The project, Learning Abroad for Young Farmers (“LAYF”, pronounced LIFE), targets graduates from 6TSO/7BSO (from VABI), and students who want to enter the 7BSO specialization year in VABI. With LAYF we want to offer both groups an experience abroad of six weeks in the Netherlands. The main goal is to offer a specialized traineeship to those students who want to attend one extra year of fulltime or part-time training in VABI or PTC+, and who in this way educate themselves further instead of stopping school altogether because they don’t have the capacities or the motivation to start a professional Bachelor. On top of this: increased opportunities on the labor market, the stimulation of entrepreneurship and higher mobility in Europe are important elements for LAYF. The sending organization is the agricultural school VABI from Roeselare. The PTC+ is the receiving organization from the Netherlands. The PTC+ is a specialized training centrum for agricultural courses and will help to search for appropriate internships. With this project we apply for 10 participants. This is their background: - or they attend a specialization year dairy manager in VABI (Belgium, 2 days a week classes and 1 day internship) - or they attend fulltime training of milking machine technician in PTC+ Ede (the Netherlands) interspersed with an internship at a dealer/constructor in the region (Belgium) - or they attend a fulltime training of tractor and machines mechanic in PTC+ Ede (the Netherlands) interspersed with an internship at a dealer/constructor in the region (Belgium) All motivated students will have the opportunity to participate in LAYF, after an extensive conversation. In February-March 2015 there will be an internship for all participants. The week-end prior to the six weeks the students depart. Independency and mobility on the spot are stimulated by sending the participants with their own cars to the Netherlands. The aim is to house the students with the family of the farmer. The traineeship will start the next Monday, either at a specialized dairy farm or at a tractor/(milking)machine dealer. The following are the current activities for the training of dairy manager: milking, feeding, hoof care, inseminating, performing repairs, … For the participants working at a tractor, machine and milking machine dealer, the following activities will be important: maintenance and reparation of (milking) machines and tractors, analyzing and repairing failures, testing/inspecting machines and installations, advising customers, … For all participants the traineeship will be profound and specialized. The focus won’t be the entire time on ‘working’. The cultural exchange is also important. This will definitely already be the case as the participant boards with the family, or during lunch breaks, … but on top of this the cultural aspect will be stimulated with small assignments: e.g. make a Belgian dish for the farmer/dealer… After 6 weeks the participants will return home. VABI will take care of the preparation, the visits and the evaluation. The preparation will mainly consist of a trainee evening for the participants in which former participants are involved, the composition of a representation letter and of course the explanation during the courses. The VABI will visit the participants at least twice during the trainee period. During this visit there will be an extensive evaluation and afterward an extensive report will be made. The experiences will be discussed regularly during the classes. The expected result is an instructive traineeship. The result will be displayed in several ways: through big information signs on the open house of the school, through articles in agricultural magazines and on our website together with pictures, through experiences and pictures of the participants on the social media,… The target audience is the family of the participants, the farmers of the region, the companies of the agricultural sector and the former students of our own or the colleague schools,… In the long term we hope to build up a good relationship with our partner with this project, to offer traineeships for many years to come and to optimize the trainee placements. We would also like to cooperate in other ways, for example letting our pupils attend training in the PTC+ in the Netherlands. This cooperation must grow systematically. We hope LAYF will inspire the lives of our young farmers!