European mobility in times of COVID-19

The online conference was held on Monday, 30^th of November, and brought together 50 teachers, trainers and mobility coordinators from ten different European countries (Croatia, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Lithuania, Poland, Portugal, Spain and the Netherlands). The main objective was to present existing projects within the network to boost all members to start their own virtual mobility projects and to continue their efforts to work transnationally especially during this complicated period of the Covid-19 crisis. The organisers furthermore encouraged the participants to think these new projects in the long-term. Latter are indeed not only useful to fill the current gap due to the absence of physical mobility but can be extended after the crisis with the aim to motivate and prepare the learners before their actual stay abroad. They may also have positive impacts on the partnerships, susceptible to be strengthened through this additional cooperation work.

Five NETINVET members presented three vocational projects, currently in the phase of preparation, and a fourth transversal one, which has already started:

• The first presentation featured a Franco-Catalan cooperation between two public VET providers planning to set up a vocational virtual mobility project in the international trade sector. “Lycée Quinet & Institut de Vic: on the way to Taïwan!” aims to make work together two groups of students who will target a foreign market (Taïwan) to sell their product. Anne Quispe and Cristòfol Estrella i Padilla, initiators of this project, stated that they had seen the sanitary crisis as an opportunity to start a new partnership and to improve their methodologies for online teaching.
• Hélène Collier from the French VET school Ismaël Dauphin presented a linguistic and vocational virtual mobility project that she elaborated and that aims to tackle the issues of transport and environment. Students from different countries will have to investigate companies engaging in more sustainable transport solutions and then present the business characteristics to their peers. Ms. Collier announced during the conference that she was searching for a partner to cooperate with for this project. Four other members from Germany, Italy, Portugal and the Netherlands spontaneously showed interest. The project should consequently be kicked-off next January.
• The following presentation highlighted a Franco-Italian model for vocational virtual mobility in the automotive sector. It was presented by Lidia Ruffa from Scuola Centrale Formazione (SCF), a non-profit organisation joining together 46 organisations managing 96 VET centres from 11 regions all over Italy. The project is set up in cooperation with ANFA in France and aims to take up the challenge of creating a digital product on safety standards in the automotive sector in Italy and France and includes both, synchronous and asynchronous online learning activities.
• Last but not least, Suvi Kylmälä from Keuda Group Vocational Education and Training in Järvenpää in Finland presented “My day in my culture.” This trinational project between Finland, Italy and the Netherlands was implemented for the first time from October to December 2020. This pilot project focused on general topics about culture as well as cross-sectoral key competences for lifelong learning. Ms. Kylmälä presented the outcomes and gave advice thanks to the lessons learnt during this first version, which were received with great interest by the participants and will be very helpful for those members who will launch their own projects in 2021.

In addition to these projects, Francesca Drago from SCF presented the results of the online conference “Do Your Mob” that was organised by the Italian network a couple of days ago. She explained the conference’s findings with regards to the preparation and organisation of a virtual exchange project, the role the teacher or trainer plays as a facilitator during the online activities and also gave examples to respond to the tricky question how to recognise the learning outcomes that were achieved.

To provide the members with some additional information and input, Sarah Köneke from the French professional association AFT and NETINVET network coordinator, presented some good practice examples from outside the network:

• EMEU/EMEU4ALL – Engineering Mobility across Europe – Erasmus + Strategic partnership (2014-2016/2016-2019) – Relevant outputs for NETINVET members supporting virtual mobility: Good practice guide & Manual on virtual communication
• eMovA – Virtual Mobility project for Apprenticeships – Erasmus + Strategic partnership (2014-2017) – Relevant outputs for NETINVET members: 20 ready-to-use online learning sequences for virtual mobility activities
• EVE – Erasmus+ Virtual Exchange project – Pilot project, launched by the European Commission in 2018 – Relevant outputs for NETINVET members to learn more about the impact of virtual exchanges: Impact report

Between presentations, participants had the opportunity to ask questions, which made the online event more interactive. The reactions showed the attendees’ great interest in the projects presented. The NETINVET Steering Committee will closely follow all the projects and their progress in order to organise another online event in the first half of 2021 to share results and experiences with all network members.