Accredited projects for mobility of learners and staff in vocational education and trainings

Summary

The Euro-BBW trains young people with psychological disabilities in the German dual system. We send rehabilitees to other countries for internships, usually in a small group with accompanying staff who support them in becoming more and more autonomous.  

Many of our rehabilitees come here with a history of failure. Successfully completing an internship in a foreign country, maybe even in a foreign language, strengthens their self-confidence and self-efficacy; it develops their problem-solving and adaptation skills, and they become aware of the value of their EU citizenship. For our students, this experience can be life-changing.

”Education is not filling a vessel but lighting a fire. During my Erasmus+ travels, meeting people from different cultures turned knowledge into understanding and diversity into community.”

Topic(s) addressed

• Improvement of basic personal skills like self-confidence and self-efficacy 
• Improvement of basic skills for working life such as adaptation and teamworking skills, as well as intercultural competences
• Inclusion of students disadvantaged on the labour market (who often have never travelled before!)
• Adding a successful internship from another country to their portfolio is evidence of social resilience and a proven skill asset for employers

Target group(s)  

• 12 young adults with psychological disabilities (like autism, schizophrenia, borderline, depression and many more), aged roughly between 20 and 30; as well as 
• 7 staff members (teachers, trainers, educators providing psycho-social accompaniment)

Methodologies used

Young people come to us after a long series of failures and discrimination. They often feel hopeless and disillusioned and are afraid of the future. In addition to the professional skills necessary for the exams, our holistic approach is intended to provide them with other necessary skills for successful participation in society and working life. All sectors, including psychosocial services and staff at dormitories and leisure housing, are also involved. Experiential education, sports, creative and cultural activities, excursions, summer camps, language courses, telephone and job application training and much more help to strengthen self-confidence and self-efficacy as well as motor skills, openness and communication skills. This is also reflected in our mobilities. We use a support concept that is intended to gradually make the participants more independent. The activities abroad, whether in work or leisure, are intended to promote a positive self-image through small and large successes and also to change some obstructive attitudes. 

Innovation environment

The Euro-BWW vocational school also has Europaschule status, which stresses the importance of being not only German, but European as well. Our mobilities show students and staff alike that this identity is not for a few select people but can be lived by all if we want it.  

Working and living in another country, even if for a short while only, can broaden horizons and enable people to make comparisons and to develop new ideas for their future life. It leaves a long-lasting impression. They now see that many interesting possibilities lie ahead of them. Our organisation, as well as our partners with whom we collaborate, greatly enable the development of this perspective. 

Teachers’ role

Teachers and trainers play an important role in the students' lives. They develop ideas for projects which strengthen personal skills as well as professional ones. They use their personal contacts to find companies for cooperation. They accompany our students when they go abroad and need finely tuned antennae to see if a student is overwhelmed and has coping difficulties. More often than not, they are persons of trust. In an emergency they need to have specialist knowledge of how to help people through a mental health crisis. In an extremely mixed classroom environment they have to find tasks and explanations that can benefit everyone or can be adapted, while at the same time avoiding overload or underload. Without the assistance of our teachers and trainers, our European activities would not be possible. Thus we send our teachers and trainers abroad to discover other methodologies and attitudes, to develop new ideas for their lessons, and to experience the value of intercultural contact for themselves.

Impact and output

We have seen growing of interest in our travel offers since we started to increase our European activities. It’s not just students now choosing our school because of the possibility to work in another country; staff are also becoming more and more interested in broadening their minds. There are numerous benefits, but the main thing for us is the change that is actually visible in our students who have travelled and completed an internship: someone who leaves as a subdued, depressed person avoiding eye contact returns as someone who is self-confident, happy and glowing.

Learn more about the project