First and foremost, the goals are still about encouraging our students to go abroad to develop motivation, autonomy and to be ambitious both professionally and personally. We still want to generate a positive interest throughout the school population. Training abroad makes students think differently about learning foreign languages. They also learn about different corporate cultures. And most of all, it is a satisfying experience which opens up new horizons to them and helps leave behind the difficulties they faced at school. So the Mobility Project benefits the participants as well as other students. That is why the school is eager to take part. Finally, the further renewal of the programme would enable our school to strengthen the teaching of foreign languages and participate in broadening the horizons of our public which is at the core of our school.
Jacques Prévert Vocational School is located in a town of 23000 inhabitants and trains around 370 students and apprentices of whom 59% come from underprivileged backgrounds. Most of them are entitled to a grant from the local authorities. Many are students from rural areas, who are not naturally inclined to travel far. Most students find learning foreign languages very challenging. And they lack motivation because they are quite sedentary. Our school has been implementing international mobility since 2012.From 2018 to 2020, we have managed to achieve our objective of sending 10% of the second-year Baccalauréat students abroad.10 students participated each year so a total of 20 students have benefitted from foreign work experience. Thanks to the growing number of participants more first-year students were thinking of applying for mobility abroad. And this virtuous dynamic helped renew interest in the ‘European class’.