The first objective was to enhance the competitiveness and qualifications of our students and teachers in an international cultural workforce. One of our main challenges is to remain competitive in a demanding educational and labor market. With the EU's open labor market, requirements for students and teachers are increasing in a globalized world. Our goal is to serve as a bridge where they can thrive in a competitive environment. Additionally, we wanted students to practice and reflect with peers and teachers within their field in a global perspective. Teachers have reported that the exchange is a vital experience for all involved. The second objective was to make internationalization more visible to students, teachers, and partners. Over years of exchanges, we have seen increased professional competence and intercultural understanding. We sought to highlight the significance of exchanges to prospective applicants, current students, staff, and local partners. Citizenship is crucial in our curriculum renewal. With new intercultural understanding, our students can interact with peers with deeper comprehension. They gain knowledge of other cultures and see interconnectedness within their field after the exchange.
Our project is rooted in preparatory visits to both partner schools. Our institution covers many fields, including vocational training, adult education, specialized education, academic studies in music, dance, and drama (MDD) and more. This project targets the drama program within MDD and foreign language classes through interdisciplinary projects. With approximately 1,000 students, one of our core challenges is to foster awareness of the EU, European identity, and shared values in our daily planning and teaching. Through this project, we gained valuable insights that benefit our management, teachers, and students. Collaborating with participants from the host schools, we used methods that highlight common European challenges. For students in Malta drama played a pivotal role, as participants worked with themes that facilitated reflection and discussion. In foreign languages, the students built intercultural and linguistic competence in an authentic situation, helping them become global citizens. Through preparatory work, execution, and reflection students were offered new perspectives on learning, development, and identity, and were shown the value of collaboration across linguistic, political, and cultural boundaries.