Ourém Vocational School’s and Fátima Hospitality School’s students spent that period in several European cities, supported by Erasmus+ programme.
42 students from Fátima Hospitality School and Ourém Vocational School did their 2 (June and July) and 3 (May to July) months international internships in several European cities, supported by the Erasmus+ programme. During this period, the students from IT; Metalworking/CNC; Car Mechatronics; Design; Electronics and Automation; Cookery/Pastry; Restaurant/Bar; and Tourism courses put into practice everything they learnt at school, while also developing new technical skills in the companies where they will be placed.
Besides those hard skills, these internships allowed our students to increase their soft ones:
* Personal skills – Autonomy (for most of them, it is the first time they leave their family, so it’s up to them to take care of every item of the daily life, including making their meals or doing the laundry); Financial Management (they receive a monthly grant and should be able to use it efficiently, to pay their expenses); Interpersonal Communication (they stay at an accommodation together with some colleagues, so they should be able to communicate with their peers to keep a friendly home environment); Conflict Management (it’s their first experience of living together with other people, so problems will surely arise between them – they have to learn how to deal with it); Punctuality – they have to respect their work schedules and work requirements).
* Linguistic skills – before and during their stay abroad, the students had to attend online lessons on the language of the country they stayed, through the OLS / EU Academy platform.
* Cultural skills – students should use their free time to research, to plan and to visit relevant monuments and landmarks in the city/region they were: Berlin, Germany; Foligno, Italy; Birkirkara, Malta; Barcelona, Bilbau, Fuerteventura and Seville, Spain, and write a report on what they learnt. During their stay, in case of need, they could ask for assistance to INSIGNARE’s local partners, and our staff was also available 24/7. As we can see, these experiences are unique and and lifetime opportunity to broaden their horizons.
