Erasmus+ Policy Statement ECHE 2021-2027
IES 9 d’Octubre offers two different paths in general secondary education and vocational training (Secondary and Tertiary levels). This is a middle size institution of about 550 learners and 70 teaching staff located in Carlet, home to 15000 inhabitants. Most of our students come from an agricultural or middle-class background. Some belong to groups at risk of social exclusion, either on economic or ethnic grounds (Muslims, Romanian immigrants, and gypsies.) Different types of measures are put into place at our institution to prevent those pupils from early school leaving and increase their participation in Vocational training. Actions such as permanent contact with families and social assistants, support classes to help them, and integration into many different fields. It is by offering them quality training in a European or even international context that their CVs will become more competitive and this will help their employability. The overall strategy of our institution is to encourage and support all innovative and cooperative initiatives that involve relations with other European and international organizations. With this aim, our school has a broad experience in European Programmes starting in the year 1998 with a Comenius project. From this date onwards, our institution has taken part in a wide range of actions: In 2005 a partnership with the French school Marguerite Yourcenar to consolidate exchange projects and student mobility for training. The ECHE obtained in 2008 and renewed until 2020 has allowed our tertiary-level vocational students and staff to participate in KA103 until now. A second twinning partnership has been signed in 2013 with the Colegiul Tehnic Emanuil Ungureanu followed by a KA219. Resulting of this cooperation, in November 2019 we have brought an official proposal to Carlet Municipality to sign a new agreement with Vezirköprü and Hückelhoven. European Seminars to discuss current issues in Education (Journées de l’Europe 2014).
Erasmus+ Policy Statement ECHE 2014-2020
a) The overall strategy of our institution is to encourage and support all innovative and cooperative initiatives that involve relations with other European and international bodies as well as the promotion of foreign languages. All this with the aim of internationalizing our institution, optimizing our resources, and improving the quality and relevance of training and human capital in higher education.
We took advantage of the existing twinning framework between the municipality of Carlet (Valenciennes-ES Community), where our establishment is located, and that of Chilly-Mazarin (91-FR) to sign the partnership with the Marguerite Yourcenar high school in the nearby town of Morangis to consolidate student exchange and mobility projects for internship purposes.
Our partner institution, which participates in the Leonardo Program, acts as an intermediary for the search for companies whose selection criteria are as follows:
-Location of the company within a radius of maximum 15 kilometres from the place of accommodation of the students.
-Proximity to the high school to facilitate supervision (language immersion week) and logistical and personal support of the
human capital.
-Choice of companies according to the profile and professional path of students.
Apart from this project which is already underway and which we are nevertheless trying to maintain in the best conditions or even expand, we are open to new projects with two other partner institutions with which we have already initiated relations following mobility actions for teachers:
-The Lycée du Dauphiné in Romans-sur-Isère (26-FR) which would allow us to set up future mobility for study purposes since it offers the same professional courses as us: Section Professional Baccalaureate Electrotechnical, Professional Baccalaureate Management Administration, and BTS Management Assistant of SMEs SMI.
– The Colegiul Tehnic Emanuil Ungureanu of Timisoara (RO) with which we intend to establish the relevant program of actions following our participation in an International Congress entitled “Education in creative and modern spirit” which will take place there next May.
b) The geographical area where we carry out the transfer to carry out their internship period is the Region of the island-of-France, in the department of Essonne (91), south of the capital of the France for reasons of proximity to our partner institution, for the ease of transport and support for our students and for linguistic reasons. In this area, the unemployment rate is quite low, at about 8%, which makes it easier to place foreign trainees and promotes their integration and the possibility of accessing a job market that offers better opportunities than that of our country.
As we have already mentioned in the previous paragraph, the opening to other geographical regions and even to other countries is being carried out.
(c) The main objectives of staff mobility are:
– Motivate and encourage staff, especially teachers, to participate in projects for the implementation of good practices that can be directly applied in the institution, motivating students and that make an overall contribution to the improvement of the quality of higher education and the internationalization and modernization of the institution. To do this, information about actions, deadlines, and conditions and above all communication must always work smoothly.
-Improve the language skills of staff to facilitate better access to European and international programmes.
Among the teachers, any motivated person who wants to improve his work is welcome, but we try to encourage especially the teachers of Professional Training who are directly involved in our mobility policy, and count on the cooperation of foreign language teachers.
As far as students are concerned, we have developed the mobility project for internship purposes which will be expanded and complemented soon with academic training in the host organization. The main objectives are to:
-promote contact with the culture and way of life of the foreign country.
-improve language skills.
– promote exchanges and strengthen personal relationships.
-know directly and facilitate access to the labour market.
The target groups of our mobility activities are BTS (Graduate Cycle) students. This type of non-traditional students’ needs more motivation and support because they mostly come from low-income backgrounds and do not show a favourable disposition to theoretical study but rather lean towards practical aspects.
The strategy of our establishment is, on the one hand, to consolidate and expand cooperation with our partner organization with new challenges. We participated in the European Days, dedicated to the dissemination of the Programme through the projection of audio-visual documents on the experience of mobile students, workshops and cultural activities. The main objective of this approach is to promote the mobility of future students.
On the other hand, we have opened new avenues for cooperation projects that have been initiated when our teachers participate in study visits and mobility for training. The purpose of these actions is to get in touch with other trainers, exchange experiences, compare training programs and advances to improve our own practice; have, in short, the assets on which to base quality training.
Two study visits were carried out in Sicily and Italy, and 4 mobility for training purposes in France. Following these participations, two partnership projects were created with:
– The Lycée du Dauphiné, project for the exchange of information and resources in vocational training, search for companies and possible student mobility project for study purposes.
– The Colegiul Tehnic Emanuil Ungureanu, our participation in the International Symposium will allow us to share learning activities in the field of transversal skills.
– Request for 2014 of 2 incoming mobilities for education experts other contacts and possible future projects have been established with the Centre-Sud high school in Ducos (Martinique) in which a former student is a conversation assistant, and with the Italian professional association Proteo-Campania with the aim of establishing relations with other teachers from similar institutions to create a network for the exchange of information and resources open to new avenues of cooperation.
1.Our institution is located in an agricultural region where most learners come from low-income backgrounds, especially for vocational training students who have neither the means nor the desire to pursue long studies. It is by offering them quality training in a European or even international context that their CV is enriched and therefore facilitates their access to the labour market. It also allows us to recover potential learners who would otherwise lead to dropping out of school after the compulsory education stage.
We have recently seen an upward trend in the return of mature students (30-45 years old), who have been working for some time, to vocational cycles following the economic crisis and the growing demand for professional qualifications. Over the past two years, the graduation rate has increased by 40%.
2.Thanks to the usual use of ICT in professional cycles that promote interprofessional contact, our learners can consult and solve potential technical problems in companies in the international sector (Carrefour, Bonduelle, Legrand). The use of videoconferencing also serves to be in constant contact during the stay abroad and international mobility encourages them to decide either to stay and work in the companies where they have completed their internships or to continue their studies.
3.Now, we only have mobile students for internship purposes but following new partnerships that have just been created we intend to develop, in agreement with our partners, a mobility program for learning and validation of studies through the effective recognition of credits.
4.An innovation and research project (Cyrano) aimed at improving the quality of life of people with reduced mobility has been designed by home automation teachers of our institution, implemented by learners, in cooperation with another higher education institution in charge of the mechanical part counting on direct application in the room of the residence for the elderly of our city, Carlet. This project was funded by the European Social Fund and was published on the website in Spanish and Catalan, translated into French and English.
5. Our institution has the conditions to become a centre of excellence according to the criteria in force by the education authorities through the implementation of the following actions: European Section, Erasmus Program, exchange of students at European level and mobility for internship purposes, Partnership with two European institutions (a third in progress), Cyrano Innovation Project, Skills Award, Student Award for Academic Excellence. http://proyectocyrano.com/.Vous can also access through the website: http://mestreacasa.gva.es/web/ies9octubre.
