Josep Morera and Micaela Chaveli. Technical teachers of Administration and Management.
Last May 2022, two Vocational Training teachers from the Department of Administration and Management, Micaela Chaveli and Josep Morera, took part in a Job Shadowing activity as part of the Erasmus+ programs for teachers.
Specifically, we were able to observe the functioning of a secondary school on the island of Sicily, in Italy. It is “C.M. CARAFA” secondary and vocational training school in Mazzarino and Riesi, in the region of Caltanisseta.
Mazzarino is a town of 11.000 inhabitants. The village’s economy is mainly agricultural and its main crops are wheat and olives. Livestock farming is also present. The village is approximately 30km away from the sea, between mountains. A village with characteristics very similar to those of Sant Mateu.
Regarding the school, we spent four days with students and teachers. The basic differences with our educational model are that students there have to choose earlier the path that best suits their characteristics. Thus, there are secondary education itineraries which are more academic: scientific, linguistic, … and others which are more professionalized, such as agriculture or administration, that is to say, like a kind of Basic Vocational Training, but they choose that from the beginning of the Secondary Education stage. Other notable differences are that Saturday is also considered to be a school day, but during the week students spend fewer hours at school. In short, we could compare both educational models.
We shared time with different groups of the school, specially in Spanish lessons where students could practice their knowledge of Spanish with us. There, we were able to show them pictures of Sant Mateu and explain what the town and the region are like.
The school’s management and teaching staff, as well as our school contact, Maria Rita Caracappa, welcomed us warmly. They showed us around the town and other places of interest near the island of Sicily. We could notice that the way of being and the character of people in the south of Italy are very similar to ours. Something that is also reflected in the festivities and in the gastronomy. As the saying goes, it can be said that: “The Valencian and the Sicilian, cousin brothers”.