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AMOOVE21 brings students together

text: Marina van Staveren

image: Marina van Staveren

 

 

Amoove21 is an Erasmus+ KA2 project which brings together students and professionals from five Agricultural VET (Vocational Education and Training) colleges in the Netherlands, Finland, Sweden and Norway in the fields of Livestock & dairy farming, Equine & horse management and Animal care.

Learning units

Within Amoove21, agricultural VET students, teachers and professionals are working together and learning from each other. They followed a virtual assignment and an international learning unit. These accredited units have been developed and tested during the project.

The untis form a coherent module which starts in your own classroom. All cooperating students from different schools and countries follow a virtual unit, followed by an actual training at the different VET colleges and local organizations. Students meet other students both online and in real life to learn about the similarities and differences in their field of education and culture.

At Vonk in Alkmaar an equine & horse management unit was developed, as well as an animal care unit. Both units are now integrated in the curriculum.

During the pilot of the equine unit, students in the second year of equine training worked online with Swedish, Norwegian and Finnish equine students. After working on the assignment together, creating movies and giving each other feedback, friendships were build!

The students talked about their education systems, their vision on the labor market and all kinds of other interests they shared. The impact was a lot bigger than just gaining equine skills.

VONK’s  learning unit, was taken by  9 guest students from Norway, Sweden and Finland. The guests and the Dutch students followed theoretical lessons, worked in the stables, took riding lessons, worked at local practical training companies and of course experienced some real Dutch culture during the 2 week course.

Some results:

‘Amoove21 made teachers more aware of how they can share and develop teaching practices, online assignments and share ideas on a European level.

‘Students are enthusiastic about meeting students from other countries and working on assignments together.’

 

 

Lessons learned

Working together on developing lesson units, makes teachers  aware how they can share and develop teaching practices and share ideas on an European level. The teachers could also gain a better understanding of the realities that different countries face when it comes to VET. This will help them support and encourage their students to take part in European mobilities. Teachers upgraded their lesson plans and recognized how transnational collaboration and mobilities support the development of 21st century skills, while at the same time help empower students and find hidden talents.

We found that all students that already took part in the virtual assignments and in the transnational learning units gained many new skills that will make them attractive on the (international) labor market as they have been able to develop their language skills, cultural awareness and problem solving skills. The students are now more independent, flexible and secure when it comes to working in a foreign country and using a foreign language at work.

 

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