Mobility in Romania

ERASMUS+, Action KA1
“Skills for life” – 2017-1-ROO1-KA219-037205
The Coordinating Institution:
„Nicolae Balcescu” Theoretical Highschool, Medgidia
Between 12th and 16th of March, 2018, „Nicolae Balcescu” Theoretical Highschool in Medgidia, Romania, hosted the first mobility of the „Erasmus+: Skills for Life” project.
12th of March
The first day was marked by numerous activities. The students got to meet each other through ice-breaking activities at the start of the day, a good way of developing their social and communication skills. They also got to present their highschools and their specific education
methods in front of all their foreign soon-to-be friends; this proved to be a great exercise for testing and improving presentation-related skills, especially speaking in front of a completely new auditorium. The day ended with a visit to a nearby city, where students found their way out of an escape room. While it seems this only served a fun purpose, the true aims of this activity were developing social skills and teamwork spirit, which are crucial qualities for a future work life.
13th of March
The second day started with a workshop regarding internet safety rules. Internet surfing precaution is an important aspect that all young people should be aware of, technology being an important part of their lives. After that, students attended a job shadowing session at a local cement factory, which broaded their knowledge spectrum by presenting a possible job opportunity for the future. The day ended with all the participants creating a professional profile (CV), a crucial part of being employable to any company.
14th of March
The day started off with a test regarding participants’ digital skills through an ECDL exam simulation. This particular set of skills is more and more demanded as the years pass – we are certainly talking about „skills for life”. That being said, gaining and testing digital knowledge is one of the main purposes of the project, and activities like this one will not cease to appear thorough it. Arguably the most important part of the day, however, came in the afternoon, when all the students participated in a job interview simulation, armed with their CVs and the knowledge they previously gained. There’s not much to say as to why this kind of activity is important, since job interviews are the core part of getting to work into a company.
15th of March
During the fourth day, the students attended another job shadowing session, showing another opportunity for a possible way of shaping up their careers. This time, the Romanian hosts took them to an atomic power plant in a town nearby, providing an insight of what it’s like to work in an environment often known as „dangerous” or „unsafe” – belief which got disbanded rather quickly.
16th of March
The last day of the project was marked by a trip to Bucharest. While it was more relaxed due to obvious reasons, it still provided an overview over yet another field of work – the political one. That is because the participants got to visit the Palace Of Parliament and while it was mostly a touristical overview, everyone got to interact with some „insiders”, gaining their thoughts about what it’s like to work in the domain.

Mobility in Germany

The Coordinating Institution:
- Parler-Gymnasium Schwäbisch Gmünd
Between 14th and 18th of May, 2018, Parler-Gymnasium Highschool in Schwäbisch Gmünd, Germany, hosted the second mobility of the Erasmus+: ”Skills for Life” project.
14th of May
The first day was marked by numerous activities. The students got to meet each other through ice-breaking activities at the start of the day, a good way of developing their social and communication skills. The students learned something about debate and how to support their argumets with reasons and examples, skills teached by two students who were in the national team of debate.
The german students presented us their highschool and told us more about their educational system. Afterwards, all the participants were diveded in three groups and a local guide showed us the hystorical sides of Schwäbisch Gmünd. This proved to be a great history lesson because we heard to a lot of interesting information.
15th of May
The second day started with a workshop regarding “How to apply – Dos and Don’ts” at a job interview. It was one of the most useful workshops because the students have to how to behave in a future job interview. The day ended with all the participants at a job interview simulation, in the school, where two experts from the recruitment team of Bosch Company simulated an inteview with one student from each country. The workshops provided us some real knowledge and information about how to act at a future employment interview, since job interviews are the core part of getting to work into a company.
16th of May
On Wednesday all the delegations departed to Stuttgart. The visit started with a complex tour at The Porsche Museum, which proved to be more interesting than we expected because we found out more about the car construction and history. Then, we arrived in the city center where we had a little tour including the visit of The State Gallery of Stuttgart, which improved considerably our knowledge about global art in all of the historical periods. The day ended with a traditional dinner at a restaurant, where our taste buds were totally delected. While it seems this only served a fun purpose, the true aims of this activity were developing social skills, which is a crucial quality for a future work life.
17th of May
During the fourth day, the students attended the EULE Company, where their practical skills were improved by learning how to assemble a mini car with a little engine, a battery and pieces of wood. Afterwards, the students took part at some coding workshops including using an Arduino Board, a Calliope system and how to programme a Lego Mind robot. All of the following workshops helped the students to get into the growing technology world.
18th of May
The last day of the project was marked by a trip to a mine in Aalen. While it was more relaxed due to obvious reasons, it still provided an overview over yet another field of work – the mining one. That is because the participants got to visit the mine and while it was mostly a touristical overview, everyone found out about the history of mining in Germany.

Mobility in France

Between the 26th and the 30th of November, 2018, „ Leonard de Vinci” in Soissons, France, hosted the 3rd mobility of the „Erasmus+: Skills for Life” project.
26th of November
The first day was marked by numerous activities. The students were intoduced to each other through ice-breaking activities at the start of the day, a good way of developing their social and communication skills. They also got to present their highschools and their specific education
methods in front of all their foreign soon-to-be friends; this proved to be a great exercise for testing and improving presentation-related skills, especially speaking in front of a completely new auditorium. The day ended with a visit to the town hall, where students had the opportunity to talk with 4 women who represented the local council. They discovered the necessary skills in order to manage a town.
27th of November
The second day started with a visit at Velux factory, in Nomandy. Students talked to the workers and to the CEO and understood how important team work is in order to reach success. The day ended with a visit to a city on the shore of the Great Ocean.
28th of November
The day started with a visit to a coffee shop wich was also a theatre. Students met an actor who taught them how to deal with their emotions in front of an audience. They learned the art of improvisation and the beauty of teamwork. Students had a lot of fun when they showed their hidden talents to everyone. The day ended with a golf session. The golf team of “Leonard de Vinci” highschool were the coaches and they made a great job teaching the foreign students, but also the teachers.
29th of November
During the fourth day, the students attended an uberisation game, that gave them the opportunity to become an uber driver for an hour. They learnt how to work efficiently and how to get a bigger income. Students had to make presentations about the pros and cons of uberisation, and how it will change the economy.
In the end, they visited the Arsenal Museum of Soissons, where they discovered contemporary art.
30th of November
The last day of the project was marked by a trip to Paris. While it was more relaxed due to obvious reasons, it still provided an overview over yet another field of work – the political one. That is because the participants visited the National Assembly and while it was mostly a tourist overview, everyone interacted with some „insiders”, finding out their thoughts about what it’s like to work in the domain.

Mobility in Poland

Between the 24th and the 29th of March, 2019, ZespolSzkol w Chelmzy, Poland, hosted the 4th mobility of the “Skills for Life” project, within Erasmus + programme.
The 24th of March
The first day was marked by the Romanian, German and French students’ arrival. After a short rest, at the end of the day they attended a fruit carving tutorial (‘The art of carving’).
There were made a lot of pieces of art and the best part of this workshop was the fact that all of us had a great fun! The rest of the day was offered to the students to recover from the long travel to Poland.
The 25th of March
The second day was filled with a lot of activities. The students were welcomed at school. The ice-breaking exercises represented a great chance to make friends and know each other. They also develop their social and communication abilities and improve their language skills.
After the ice-breaking activities, the students participated in a workshop about legorobots. It was very interesting because the students had to form international groups and they had to build their own robots. In the end, the ‘ well trained machines’ had to fight and compete for the first place in that little tournament.
The end of the day was marked by a party at Cuma Club (Disco time). All of us had a lot of fun and we became friends with the German, Polish and French students.
26th of March
This day the students had the chance to visitToruń. It was an intercultural exchange and it showed them the architectural beauty of Poland’s cities. The first workshop was about a tour in an invisible house for the sighted and blind (‘how to be a leader in a team?’). It was a unique and short sightseeing walk. Also, this day we had to complete a career kite.
7th of March
On this day the workshops were carried out at the High School and at the sports hall in Chelmza. The first activity was dedicated toMaths competences (“PI-lessons”). In groups, the students had to calculate the value of the PI number making use of three experimental methods. After that, the students went to a volley-ball match, were they learned what teamwork and leadership mean. The end of the day was marked by free time.
28th of March
This great day was dedicated to an intercultural exchange in Gdansk. There, the students visited The European Solidarity Centre: The heritage ideas and notion of solidarity to future generation & Unity with respect to diversity. On this occasion , students were taught a non-formal and valuable history lesson. After that, they had a walk through Gdansk’s: Old Town and Downtown, Gdansk Crane, The Old Port and the Motlava River and Artus Court. It was an amazing promenade and the views were wonderful. At the end of the day, the students had a Farewell dinner.
29th of March
The last day of this project was marked by a city game:“Meet historical Chełmża – key competences of the leadership”. The sadness appeared when we had to say goodnight for the last time.
This mobility in Poland represented a was a great chance to know and learn about the Polish culture. I think all the students will miss this wonderful journey.