FLB Herford / Aktivitäten / Europa / Erasmus-Akkreditierung / Exchanging Good Practice in Employability and Enterprise

Exchanging Good Practice in Employability and Enterprise

The aim of this partnership is to encourage young people to get a deeper insight into the schools’ preparation for their work life. Both colleges have a particular interest in developing enhancement programs in European citizenship, teamwork, leadership and cultural diversity in both colleges. Another important objective of the German students is to improve their language skills.

Active Young Citizens of Europe
Aim of Partnership
The aim of the partnership is to encourage students to get a deeper insight into the culture and democratic system of their home country as well as other European countries. Researching the system of national and European government as well as the function of voluntary associations enables students to understand how they can play an active part as a European citizen and influence their own future at school, at work, in social and political life.
All partners will research the situation in their country, with students meeting local, national as well as European elected representatives of different associations and visiting their national parliaments. Representatives from each partner school will visit other national institutions/ associations during the project meetings as well as the European Parliament and the partnership will culminate in a European Youth Parliament.
First Year of Partnership
In the first year of the partnership students will explore the different opportunities young people have to express their interests:
• The political structure of their home country and of the European Union
• Different associations of young people
• Voluntary Organizations e.g. Greenpeace
• In order to understand the attitudes of the other European peoples it is important to analyse the national identity of the participating countries.
Second Year of Partnership
In the second year students will visit the European Parliament and finally participate in a European Youth Parliament. They will discuss various possible issues and will choose a topic of concern to them which will be the subject of investigation in each country. They will draw up the agenda and finally some elected students will represent the views of the group in a plenary session of the European Youth Parliament. Their resolutions will be presented to Members of the European ParliamentAll partners will research the situation in their country, with students meeting local, national as well as European elected representatives of different associations and visiting their national parliaments. Representatives from each partner school will visit other national institutions/ associations during the project meetings as well as the European Parliament and the partnership will culminate in a European Youth Parliament.

First Year of Partnership

In the first year the students made contact with the Northern Irish students. The Northern Irish students have started pen pal-ship via email with our students. The students had a videoconference introducing each other. The classroom enterprise project has been launched to gain information on the topic of the project. The BMC students have visited the German students in February 2011. All students worked on the project topics during that time, e.g. comparing the two school systems, eating habits, German and Northern Irish enterprises (BRax and Dr. Oetker, Bombardier and Barclays Bank), making a DVD and creating a website of this project and making a booklet for German small talk.

Second Year of Partnership

The German students visit the BMC in Belfast in October 2011. The different projects within the project will be finished. The students are going to keep up the website for sharing information and building up resources on employability/enterprise in each country.

Project Objectives

The problem addressed by this partnership is that a lot of young people are not prepared for getting on with new experience in the world of work. In order to prepare young people, the two colleges decided to exchange information on how they are preparing their students.

The project activities include photos, presentations and reports.

Presentations (Powerpoint)

Reports

• Germany

• Northern Ireland: Zu Gast beim Belfast Metropolitan College

Dissemination

In this section you find reports on the project activities in various meetings at school, reports from the student magazine on the partnership and the project meetings and reports from the local press and radio and TV (e.g. Neue Westfälische, Herforder Kreisblatt, Radio Herford, WDR).