The SAAM pilot project, which is concluding its 4 years of work, celebrated the SAAM Leaders meeting in Bilbao with partners from more than 30 countries, culminating in a conference to present the lessons learned
Bilbao, November 2023 – SAAM, the pilot project funded by the European Commission to test Vocational Training mobility between Africa and Europe, is nearing the end of its four-year unprecedented work. To present its results, impact, and future vision, the SAAM partners celebrated an event at Bilbao on the 9th of November which gathered almost one hundred professionals interested in VET and internationalization.
During the “Conference on the impact and future of educational mobility between Africa and Europe”, experiences and lessons acquired through the SAAM pilot program were presented. The project promoter and host of the event (San Viator), the coordinating team (Mundus), several project partners, some of the students that are currently experiencing a SAAM mobility in Spain and representatives from Spanish and international educational institutions took the floor to share their experience with the project and what they hope for the future.
This public conference held in the emblematic Euskalduna Palace was the perfect ending to several days of partnership meeting in the Basque city. At this partners’ meeting that reunited more than 30 different nationalities, the capacity building initiated in the seminars in Brussels was concluded, programs such as Capacity building in the field of vocational education and training (VET) were explained in detail and several networking sessions were held to identify the common interests of the partners for future collaboration.
In addition to all this, the latest advances of the project were also presented: the intercultural preparation handbook, the SAAM Network – a tool promising to sustain collaboration between the two continents – and the current state of mobility. It is also worth mentioning that during that week, 100 African students were completing their stay in European VET centers and companies.
Following the meeting of SAAM leaders and the conference in Bilbao, the project enters its last months of activity without stopping to achieve objectives. SAAM has engaged the participation of 36 partner organizations, both African and European. This unprecedented collaboration has successfully facilitated over 400 mobilities among Vocational Training students and teachers, enriching their educational, professional, and personal experiences.
SAAM has paved the way for educational collaboration in the field of Vocational Training between Africa and Europe, demonstrating that mobilities between centers on both continents are not only possible but also beneficial.
Now, the pilot project partners aim to raise awareness about the new funding opportunities that the European Union has created in recent years to boost such cooperation.
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