On the one hand, we aimed at giving our trainers the knowledge, competences and skills that could lead to better practices and innovation in VET and also begin a modernization process of our educational project to include more digital tools, the connection between school and the job market and formal and informal education. On the other hand, we aimed at preparing our students for the job market and innovation. Moreover, we wanted that our trainers and learners could acquire a broader vision of the European Union by establishing an intercultural dialogue that might contribute to a bigger sense of belonging and European citizenship. Another important aim was to establish, for the first time in our VET system, a network of contacts of strategic European cooperation, improving the technical competences of the students and their performance in the different areas of specialization, with a strong entrepreneurial spirit and active citizenship, better employability opportunities, thus reducing school dropout, promoting equal opportunities and the recognition of our school and the VET courses we offer within the community.
Our school offers different learning programmes from Kindergarten to secondary education, with a total of 840 students (350 in VET). We have been establishing several partnerships in order to respond to the needs of the companies of the region and offer the learners a strong connection to the job market, since the vocational education brings to our school learners from across the district and is of great relevance for the relation we establish with the community and the companies in the region. Many of our learners are looking for a practical teaching and strongly connected to the job market, whereas others aim at pursuing higher studies in areas directly related to the vocational courses they attend. This project tried to address the need for internationalization of our organization and to provide our teaching staff the tools that may help them modernize our practices and curricular programmes and also prepare the learners for the needs of the job market and innovation. We also aimed at benefitting the entire educational community by providing them with a broader vision of the European Union and a greater awareness of the challenges all European citizens are currently facing: environmental, digital and social.