The internal objective was to implement European education work in two departments - in further training by the mobility guidance and in company counselling by the foreign trade guidance/department management - and to anchor Erasmus+ thematically. Basically, mobility activities aim to give trainees and trainers (staff) the opportunity to acquire a recognised additional qualification. Through a learning stay in another European country, participants were given the opportunity to get to know the working and living environment of another European country from the inside with the aim of improving their own professional, linguistic and intercultural competences. By including vocational training stays (job shadowing) a second target group was to be addressed and encouraged to participate in order to successively open up craft companies (SMEs - small and medium-sized enterprises) for international training work. The project executing organisation expected that the accompanying project work, related to the target groups of trainees and training managers in SMEs, would also produce maximum synergy effects.
The Chamber Crafts Potsdam (HWK Potsdam) is responsible for supporting its member companies in their personnel and economic challenges. Craft companies have to adapt their business to global technical developments as well as demographic and ecological factors in order to survive on the market in the long term. The need for qualified skilled workers who are open to intercultural teamwork in addition to their technical skills and knowledge is growing. As a continuous applicant in the Erasmus+ programme (and predecessor programmes), the HWK Potsdam can look back on a consistent number of mobility activities. With the help of the pool project " Years of apprenticeship are years of travel 2020-2022" (extended until 05/2023), further international offers for VET staff were created in order to actively involve other areas of work within the HWK Potsdam and to further expand services for companies. The expansion to include a second target group equally implied creating cross-departmental networking, illuminating structures, identifying weak points and working on them.