EDICT

Between October 2017 and October 2018, our High School was involved in an Erasmus+ Project, named “A PLUS of integration for the youth from Tara Oaşului through Erasmus+” (Project_2017-1-RO01-KA102-036156). The project has fulfilled the need to ensure the quality and relevance, in the job market, of the things students have learned in our school, through an educational purpose mobility, in another country, all students coming from a rural environment, vulnerable from the social and economical point of view, having as final purpose the increasing of their chances of getting a job, after graduation, the increasing of their career chances and the social inclusion.

The project participants were 29 students from the vocational education system, 14 from the 10th grade, Textile Industry Field and 15 from the 11th grade, Mechanics Field, level 3 of qualification. There were 2 types of mobility activities, each of 3 weeks, 19 days of activity and 2 days of transport:

The first series – traineeships in companies, at SANTOGAL P. COMÉRCIO E REPARAÇãO DE AUTOMÓVEIS Lda, between 19.02-08.03.2018 for 15 VET trainees with the qualification of cars tinsmith, 8 students from the 10th grade and 7 students from the 11th grade + 1 accompany person.

The second series: traineeships in formation centres, at Modatex, between 12.03-30.03.2018, for 14 VET trainees with the qualification of textile confections maker, 7 students from the 10th grade and 7 students from the 11th grade + 2 accompany people. The training activities took place 5 days a week, 6 hours a day, under the guidance of the traineeship tutor, according to MoU, signed with the external partners and according to the corresponding activities written in the ECVET Learning Agreement and they included the modules theme content for the CDL merged training with the themes:

• Specific works for cars tinsmithery ;
• The making of complex textile produce with the help of mechanic stitches;
• The painting of the automobile and The assembling and finishing of the textile produce from the national curriculum.

Apart from the training activities, through which the participants had obtained results for the general and specialized technical learning, the project also included cultural, pedagogic and language training activities, before and during the mobility, which contributed to the enrichment of the participants’ civic, social, intercultural and communication skills.

The project objectives have been 100% reached through the students’ results, following the mobility activities, which have contributed to the consolidation of the professional training, to the personal development of the participant students and to the optimizing of the students’ capacity of professional insertion and social inclusion.

Results: 29 participants now have specific professional competences, for a better qualification, correlated with the new SPP of level 3, from:

• URI 13, The automobile painting;
• URI 15, The quality of produce, respectively The Maintenance and the repairing of car body elements;
• URI 8 for cars tinsmiths;
• URI 5, The prosecution of technological operations for the making of a produce specific to the textile industry;
• URI 14, The assembling of textile produce;
• URI 15: The finishing of textile produce for the textile industry maker 10th grade and 11th grade, certificated by the Europass mobility document and recognized and validated by our school through ECVET and included in the students’ qualification.
• working experience in a real job environment and in mixed and multicultural teams;
• capacity of planning work tasks;
• assuming responsibilities;
• self-evaluation of work performance;
• intercultural and communication competences in English and Portuguese;
• more faith in the European Union values;
• increased interest in learning;
• positive attitude towards school and career;
• increased chances of social insertion and inclusion. Impact: • 0 % school abandonment of participants, reduction of absences by 30%, growth of educational success and obtaining the level 3 qualification, by all 14 participants from the 11th grade, who graduated and who had the qualification exam.
• 64,2 % of these graduates have jobs, 3 of 7 textile graduates are working at Mondiala, Satu Mare and 6 mechanics graduates are working abroad, after almost 8 months from the mobility and 3 months after getting their qualification certificates.

During this project, I was an English language trainer and I accompanied the students from the second series, between 12-30 March 2018, to Lisbon, Portugal for their traineeship. As a language trainer I applied an initial paper assessment, to test the English knowledge of the candidates, with the purpose of choosing the students with the best results, according to the Erasmus+ Project requirements.

I was also in charge with the Erasmus+ OLS (Online Linguistic Support) activities, a platform which is designed to assist Erasmus+ participants in improving their knowledge of the language in which they will work, study abroad so that they can make the most out of this experience. As the lack of language skills remains one of the main barriers to the participation in European education, training and youth mobility opportunities, OLS makes linguistic support accessible in a flexible and easy way.

It also contributes to a specific objective of the Erasmus+ programme, which is to promote language learning and linguistic diversity. More than 350,000 Erasmus+ participants test their language skills with OLS every year and have the opportunity to improve their level with OLS language courses. On average, participants who follow courses actively improve their proficiency by at least one CEFR level (Common European Framework of Reference for Languages).

The platform is available, in all European official languages, for Erasmus+ Projects participants, who train abroad, for a minimum period of 19 days. By taking the OLS language assessment before going abroad, Erasmus+ participants are able to determine their proficiency in the language they will use to study or work. Taking this assessment before departure is a pre-requisite for higher education students, to make sure that they meet the recommended level at their receiving organisation (except for native speakers or in duly justified cases). The results of the language assessment do not prevent participants from taking part in Erasmus+. Participants who wish to improve their language proficiency have the opportunity to follow an online language course before and during their time abroad. Access to the language course includes a great variety of Live Coaching activities, amongst which tutoring sessions and interactive MOOCs. Participants who are already sufficiently proficient in the main language used abroad (at least a B2 level) can follow a language course in the language of the country instead, provided that such language is available in OLS. As an Erasmus+ OLS platform manager I assisted the students in creating a personal account, with personal information, such as Name and Surname, email address, password, gender, mobility location and period, etc. I also sent them an invitation (licence) for the initial assessment (December 2017 – January 2018) and helped them to login, answering to all the questions related to the online test structure and tasks.

After taking the initial assessment, comprised of 4 parts (vocabulary, grammar, listening and reading comprehension) each project participant received an English language level, according to the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages. Then, I sent the participants a login invitation (licence) for the online English course (before the mobility abroad), to improve their knowledge. The minimum time required for the course was of 60 hours, between December 2017 and March 2018.

This online course was easy to access from any device and the students could follow it at any time, from anywhere. It included video sessions, online exercises, listening files, vocabulary topics, grammar, etc. all divided into language levels, according to the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages.

The vocabulary section was divided into different topics, with video and audio support and with exercises, from the lowest to the highest language level and included:

• Greetings;
• Introducing Oneself;
• Numbers, Family Member;
• Animals;
• Fruit;
• At the Airport,
• In a Restaurant,
• Asking and Giving Directions etc.

I guided the participants into following the vocabulary topics they needed most for the training period in Portugal and they were very interested in following this course, because it was easy to access, fun and something new to them. Furthermore, the project coordinator and I could follow the students’ time progress on the platform and they could also see their timing. At the end of the course, I sent the students an invitation link (licence) to the final OLS assessment and I assisted them, answering to all their questions regarding the tasks.

The results of the initial assessment were:

• 2 participants with level –A1 (A0- starter), 24 participants with levels A1 (Elementary) and A2 (Pre-Intermediate);
• 3 participants with levels B1 (Intermediate) and B2 (Upper Intermediate).

The results of the final assessment were:

• 5 participants with levels A1 (Elementary) and A2 (Pre-Intermediate) of whom 2 participants maintained their initial level A1 (Elementary)
• 24 participants with levels B1 (Intermediate) and B2 (Upper Intermediate).

The results of the OLS platform final assessment registered, in most cases, a significant percentage growth in the development of linguistic competences, confirmed by the teachers, who accompanied the students during their mobility to Portugal. They noticed that the participants had successfully used their English speaking competences during the training periods, both in the cultural programme (during visits to museums and sightseeing) and in the training hours.

Also, the participants were pleased with their linguistic training through the OLS platform, according to their individual reports, which show that they communicated efficiently with their training tutors and that they understood the tasks, therefore obtaining the expected results, which helped them in their daily life.

All the students, who participated in this project and who, consequently followed the OLS course and had the OLS assessments, received an OLS Certificate of Linguistic Competence, issued by our school, stating the OLS course period (December 2017-March 2018), the duration (60 hours) and the level obtained after the final assessment, signed by the project coordinator, the linguistic trainer and the headmaster.