it all: "Growing Business". The aim was for the trainees to set up virtual companies, taking ecological aspects into account, in order to establish international business relationships. This took place at the end of the training in the 3rd year of training as part of an elective module. The previously acquired skills and abilities should now be applied and expanded using the example of a student company. The following activities formed the core of "Growing Business": The trainees founded their companies, i. H. they create company profiles, catalogs of products/services, designed logos and their website, each in English. They presented their companies to the partner school via Skype or MS Teams and initiated initial business relationships. They created marketing campaigns and customer service questionnaires. Every company offered vacancies and the trainees applied for these vacancies (letter of application, CVs, etc.), job interviews were conducted via Skype or MS Teams. The end product will be a web page with links to all company websites, containing photos, videos and questionnaires. The main goal of this project was to prepare our trainees for the European job market. We have prepared them linguistically and professionally for this, but our trainees should learn in direct exchange what it means in practice to work professionally with other cultures in several languages. So this project helped our trainees to get more involved with founding a company.You can't learn interculturality from books, you have to experience it. Another goal was the language development of our trainees. You can consolidate the English language skills you have acquired in specialist classes and expand them to include the language that is typical of the country. The third goal was to promote self-competence. The trainees should use the mobility requested here, and at the end of the compulsory elective module, visit the respective partner school and get to know those with whom they have communicated and traded actively for a year. This is often the first opportunity to gain experience abroad without the parents and to get in touch with young people from other EU countries. Together, the trainees completed this e-twinning project by completing the website on which the student companies that had been founded were presented. The plan was of course sightseeing together, getting to know the other school and a graduation ceremony. The current developments in Europe still require intensive cooperation between the member countries and mutual exchange. It is more important than ever to educate young people to become "Europeans" who can naturally choose their place of work and center of life freely and thus also contribute to a peaceful coexistence of European cultures. That was another goal, because we now have a great responsibility—for Europe and for democracy. We want to make our trainees strong so that they can counter populist, nationalist and racist voices. Only together can we make the EU more democratic, more transparent and more social. Another goal was the continuous training and further education of the colleagues involved with regard to supporting our trainees in their activities abroad.
With the funds from this application, the trainees of the 3rd year of full-time school training to become office management clerks should be given the opportunity for the first time to complete internships abroad as part of our e-twinning project "Growing Business". Our colleague Mr. Fischer has been initiating the project together with our Spanish project partner via e-twinning since 2019 and has implemented it in the classroom. Unfortunately, the Spanish partner left the project in 2021 due to Corona. So it was necessary to find a new e-twinning partner for the project. A French vocational school in Paris also offers full-time education, so we found a new partner in them. Unfortunately, this school did not withdraw from the project in 2022 either, but from the implementation of the mobilities. Nevertheless, the theoretical and virtual part of the e-twinning project was carried out, which took place in the form of an elective course in the 3rd year of training. The trainees from both partner countries (France and the Netherlands) founded companies that interacted with each other, selling goods, offering services and carrying out application processes via Skype. The interviews were conducted in English. At the end of the elective course, a joint meeting with the trainees in Spain, then in France (see above) and the Netherlands was planned. The trainees should visit their "business partners" to carry out an assessment center, conclude contract negotiations and complete the joint website. The project was supported by Mr. Fischer and our colleague Mr. Werth, both are members of our European team.