The City of Essen seizes the opportunities of the European integration process and prioritises five pillars of European activities: (1) networking, (2) European-capabilities of the administration, (3) communication/information, (4) funding and (5) shaping EU legislation/policy. Municipal vocational education and training staff play a key role in improving European competence, as they integrate and scale European contexts into municipal training in a long-term, didactically prepared and application-oriented manner. The pilot project "Essen goes global" aimed to increase the mobility/European capabilities of municipal education staff through short-term stays in European administrations. The primary objective was to provide participants with insights into working techniques, thematic challenges or systemic training differences via learning partnerships. On the personal level, the project sought to make a positive contribution to personal key competences (e.g. intercultural, linguistic, methodological), transnational contact networks or increased European identification. Furthermore, participants’ experiences were to be published, evaluated and integrated into municipal processes for consolidation of the activities.
Since the 1950s, a complex transformation process from a coal and steel region to a services society has been taking place in Essen, the success of which is also a strategic turn as a major city in a unified Europe: The City of Essen benefits significantly from European network contacts, funding, projects or awards (e.g. European Capital of Culture 2010, European Green Capital 2017). The European capabilities of the city administration influence the scope for using these transnational opportunities in the future. The project "Essen goes global" addresses the importance of European capabilities by enabling the target group of vocational training staff to gain work-related European experience and new knowledge through exchange with other municipal administrations. These experiences as well as the gain in individual key competences are also passed on to the next generation of staff during their training, so that a multiplication effect is to be expected. The mobilities increase both the attractiveness of the training activity and the ability of municipal staff to identify, communicate and use European opportunities in their own work.