Portuguese INSIGNARE’s VET Schools took part in several Erasmus + KA 2 partnerships

INSIGNARE (Portugal)

Fátima Hospitality Vocational School (EHF), owned by INSIGNARE, a Portuguese private non-profit association, has recently hosted one international meeting and participated in another one. The first one occurred at the beginning of February, in Fátima, Portugal, with 30 participants coming from Hospitality Schools of Czech Republic, Italy and Poland. It was the first mobility of “Good Food, Better Health”, so besides planning the project, several activities were made, to develop students skills in this area: they created four different lexicons on Cooking terms, in five languages, which will be useful when they attend their internships abroad; analysed the national answers to a common questionnaire about Healthy Food habits and prepared a report with common findings and solutions to the quoted problems; studied, prepared and evaluated traditional Portuguese meals, comparing ingredients and cooking methodologies. Cultural visits were also held.

• For further information please contact Mr. Sérgio Fernandes at gci@insignare.pt.

Other Erasmus + KA 2 partnership in which EHF was involved took place in March, when eight students and two teachers went to Moreni, Romania, for the last LTTA of “Youngsters Nowadays. Where From, Where To.” With colleagues from that country and others from Greece, Italy and Turkey, they worked during one week in several activities related to the project’s products: “the environment – our common goal”, “The environment between consumption and jobs” and “Am I prepared for the job markets”. Several stakeholders were invited also to share their view with the students. There was still some time for cultural visits.

• For further information please contact Ms. Madalina Matei at matmira24@yahoo.com.

Not only EHF is owned by INSIGNARE, EPO – Ourém Vocational School is too. Both hosted the first meeting, with 30 participants from Hungary, Italy, Poland and Turkey,  who participate in a project named “Just Be Humans! Say No To Any Forms  of Discrimination and Violence”. The students were grouped in internationally mixed teams and developed several activities in order to raise their creativity, ICT skills and critical thinking regarding this topic: after setting up stereotypical thinking and discrimination scenes, they proceeded to indoor and/or outdoor photo shooting. With photos selected from those ones to illustrate famous quotes over the topic, they went on to design a two tears calendar, based on OER – Open Educational Resources.  They also rehearsed and staged mini plays focused on stereotypical thinking and discrimination, with an innovative approach – Forum Theater. This methodology requires them not only to play but to interact afterwards with the audience about the topic. Cultural visits were also provided.

• For further information please contact Ms. Katalin Bischof at katalin.bischof@gmail.com.

Finally, at the end of March, six students and two teachers from EPO went to Cremona, Italy, for the first LTTA of Erasmus + “Digital Tools for Smart Schools” partnership. Together with local participants and colleagues from Poland, Romania and Turkey, they had a full week of work in mixed nation teams, where they attend several workshops over Open Educational resources, namely Powtoon and Kahoot!. After those, they had to create and present to hosting school’s classes the results of their learning. Students also attended lessons and visited several cultural landmarks of that city and region.

• Further information can be found at project ETwinning space.

RISE – Realising Integration through Social Enterprise project meeting held in Brussels

“RISE – Realising Integration through Social Enterprise” is an Erasmus + KA 2 Adult Education project, led by Die Wiener Volkshochschulen GmbH, in Austria, with partners from Belgium, Germany, Greece, Ireland and Portugal.

Its second meeting took place in middle March in Brussels (the first one was held in Vienna, Austria, in December). It’s an Exchange of Good Practices partnership, as the consortium intends to work on the integration of socio-economically disadvantaged adults and young people into the labour market. It is mainly concerned with the education and training processes leading to the set-up of a social enterprise and in the cooperation between experts in the field and interested persons identified amongst our colleagues and target groups.  It will explore the role and potential of adult education in providing our learners with new educational and employment opportunities geared to the set-up of social enterprises.

• For further information please contact Mr. Herbert Depner at herbert.depner@vhs.at.