Trainees who complete the theoretical part of their dual training with us at the State Vocational School Freising, students from the State Vocational School for Childcare, students from the State Academy for Social Pedagogy as well as all teachers of our school centre should have the opportunity to develop intercultural expertise and further enhance their foreign language skills, self-competence, professional skills, and their willingness to be flexible through a stay in a European country. Among the teachers the aim was to improve the quality of teaching by strengthening their intercultural competence, foreign language skills and self-competence, which in turn benefits the learners of the school centre through a future-oriented education. Additionally, we wanted to enhance the attractiveness of dual education in our region. Despite the obstacles and uncertainties, particularly arising from the COVID-19 pandemic, the lockdown, vaccination requirements, travel bans, etc., it is evident, following the extension of the project from two to three years, that we succeeded very well in achieving our goals.
"Travelling means crossing borders, including your own." This quote by Wanda Rezat was the central idea behind the planning, realization, and follow-up evaluation of our KA1 project. We wanted to give a group of interested students the opportunity to look beyond their own perspective and give them space for personal development outside their own comfort zone, thus allowing them to cross borders. Since internationalization in general and especially at our school centre is becoming more and more important within the framework of the internationalization strategy, it was and is important to us that we enable young people, the workforce of tomorrow, to gain this valuable experience abroad within the framework of an Erasmus+ project. Doing a work placement abroad, they could experience not only theoretically but also practically and first-hand what it means to interact with people from other cultures and to find their way in a foreign working environment using a foreign language. Besides the students, our teachers also should have the opportunity to gain experience abroad and thus expand their intercultural competence.