In accordance with what we wrote in the project’s application, we wanted to encourage young people and teachers to be able to SPEAK FOREIGN LANGUAGES BETTER and more specifically English. For pupils with poor language skills, we chose a French-speaking and multilingual country, Belgium, in collaboration with several transnational partners, schools and companies in the Liège region. We intend that all our young people have chance to be enriched linguistically and culturally, and discover a different environment in order to develop their adaptability and BE MORE EMPLOYABLE in the region where they live, the Gard, where the unemployment rate is close to 12%. The aim is to help them as much as possible to surmount the employment difficulties that we are experiencing in the service and tourism sectors. We had planned to work with our partners in Romania, Malta, and Spain but, unfortunately, with the war declared in Ukraine in February 2022, we had to completely change both: the dates of the mobilities and the countries of destination. We have redirected the mobility of our young people to Belgium in Liège and to Portugal in Madeira, two countries where we already had reliable school and company partners and with whom we have worked in parallel on ERASMUS partnership projects. They were ready to share their work experience for the benefit of our young people and were able to offer us observation and exchange of practices between teachers on the issues of culture and tourism. With this project, we also wanted to: * Encourage all our motivated students, including those with special needs, to participate in European mobility projects to give them better employment opportunities. After informing the few students with disabilities and their families about the possibilities of Erasmus internships in Europe, they did not want to go, as the international climate did not encourage them to live a new experience outside of their own country, * Give the opportunity to our teachers in vocational schools to develop a projects-based on teaching methods by going to our partner companies and schools in Europe to observe different practices in disciplines similar to ours and give practical meaning to their teaching, knowledge of fields that is very attractive to young people, *Enable our European volunteers, within the framework of the accreditation that our school has obtained since 2019 for the reception of European volunteers / European Solidarity Corps program, to make the link with our transnational partners and to exchange and share information on international relations and Erasmus projects in order to allow a transfer of international skills and project management and to enrich each other.
International Relations is a strategic axis for the CCI Gard High School, which is why we wanted to give all our students the opportunity to apply for a 4-week internship in Europe with an Erasmus grant. As the professional training period is a compulsory element for the professional Baccalaureate exam. For each of our high school students, the young people who have chosen to go on an Erasmus internship validated their transnational professional experience for the exam and should obtain additional points in the Baccalaureate by enrolling in the mobility option. The Erasmus grants allow us to send any motivated high school student on a work internship in Europe, regardless of their social situation. It also allows us to send our teachers and staff on accompanying mobility as well as training mobility for those who wish to develop their professional skills and networks.