Motivating young Europeans Erasmus Project

Project Title

Motivating young Europeans

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for vocational education and training

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2017

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Intercultural/intergenerational education and (lifelong)learning; Pedagogy and didactics; International cooperation, international relations, development cooperation

Project Summary

As part of the “Young Europeans* Move” project, vocational schools from Liepaja/Latvia, Plock/Poland, Brescia/Italy and Darmstadt/Germany have joined forces with the industrial and training company Merck KGaA and the Chamber of Industry and Commerce Darmstadt Rhein-Main, to create a sustainable European vocational training network by using different forms of learning cooperation, offering learning stays for trainees abroad for IT, electrical, mechatronics, metalworking, gastronomy and automotive occupations in the context of an EU town twinning.

Our project thus began with the increasing internationalisation of companies and the necessary increase in the mobility of young people in initial vocational training. The project was embedded in an EU partner city network that dealt more or less “ineffectively” with the topic of “youth unemployment and lack of skilled workers”. Under the guidance of the Heinrich-Emanuel-Merck-Schule Darmstadt, the EU partner cities, Merck and IHK Darmstadt have recognized that “learning location cooperation” with its effects and opportunities for discussion is a key effective and strategic measure to increase the employment of young people in Europe. For this reason, efforts have been made through the EU town twinning network to attract vocational schools to participate in the project.
Learning location cooperation is defined as cooperation between vocational schools and training companies/institutions or cooperating companies or practical institutions (e.g. workshops in schools). It not only refers to the dual system, but also describes all forms of vocational training, including full-school forms, in which cooperation takes place between different learning locations in order to optimise vocational training.

The Chamber of Industry and Commerce and the company Merck KG a.A. took a representative view of the companies, while the schools, from their point of view, designed the topic according to concrete goals. Both economic and industrial partner institutions also supported the placement of places for learning stays and the dissemination of the project results through media publications, web presence and within their institutions.

The project transported the idea of European unity into vocational training through the cooperation of the various European partners. It was illustrated by many examples and made tangible by the project results, how the educational mission of the vocational school – to enable trainees to fulfil their tasks in their profession and to help shape the world of work, society and Europe in social and ecological responsibility – can be implemented in the European context. The exchange of good practice in cooperation between learning venues provided support in this respect.

Basic structures for the readiness and openness for these goals were at the centre of our partnership’s work mandate. In detail, the following aspects of learning location cooperation were achieved:

1) Organisation, tasks and management of a vocational training network with 40 companies from four countries (IT, DE, PL. LV),
2) Planning, implementation and evaluation of 32 occupation-related, cooperative training projects (web-based learning, e-learning, digitisation 4.0) in the form of learning stays,
3) Planning, implementation and post-processing of 25 operational investigations for the generation and evaluation of a guideline for operational investigations and
4) Implementation of 8 transnational project meetings for the coordination/collaboration of the participants and cooperation with companies for the generation of vocational learning stays.

The following results were achieved:

Outcome 1) A transnational network of 40 VET institutions was established. The majority of these offer learning stays. Particular mention should be made of the newly established cooperation between vocational schools, companies and municipal institutions as well as between the Darmstadt Chamber of Industry and Commerce and the Brescia Chamber of Industry and Commerce.
Outcome 2) Concepts of web-based learning and digitisation were exchanged with cooperative training projects.
Outcome 3) A guideline for the preparation, implementation and follow-up of company investigations was drawn up, tested, evaluated, distributed and made available for download.
Outcome 4) A tailor-made vocational and intercultural motivation training for learning stays abroad was developed, tested and evaluated through 32 learning stays. The concept is available for download together with films.
Outcome 5) The project was widely published through various dissemination media (e.g. TV, international press, websites, print media). The results are available for download on the EU websites and on the project website (www.erasmusplus-project.eu).

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 129965 Eur

Project Coordinator

Heinrich-Emanuel-Merck-Schule & Country: DE

Project Partners

• Istituto di Istruzione Superiore di Stato “Andrea Mantegna”
• Zespol Szkol Technicznych w Plocku
• PIKC “Liepajas Valsts tehnikums”
• Industrie- und Handelskammer Darmstadt Rhein Main Neckar
• MERCK KOMMANDITGESELLSCHAFT AUF AKTIEN