Online session report, 16th January, 2025 – The EfVET Internationalisation & Learning Mobility Thematic Team (TT) has recently launched its Coaches and Athletes initiative with a first introductory meeting that allowed the Coordinators of the TT and all registered Coaches and Athletes to present themselves and to set the course for what the next steps of this initiative will be.   

This second edition of the Coaches and Athletes initiative focuses on the theme “Mobility for learners and staff in Vocational Education and Training”, and  aims to address, on a peer-learning, knowledge sharing environment, the following topics:  

• How to apply for Accreditation;  
• Mobility processes and how to get started.  

During the first meeting of the initiative, held on January 16th, the Coordinators of the Thematic Team, Coaches and Athletes were able to discuss and identify a list of sub-topics considered relevant to be further addressed:  

• Design and development of Accreditation processes; 

• How to organise/structure an Accreditation system; 

• What to consider before, during and after a Mobility (incl. planning); 

• How to motivate students and staff to participate in mobility activities; 

• Selection of students for mobility (incl. criteria and what to consider when sending/hosting minors); 

• How to write a Mobility Report. 

Based on this discussion:  

• Ben Bruyndonckx, one of the Coaches of this initiative, presented the structure of a short introductory course focused on KA1 Accreditation Processes of his authorship, comprised of several supporting sessions. This course aims to provide participants with knowledge about Accreditation and the opportunity to exercise with basic building blocks of an application for Accreditation. It addresses subjects such as quality assessment, setting the objectives of the Accreditation and management of the process, and each session will be open to a total of 5 Athletes, to ensure a better interaction between them. The first session, for which participants were already identified during this Coaches and Athletes meeting, will be carried out on February 13th, dedicated to the topic “Analysing and formulating needs”. However, other supporting sessions will be scheduled in the upcoming months and communicated to the Coaches and Athletes community. 
• A document will be prepared by the three Coaches of the initiative focusing on “Mobility processes”, more specifically on the different steps to consider (before, during and after a mobility, from a hosting and sending organisation’s perspective), and this document will then be shared with all Athletes so they can include their inputs and identify other sub-topics related to each step and that they would like to address in further Coaches and Athletes sessions dedicated to this topic.  

The results of this iterative process will be known in the next Coaches and Athletes meeting, scheduled for March 14th, aimed to set the dates for the different Coaches and Athletes sessions focused on Mobility processes. 

More updates on this and other initiatives of the Internationalisation and Learning Mobility TT will be provided soon.