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Energieeffizienz im Betrieb
Start date: Jun 1, 2015, End date: May 31, 2016 PROJECT  FINISHED 

The background of this project is, firstly, the increasing demand of international industrial companies for highly-qualified specialists who not only have excellent English language skills but also intercultural competence. The Technical College for Mechanical Engineering in Mindelheim seeks to fulfil this demand by offering students an education which will enable them to gain these skills. Secondly, global energy and climate problems make the participation in this project even more important. Energy issues are in focus all over the world and there is an enormous potential for saving energy. Our technicians will definitely be involved with energy efficiency measures and will have contact to foreign suppliers or customers in and outside their home country in the course of their future careers. This is why it is so important to enable our students, through this mobility project, to gain experience of finding new solutions through the exchange of knowledge and the development of their problem-solving skills with people from other countries. By staying in a foreign country with a different culture the pupils did not only get practical work experience but were also confronted with technical problems in a foreign language. In addition, they had the chance to improve and consolidate their foreign language skills (listening, reading, speaking and writing). Furthermore, staying in another country for a while increased their intercultural awareness and encouraged them to communicate with people who speak a different language and have a different culture from their own. Within the scope of the project the attention of the pupils was drawn to the challenges which can occur when carrying out a (professional) project in which there are participants from other countries or when taking part in a project in another country. At the same time, their (energy) technical knowledge was consolidated and they learned how to find and present energy efficiency solutions and measures. Additionally, the participants from both sides became more conscious of energy issues which strengthened their feelings of responsibility for our common environment. In this way, permanent partnerships for future projects were cemented, the results were passed on to third parties and others will be encouraged to do the same. The project participants have all completed a certified vocational training as well as at least one year of practical work experience. The Technical College offers its pupils a diverse vocational education which includes professional training (general education subjects and specialist subjects) as well as the chance to gain key qualifications. All the participants also acquire the training supervisor certificate as part of their technical training at the school. For this, they were required to take part in a 40-hour energy efficiency course certified by the German Chamber of Commerce for which they had to pass a final exam. At first, the participants did a week’s intensive course in English in the partner country. This course also provided them with the necessary technical terms. Furthermore, they already had the chance to get to know the location in which they were working and their contact person. In the second week small mixed groups of students worked on energy-efficient measures at and with our partners. This included the complete chain of action of an energy consultation from the identifying the problem, carrying out measures to evaluating the results, calculating energy efficiency measures and the presentation of the results. The target was to create and present a catalogue of energy efficiency measures. Back in Mindelheim, the findings collected during the project were also dealt with in lessons at school and addressed further, by means of various media, schools as well as various other multipliers. The course contents will also be part of the school lessons of the partner organisation and any energy efficiency measurements which have been proved to be viable are planned to be put into practice. On the whole, the Mindelheim group played a leading role as energy consultants apart from passing on the knowledge they had attained during their energy efficiency course to the pupils of their partner facility. The British partner made a considerable contribution to the successful carrying out of energy efficiency measures through the German group’s language preparation.

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