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International Trade
Start date: Jun 1, 2015, End date: May 31, 2017 PROJECT  FINISHED 

In Germany apprentices are eligible to be trained in order to get the skills required for a career in the envisioned business or trade. This implies English language proficiency on the job. Especially industrial companies, logistics firms and companies in the whole sale trade need employees with these skills. Companies and employers need that type of personell functioning effectively in a cross-cultural environment. Our vocational school (bsnu) cannot transfer those skills completely as the curriculum only provides 45 minutes per week to train our students in English language and cross-cultural skills. According to academic studies a native speaker of English can teach students, who learn English as a foreign language, more efficiently than an indigenous teacher. This course aims at improving our students’ professional competency as well as British culture and doing business in the United Kingdom. The course is designed for 24 participants who are trained within the “dual system” of vocational training in Germany. We will only take apprentices who attend our school and work in companies which provide business orientated training in professions like industrial clerks, logistics clerks or wholesale clerks. Sometimes we have applicants from the retail trade or students who are trained in managing warehouses. Students at our school have an intermediate level of education or A-levels. Applying for our Erasmus+ project does not require A-levels. We recommend applying for participating in an Erasmus+ project of our school in the first or second year of their training because going to London in their final year may distract some students from preparing well for their exams carried out by the chamber of commerce and industry. A group of bsnu teachers and Sarah Iles from ECBM design a concept and the procedures of the new Erasmus+ project. We inform our students by handing out flyers and putting information about the project on the bsnu website. Our teachers inform their students about our planned project. We will send letters to companies which have taken apprentices to provide information about the project. When apprentices apply for participating in our project they must provide a written statement of their company showing they agree that their apprentice will be away in London for three weeks. After evaluating the application forms we will choose the participants. If a company indicates their apprentices require English and cross-cultural skills on the job in an extensive manner, those applicants will be put on a priority list. The advices and recommendations of the remaining companies and of bsnu teachers, who teach the applicants, will also be considered when choosing participants. In future we will not provide any English language courses for the participants. They can use online courses to improve their English proficiency. However, we will go on providing cross-cultural training and a specific training for the ECBM course in London. We will only send one group of students to London. According to our plans this will be in May/June 2015. Ms Yu Fengyan and Mr Albrecht Hofmann will accompany the group when travelling to London. They will stay with the group in London for three weeks and will join the group on their journey back to Germany. The accompanying persons will monitor the group and their learning achievements. Ms Sarah Iles and the ECBM lecturers will be in charge of the teaching and motivation of the group while they are trained in London. After three weeks in London the participants can show in a presentation and in a written exam what they will have learned. After returning from London to Germany, the participants will have to write an executive summary in English (1000 words) about the topic which they presented as a PowerPoint presentation at ECBM. Our school will collect the participants’ documents and pass them on to ECBM in London. Desired results: better qualified staff English proficiency Improved business skills international experience self confidence, self esteem, adjusting to a new environment and a foreign culture cross-cultural competences new working methods and techniques Impact and sustainable benefits: improved communication skills with customers using English improved career opportunities and opportunities for personal development self confident and satisfied apprentices and future staff more efficient, more profitable and more competitive companies strengthen the economic region of Ulm and Neu-Ulm more attractive vocational training opportunities in the Ulm/Neu-Ulm area preventing a shortage of skilled professionals improved career opportunities and opportunities for personal development self confident and satisfied apprentices and future staff more efficient, more profitable and more competitive companies strengthen the business region of Ulm and Neu-Ulm more attractive vocational training opportunities in the Ulm/Neu-Ulm area preventing a shortage of skilled professionals
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