Our objectives have been analyzed in great detail in the Erasmus accreditation application that we are honored to hold and for the time being there has not been any change. After 15 years of implementing European programs with a multitude of agencies, we can exhibit the appropriate experience and knowledge to strengthen the cooperation with these agencies that maintain a high level of support services for the programs and we also establish new partnerships with new agencies, mainly from southern Europe. We remain faithful to our main goal of targeted Training Actions choosing training actions that add up to the basic options of the trainees, covering the inability of the Greek VET system to cover the growing training needs. We participate in long-term mobilities through the Erasmus Pro program with a three-month mobility of our post-graduate students. We continue to integrate European qualification recognition tools into training programs. We have been implementing and strengthening the ECVET system for six years , introducing students and teachers to EU education and work, awarding them with credits as a culmination of their participation in mobilities, aimed at their practical training. We strengthen our cooperation with institutions from Cyprus due to the common language and the better adaptability of our students to the living conditions of Cyprus. Finally, we aim at the continuous training of our educational staff by designing training activities that are mainly related to the connection of the school with the labor market.
Our school is located in a poor rural area called Kato Achaia, the capital of the Municipality of West Achaia. Our students mainly come from poor rural families, while several students from Albania, Bulgaria, Romania, as well as several roma students attend the school. Participating in a European mobility is much more important for these students, since they have limited possibilities to move to other places. Indicatively, we mention that over 90% of our students , with the mobilities we implement, have the chance to be traveling abroad for the first time in their life and approximately the same percentage are traveling by plane for the first time in their life. In addition, their participation in an internship mobility in institutions abroad gives them the opportunity to acquire knowledge and skills that most of them will use in practice, since they will basically follow these technical professions in the future. For the above reasons, we submitted our application to IKY, selecting training actions complementary to the basic options of the trainees, covering the inability of the Greek VET system to cover the growing training needs. As the study programs are structured in such a way that they fail to connect VET with the labor mar