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Cultural and Language program for the Rhine and Inlandshipping Schools
Start date: Oct 1, 2014, End date: Sep 30, 2016 PROJECT  FINISHED 

Projectcontext: Boatsmen/ master in Inland Shipping is increasingly becoming a highly international profession, with workers from many different (cultural) backgrounds. Besides the fact that this makes it an interesting area of work, it also carries along some challenges, amongst others with respect to these different cultures and backgrounds. Too many accidents, a large amount of them due to errors in communication, still happen on the European Inland Waterway's: in between vessels, but also amongst the crew of a single vessel and personal accidents. These facts call for other, adapted competences for our students. The partners in this project are all members of EDINNA, the network for Education in Inland Navigation throughout Europe. Objectives: - To develop a course in general Safety in Inland Shipping on (pre) vocational level, consisting of the following topics: Cultural awareness, Standardised communication phrases in English to be used on and in between vessels, competences with respect to personal safety, risks assessment, accident prevention, prevention of collission, first aid , men over board procedures, etc. - For students and teachers to experience and learn from cooperation and communication in (online) intercultural teams, - To create, develop and expand intercultural and international professional and personal networks for both students as teachers - To expand an international network and international contacts as part of the strategy of STC-group Participant number/profile: All partners in this project are ((pre) vocational) educational institutes dealing with the education of students willing to work as boatmen/masters on European rivers. All partners, from the Netherlands, Germany, Austria and Belgium, educate their students as part of the (pre- )vocational system and have similar aims: to prepare their students as best as possible to be able to navigate and work safely on European waterways, and to become well-qualified crew members. Our participants are students in Inland Shipping (15-19 years old), teachers in English, Inland Navigation and safety related topics (3 teachers per partner, approx 20 students per partner, one or two projectmanagers per partner). Activities: The materials will be developed in working groups of teachers, communicating through e-twinning and other online facilities. Besides 4 projectmeetings (managers), one joint staff training event will be organised for the teachers who developed, in order to review the materials, prepare means for evaluation and to prepare for another activity, the short term pupil exchange, where the course will be introduced and part of the topics will be tested, and students will meet each other in joint assignments. The materials will be implemented in the day to day school context, where students (amongst others) will work together in a joint assignments, in order to eventually reach the competences that our project aims for. Methodology: The project will be managed according the Prince2 project management principles. Prince2 is an acronym for 'Projects in Controlled Environments'. All procedures in the Prince 2 methodology aim to control the project and to make it managable and in line with the agreements made, the overall and specific objects, all being executed in the set timeframe. A Project Initiation Document will be created, including a Quality (time, budget, deadlines etc)- and risk assessment plan. We will use 4 different workpackages to control quality of the product. Results, impact and long term benefits: We expect our project to have the following results: - Intensive cooperation and knowledge exchange between students and teachers of different ages, backgrounds and cultures - Increase in self confidence, motivation and managing skills in students (because of the cooperation and teamwork/peer review) - Increased language competences (English) for teachers as a result of the intercultural cooperation and communication - Increased competences with respect to the personal safety on board for our students - Increased competences with respect to the use of standardized English communication for our students - Increased understanding and respect of/for different cultures, fading of European boundaries for students, teachers, others involved and our organisations as a whole - A more internationally orientated focus of all partnerorganisations and an extended and more divers international network - As a result of the intellectual output in the long term: less accidents on and between vessels in the European Inland waterways - Increased employability of all students involved (broadening of network, job perspective and job rotation/job exchange in Europe), due to both the cultural agility/flexibility, as wel as the standardised competences in both use of standard English communication and safety handling on board/between vessels.
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