With the intention of finding synergies and mutual learning opportunities between general and vocational school mobility programmes, EFIL became a partner of “MobiliTeach” – a 2-year project (November 2017 – October 2019), with the Erasmus+ Strategic Partnerships funding. The project is coordinated by UNISER Italy, involves partners from 7 countries (Belgium, Italy, France, Germany, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain), with EFIL being the only partner from outside the Vocational Education and Training (VET) sector.
The main aim of the project is to jointly develop a format, methodology and brand for an international Summer School addressing teachers of VET schools and staff of Mobility Coordinating Organisations from all over Europe interested in improving their competences on how to plan and manage student mobility programmes. 
The “work-based learning”, which is required in the VET sector, can also be combined with international mobility: apprenticeships abroad are an increasingly popular step in the vocational education. EFIL’s main contribution to the consortium naturally relates to the know-how on intercultural preparation and support in such programmes.
The first pilot edition of the Summer School took place in Bologna, Italy, 25-29 June 2018. A group of nearly 20 teachers and mobility coordinators from VET schools enjoyed a programme addressing different aspects of international mobility, from practicalities to educational set-up and content. 
The methodology used during the event was based on experiential learning and active involvement of the participants. It included a combination of indoor activities, mainly oriented towards promoting peer learning among the attendants and simulations of real life situations, and outdoor activities where experiential learning is addressed through immersion into the local culture from a personal and professional point of view. Among this year’s participants two teachers came recruited through AFS (Italy and Spain), while two of the trainers came in with the EFIL/AFS expertise (from AFS Italy and EFIL).
The first pilot edition was an opportunity to try out the format and gather valuable feedback from participants, in order to make the event even better for the upcoming editions. The Summer School format will be piloted once more within the project (in France in the summer 2019) and also next year the plan is to involve several participants and trainers through AFS.
In the future it is hoped that MobiliTeach will become a permanent feature on the European training calendar, potentially to be used by the VET teachers and schools AFS partners with.
For more information: https://mobiliteach.net/ and izabela.jurczik-arnold@afs.org