The IES Juan de Aréjula is located in the city of Lucena (Córdoba). It is a school in which several vocational training courses are offered, including the following professional areas:

1. Hospitality and Tourism

2. Health

3. Automotive

4. Administration and Management

5. Wood, Furniture and Cork.

Since we were awarded the Erasmus Charter for Higher Education (ECHE), in 2016, we have participated in several mobility projects within key action 1. These mobilities have enabled the training of both teachers and students in higher education training cycles. The experience has been highly valued by the participants and has provided an opportunity to improve the employability of the postgraduate students and the quality of our teaching. For this reason, this educational centre requests the renewal of ECHE to start a new period and continue carrying out projects within key action 1.

An Internationalization Commission has been formed in our centre, made up of the Headmaster, the Deputy Headmaster, the Program Coordinator and the head of the OLS platform. The function of this commission is to organize the promotion, support and management activities of the mobility projects in which it participates.

Our internationalization strategy consists of establishing relationships and agreements with educational institutions and companies from other countries of the European Union to allow students to complete their training in the real work environment of a different country, with special emphasis on the Training Module in Work Centres (FCT) and Project Modules. In the same way, we intend to receive European students who wish to carry out the internships through our institute and collaborating companies. Furthermore, by participating in European programs such as Erasmus +, our centre aims to improve teacher education and preparation through collaborative experiences in countries of the European Union.

The objectives of our participation in the Erasmus project are:

1.      To improve the quality and innovation of our higher education so that students are favoured at an academic, professional and employability level, to become part of the European Education Area.

2.      To provide enriching experiences for higher education students that improve opportunities and promote equality in education and integration into the labour market.

3.      To work in favour of inclusive education as a mechanism to guarantee equal opportunities and non-discrimination for people with disabilities.

4.      To improve the competencies linked to the professional and foreign language profiles of the participants. Learning languages ​​allows people to discover foreign cultures and broaden their perspectives.

5.      To establish a link between the academic and the labour world in the European framework and maintain, through the use of ICTs, an open and permanent relationship with other educational and business institutions of the European Union.

6.      To adapt to the process of digitizing administrative procedures and streamlining student academic data by connecting through Erasmus Without Paper, or exchanging information through the Erasmus EWP Dashboard platform.

7.      To improve the social, professional and intercultural skills of our students and teachers. Fostering a sense of identity as Europeans, of Europe’s cultural heritage and its diversity

8.      To inform the local community and our students of the possibilities of higher studies, so that school dropout is reduced. Contribute to the recognition of academic qualifications and periods of study abroad.

9.      To promote innovative practices with environmental improvement objectives and healthy lifestyle habits.

The participation of our institution in key action 1 will be aimed at promoting the mobility of our higher grade students (KA103 projects). This mobility of students has the support of the school for management, organization and monitoring. Furthermore, we intend to participate in teacher training mobilities. As a novelty for the following period, we intend to request KA102 projects for middle-grade students.

Our participation in this project aims to achieve the objectives set out in the previous point, fully respecting the principles of equal opportunities, non-discrimination based on sex, transparency and inclusion. Within this inclusion policy, projects of great relevance and success are carried out in our institution, such as the Project for Gender Equality in Education and the Project for the School of Peace.

In addition, our institution works on innovation projects such as “Forma Joven” and “Aldea Project”, which respectively promote healthy lifestyle habits and activities to improve the environment.

Each school year we will request a Mobility Project, previously conducting a survey among the students that allows us to know the students’ willingness to participate. Also, due to the great interest that teachers have in these projects, mobility will be requested for teacher training in each school year.

One of our strategic objectives is to be able to give students more training opportunities at the end of their Vocational Training studies. With the possibility of participating in this Project, students can carry out their FCT in a different environment than the local one, living new personal, social and work experiences.

With the participation in this project we also promote the study of languages, being this one of the compulsory requirements to request the mobility.

In our dissemination strategy, good practices and mobility results will be given visibility through the web and social networks.

Our participation in an Erasmus + program aims to improve various aspects such as:

1. Increase academic achievement rates to guarantee the professional success of higher graduates. Through mobility, our students have more options to do the internships in a variety of work environments in Europe. This reinforces the motivation and effort to obtain the degree, since it augurs a real opening to the world of work. The aim is to reduce school dropout due to lack of motivation and low local job expectations. With regard to teachers, mobility is a way to improve their technical, teaching and language skills.
2. Improvement of the quality and relevance of higher education. Mobilities to European companies improve the quality of our VET teaching and the employability of our students; They develop all kinds of cross-cutting and soft skills and prepare them to better cope with a globalized labour market and economy.
3. Consolidation of the quality of higher education through mobility projects and international cooperation. Performing mobilities is a source of motivation and quality added value for this type of teaching. We understand that the mobility of teachers is also essential to improve the quality and relevance of higher education, allowing two-way training that brings benefits to both the sending and receiving countries.
4. Establishment of relations between higher education, research and companies to strengthen excellence and contribute to regional development. Contact with European companies from different sectors allows our students and teachers to get to know a different work environment; likewise, receiving students to carry out the internships in our partner companies contributes to the recognition of these companies at a European level, and this favours the development of our region.
5. Improvement of the management and financing of the European programs. The resources invested in these actions are profitable with efficiency producing improvements to all the institutions involved and contributing to the improvement of the quality of education.

The development of our projects can be evaluated using the following tools:

∙ Competences and learning outcomes achieved during the project. Documents accrediting the stays and signature of those responsible in the work centres and educational centres.

∙ Language skills in mobility. Indicator: Oral language test carried out in the selection of participants and after the mobility.

∙ Monitoring carried out in the Moodle course of the Erasmus + project. Indicator: Entries of each participant in the forums or tasks presented.

∙ Degree of satisfaction of the participants with the mobility and the activities carried out. Indicator: Satisfaction questionnaire.

∙ Informative talks carried out by the students participating in the mobilities. Indicator: Number of students interested in the FCT abroad.

∙ Improvement in the employability of students. Through a study of labour insertion.

∙ Meetings held on the issues discussed and the agreements made between participants. The indicator will be the minutes of these meetings.

Personalized questionnaires will be prepared for each sector of the educational community (teachers, students, parents and companies). These will be carried out in the third term of each school year with the aim of ​​gathering information from the different educational sectors about the projects carried out.

 At the end of the projects, a survey will be carried out to measure their impact. All the participants involved will complete the survey in order to gauge the real scope of the project and assess from different perspectives.