Our main goals were to increase the quality of vocational education and stimulate new ways of thinking both in education and in the work environment. Erasmus mobilities have a direct impact on participants that are exposed to new methods and new ways of thinking abroad. They grow personnaly and professionaly, they acquire both soft and hard skills. There is also an indirect effect of the mobility of participants for their work environment. Indirectly, the work environment benefits from the participant's experiences abroad, and this, in turn, creates conditions for innovation and increased cultural awareness.
Akershus and Viken fylkeskommune have developped international activities for many years, and we have a well established strategy to offer international mobilities to learners. The program "Læretid i Europa" was established over 20 years ago and offers apprentices the chance to spend part of their training abroad in a host company. We applied for the 2020 project with the aim of maintaining and expanding our international activities. The planned explansion was mainly geographical, allowing us to reach a larger amount of candidates through the creation of the region Viken. Diversifying participants was an important incentive for applying to this project, as we wished to include participants from the new regions and new professions. Maintaining a high level of international activity for vocational training was also important to continue offering high quality education to all and insuring equal opportunities between all learners.