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Higher education student and staff mobility project
Start date: Jun 1, 2014, End date: May 31, 2016 PROJECT  FINISHED 

Higher Vocational College B&B provides programmes in the area of logistics, economy and business administration. Theoretical knowledge in this areas changes very quickly. By setting forth the strategy, we wish to modernise and upgrade the business model of the educational institution. International activities play an important role at that as they contribute to acquiring new knowledge and experiences. By doing so, it is easier to follow trends and pass current knowledge on to the students. A lot of effort is put in to passing on the international component to all participles: 1. A student has the centre place at the Higher Vocational College B&B. We are trying to make the study interesting and interdisciplinary. Our goal is that the students acquire current knowledge, which they can use at their workplace. Employability and employment are key factors on which we rely on, and internationalisation of the study plays an important role at that. As a school, we enable students the option of mobility and thus expand their possibilities for acquiring knowledge abroad. In the period 2014-2016, the national agency approved two mobilities (1 for the study and 1 for practical training). We followed the goal of bringing mobility close to the students. We prepared an internal tender, first for the purpose of the study and practical training. It was later shown most of the students are interested in practical training abroad and according to that further activities were executed. We searched for partner institutions that can assist students in finding an appropriate organisation for performing practical training abroad. We have put a lot of attention in the animation of students and promotion of the tender. At the beginning of academic year, we prepared an introductory event “Acquiring new knowledge by studying/performing practical training abroad”. The tender was published on the web page of the school and the noticeboard. We invited students to mobility by sending a motivational email two times per academic year. Despite great efforts, the mobility was unfortunately not realised. The main issue is in the structure of our students; most of them are older and employed. Those were also the main reasons that listed by the students. 2. By setting forth the strategy, the employees were additionally motivated to make progress in the area of internationalising the school. The approved Erasmus+ grant offered additional encouragement. First, we focused on training and gaining new competences since the employees had no experience in this area. Thus, four mobilities were realised in the period of 2014-2016. As the head of the project, the Erasmus coordinator attended two mobilities. To be active on an international level proficient communication in a foreign language is necessary. Therefore, the coordinator attended language training abroad. The focus of our further activities was on finding partner institutions for signing the cooperation agreement. Attending Staff week under the patronage of the Corvinus University of Budapest was seen as a good opportunity for networking. The purpose of the event was to exchange good practices in the area of international cooperation with the other attendees. However, the focus of our communication was wider, and we signed an interinstitutional cooperation agreement with Harran University from Turkey and our partner Higher Educational Institution for Sustainable Development. We attended the training INNOVATIVE PHE: NEW TRENDS FOR THE FUTURE organised by the European Association of Institutions in Higher Education EURASHE. The topic of the workshop was the exchange of opinions on the current situation in professional higher education and the upcoming trends. Our representative established contact with some of the participants. We signed the letter of intent for cooperation with the Innovator’s Club Foundation. The focus of our cooperation is finding innovative methods for encouraging students to prepare projects that contribute to the development of local community. 3. The first time we invited our lecturers to mobility was in September 2014 during the andragogic assembly, where we presented internal tender for the possibility of giving lectures abroad. Later we also invited them by sending an email. A few external lecturers showed interest; however, we did not receive any official application. We will continue with the execution of promotional activities and encourage all those involved to take the opportunity for mobility. Since our school is a little specific in this area, it requires a different approach. In the two years of working on the project, we have gained an immense amount of knowledge; however, we are still facing many challenges. The management of the school is aware of the importance of international activities for a competitive development of the educational institution; therefore, they actively cooperate and support all the activities.

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