It starts and ends with the development of international competencies in our students. This can be done both in- and out-of-school. In order to work on international competences of students in-school, teachers and other staff must also master these competences. One of our goals therefore was to offer a larger number of employees an authentic intercultural experience; either through a trip abroad, or through incoming mobility of colleagues from partner schools. With regard to students, we have set ourselves the goal of offering experiences abroad to a wider group than just the level 4 students who previously used an Erasmus grant within our school. We also wanted to encourage students of the other levels, and students from the so-called group Fewer Opportunities, to go abroad. Organizationally, we have focused on a more solid embedding of internationalization in our organizational structure, with contact persons in each team, a team that manages and supports ROC-wide internationalization, and people responsible at all management levels, Finally, we wanted to make examinations abroad possible for the Teaching Assistant programme.
ROC de Leijgraaf sees the outside world as a classroom. This means that lifelike learning mainly takes place in the extracurricular context. Since the world is getting smaller and smaller, and in everyday life people get in touch with people from a different cultural background, learning opportunities can be found everywhere in the world. Going abroad offers our students and staff the opportunity to strengthen their intercultural competences, and also to gain professional or citizenship experiences that are not available within the Netherlands. Internationalisation is therefore included in the strategic policy plan of ROC de Leijgraaf. All teams have set goals for internationalisation within their own programme. This concerns at least I@H activities that are woven into the curriculum. In addition, all students and employees are encouraged to gain an experience abroad related to study or work. For going abroad, the financial support of Erasmus+ is indispensable.