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Lernfeld Europa in der Ausbildung für ErzieherInnen IV
Start date: Jun 1, 2014, End date: May 31, 2016 PROJECT  FINISHED 

Target group of this two-year IVT mobility project “LEA IV” (“Lernfeld Europa in der Ausbildung für ErzieherInnen IV” - “European module for nursery nurse trainees IV”) were 40 students, who were currently in the final phase of their qualification towards working with children up to the age of six. They attend the Berufsbildenden Schulen I, a vocational college in Emden, which is situated in the Northwest of Germany close to the Dutch border in a region called Ostfriesland, or East Frisia, which has the reputation of being a somewhat backwater countryside. It follows that the planned project was the first extended stay abroad for many of its participants, most of whom still live with their parents, and played a significant role in their further character development. It also motivated some of the students to consider working in another country for a longer period of time after their qualification. Despite the already mentioned remoteness of the East Frisian region, it is not exempt from transition processes that mean new challenges for those working in early childhood education. An increasing ethnic heterogeneity calls for extensive intercultural skills and a whole new range of abilities, dispositions and strategies to help the children cope with their changing environment. Multicultural and multiligual Day-care centres located in differnt countreis in the EU ( e.g. binational German-Danish border region) provided a unique learning environment for the German students, which cannot be found or replicated in their work places at home, which means that the work placement abroad were able to initiate and facilitate an intercultural process of cognition. It therefore enhanced the job-specific knowledge of the participants which can be integrated in their day-to-day routines in Germany. Students will specifically gain theoretical knowledge of the multilingual situation ( e.g. in the German-Danish border region) as well as of concepts used to deal with cultural heterogeneity, and actively presented modules with the objective of introducing a foreign language to younger children. Participants were subjected to a selection process carried out by a panel consisting of both representatives of their vocational school and their training companies, e.g. the nursery or day care center supervising the practical part of their training. Interpersonal skills were valued higher than the level of theoretical knowledge displayed by the candidates; we wanted our students to be interested and pleasant representatives during their stay abroad, an aspect vital to the success of this project. The “Europahaus Aurich” as the German executing organization has already supervised the previous four projects in terms of contents and organization; in the process, partnerships between EU and German institutions have been established and consolidated. Additionally, the responsible parties have acquired competences in dealing with organizational and factual matters. Responsibilities in supervision of students and logistics have been defined and evenly distributed. Visits of Danish day care centres by German students are reciprocated by the organization of similar visits to Germany by their Danish counterparts. As specialist department for early childhood education in Europe, the Europahaus Aurich offers many study groups and seminars with intercultural subjects, which means that the project “LEA IV” is embedded into continuous processes with regards to contents, personnel and responsible bodies within the organization.
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