As previously mentioned, it was important for us to help our young people to dare to be European. Indeed, we wanted to prove to the people around us that in our small towns and countryside at the end of the academy and the region, you are born in Limoux and you are European. The opportunity to show our students that they can also, and have the right to, travel to the other side of the world for an internship, was a great challenge that we were able to achieve. We were able to get a new vision from the professional world. Indeed, as vocational schools are not well regarded, we wanted to prove that our young people can do and can achieve great things. We also wanted to obtain the opportunity to train abroad, which was a very successful experience for our staff.
We applied for this project in order to be able to offer the experience of European mobility to our young people in the first year of the vocational baccalaureate Agora (Assistance in the management of organisations and their activities) and to our students in the final year of the CAP EPC (Certificat d'aptitude professionnelle Equipier Polyvalent de Commerce). We also applied for this project in order to give the school's staff the opportunity to carry out a European and professional immersion with a foreign counterpart. Indeed, the Jacques Ruffié high school in Limoux welcomes students from modest and rural backgrounds, who often drop out of school and are reluctant to learn. The desire to apply for this project was a great incentive for the school to take part in the project. The desire to apply for this project was motivated by the desire to restore their confidence in their abilities and to help them dare to move away from home for professional purposes. It was really important for us to be able to offer our students and staff the opportunity to develop European citizenship, and to convince them that international mobility could be synonymous with personal development and professional success.