This newsletter provides information about the eBridge 2 VET Mobility project, which aims to facilitate the acquisition of language skills and intercultural competencies for vocational education students. The newsletter discusses the partnership involved, progress made, and expected outcomes of the project. It also summarizes trends in vocational education mobility, challenges students face with language barriers, and relevant EU policies regarding foreign language and intercultural competencies.

1. Supporting the Mobility of
VET Students in Europe
Newsletter 1 - 2013
P. 1
Why eBridge 2 VET Mobility?
Expected products and results
Main purpose
Foreseen impact
P. 2
The partnership
Starting Works
Supported by EU Leonardo da
Vinci Program
P. 3. Article
The origin: eBridge To Mobility
Project (2009-2011)
P. 4. Article
Trends on VET Mobility
P. 5. Article
Foreign Language and Inter-
cultural Competencies in VET
EU Policies
Summary

2. Why eBridge 2 VET Mobility?
Main purpose
According Europe 2020 Strategy, it is fundamental to provide
students with the most suitable tools to understand and to
live in the future labour market and one of the best ways is
by learning on mobility.
But reports about mobility during the vocational training
coincide that the great challenge is learning a foreign
language and intercultural skills.
Students and teachers recognize that they don’t participate
in exchanges because of lacking language knowledge and
cultural problems that would restrain them to understand
the labour environment and common situations in the
everyday life in a foreign country.
The problem of the lack of competences in foreign
languages and of intercultural skills of VET students that is
faced by eBridge 2 VET Mobility is a common problem in
all Europe. European educational policies consider that it
is fundamental to provide students with the most suitable
tools to understand and to live in the future European labour
market.
eBridge 2 VET Mobility Project’s aims are:
• To facilitate to VET students and apprentices the
acquisition of European language competences,
intercultural skills and international openness with a
view to participate in mobility programs.
• To encourage this mobility especially between Spain
and Portugal and new members of the EU: Poland,
Latvia, Czech Republic, and Turkey, in order to diversify
traditional destinations offering a wider possibilities
in countries with languages less used and known in
Europe.
• To promote less frequented countries with less spoken
languages as destinies for this mobility, all with the aim
to widen the students’ opportunities to experience a
mayor linguistic and cultural diversity and the horizons
of international and labour experiences in Europe.
Expected products and results
Foreseen impact
During 24 months, from October 2012 to September 2014,
eBridge 2 VET Mobility will develop and test:
• e-Learning Portuguese, Polish and Latvian, Spanish
language courses especially adapted to needs of VET
students in mobility and additional linguistic supports.
• On line didactical and informative resources about
cultural issues related with everyday life, culture and the
labour environment in Spain, Portugal, Poland, Latvia,
Czech Republic, and Turkey.
• A virtual Community oriented to the intercultural
exchange and social learning, allowing the end users
being active part in the learning by providing, updating
and completing e-learning contents and informative
resources.
Their most prominent feature will be the multilingualism
and accessibility both on line and by specific applications for
mobile devices.
After a pilot exploitation and validation period, they will be
placed at the target’s disposal, both, directly and through
education centers and education administration.
Foreseen impact of the project will be to contribute to
facilitate VET students and apprentices skills related to
European foreign languages, intercultural knowledge and
international dispositions, to increase interest to participate
in mobility programs and in new destinations European or
third countries and to increase the awareness of stakeholders
to facilitate support both during the preparation and
placement of mobilities.
The learning materials on languages and culture proposed
by eBridge 2 VET Mobility will provide a comprehensive on-
line assistance for EU VET students and apprentices dealing
with mobility, that just is considered a solution to overcome
language barriers as well as to develop self-confidence,
adaptability, a sense of responsibility, employability and
intercultural competence.
It will contribute to diversify the actual tendencies of
European Mobility, actually very centered between countries
with similarities in their languages – that is the case of Spain,
Portugal and Italy – or with preference for United Kingdom
due English is the most extended language. In this sense,
eBridge 2 Mobility will stimulate and facilitate mobility
contacts between Iberian countries and new EU Members
and Turkey, enlarging the European dimension of the
Mobility.
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Supporting the Mobility of VET Students in Europe 1 of 5

3. The partnership
Supported by EU Leonardo da
Vinci Program
The partnership is integrated by 7 entities from 6 countries:
• ITURBROK and MESCOMP, 2 companies from Spain and
Poland experts on ICT and e-learning.
• SENECA, ALETHEIA and CENTRU EUROPEU DE LINGUAS,
3 Adult Education centers from Latvia, Czech Republic
and Portugal specialized in language and culture
training and offering services to support mobility of
students and cultural exchanges.
• LANBIDE HEZIKETAREN LAGUNAK (LHL), a Spanish
association oriented to VET improvement and
innovation.
• PROJINAL, a mobility agency from Turkey, also acting as
consultant for educational authorities.
eBridge 2 VET Mobility is a Transfer of Innovation Project
supported by the Leonardo da Vinci Program in the
framework of EU Lifelong Learning European Programme.
Innovation projects have always been at the core of the
Leonardo da Vinci Program. They aim to improve the quality
of training systems through the development and transfer
of innovative policies, contents, methods and procedures
within vocational education and training.
The Leonardo da Vinci Programme funds too other practical
projects in the field of vocational education and training.
Initiatives range from those giving individuals work-related
training abroad to large-scale co-operation efforts.
These include ‘mobility’ initiatives enabling people to train
in another country, co-operation projects to transfer or
develop innovative practices, and networks focusing on
topical themes in the sector.
The people able to benefit from the programme range from
trainees in initial vocational training, to people who have
already graduated, as well as VET professionals and anyone
from organisations active in this field.
Leonardo da Vinci enables organisations in the vocational
education sector to work with partners from across Europe,
exchange best practices, and increase their staff’s expertise.
It should make vocational education more attractive to
young people and, by helping people to gain new skills,
knowledge and qualifications, the programme also boosts
the overall competitiveness of the European labour market.Starting Works
Partners started to work on the 1st October 2012. The first
kickoff meeting was held on Pamplona (Spain), the 15th and
16th November 2012, where the partnership was officially
created and the work plan for the first phase of the project
was agreed.
After, and during the following months, the partners have
been working on the revision of products to be transferred
from eBridge1 project and the development of the concept
of the on line language courses and cultural information
related to Spain, Portugal, Latvia, Poland, Czech Republic
and Turkey. A technical proposal has been prepared too just
to develop the Content Management System (CMS) that will
support the on line delivery of both products.
Partners carried out a research about the needs of language
skills, intercultural knowledge and international disposition
abilities of VET students and young apprentices. A report has
been prepared presenting the main conclusions.
Supporting the Mobility of VET Students in Europe
Newsletter 1 - 2013
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For further information, please visit:
http://ec.europa.eu/education/leonardo-da-vinci/what_
en.htm

4. The origin: eBridge To
Mobility Project
(2009-2011)
E-Bridge to Mobility project addressed the needs that
appeared on the EU’s labour market after accession of
new Member States in 2004 and 2007. The “E-bridge to
mobility” project was intended for EU citizens who want to
be active participants in European mobility either with a
view to accessing better job or educational opportunities,
for personal reasons or simply for their own pleasure. The
project targeted Bulgarian, Romanian, Polish and Slovakian
nationals (source countries), who are planning to visit
England, Germany and Spain for either a short-term or a
long-term stay. A basic didactic objective of the project
was to create tools enabling learning these languages and
facilitating the process of adjustment to reality of everyday
life in these countries.
The most significant project’s products were
educational products: On line e-learning courses in
English,GermanandSpanish andculturalinformation
about culture, labour and daily life; Mobiles
applications containing lexical content (vocabulary
and phrases with audio files to be installed in mobile
phones, Screensavers containing animated screens
connected with the scenarios of lessons, Pictionary, a
glossary in pictures (photos or illustrations), enriched
with audio files presenting pronunciation of words in
a particular language, connected with topics covered
by the language courses; and Basic Law providing
the users with forms and documents needed when
changing the country of residence. And e-community
of people interested in mobility have been developed
and involved in the process of evaluation with some
success.
Specific technological products including a website,
ane-learningplatform,interactiveforms,screensavers
software, an e-mobiles package and WEB 2.0
functionalities have been developed. They consisted
of applications facilitating the learning process with
support of ICT by stationary and portable computers,
the Internet, wireless and mobile facilities, including
mobile phones, different means of electronic
communication, and WEB 2.0. tools.
The high quality of didactical and technological
products developed, the good results of testing
activities with targets and the successful learning
approach applied to language and intercultural issues
have been considered by the actual partnership of
eBridge 2 VET, Mobility as excellence instruments
to be adapted as training resources on foreign
languages and interculturality for VET Students and
young apprentices in Mobility stages.
To know more: http://www.2mobility.eu/
eBridge 2 VET Mobility has been approved as “Tansfer of
Innovation”project to receive the funding of the EU Lifelong
Learning European Program. It said that it is based in the
adaptationandvalorizationoftheresultofapreviousproject,
named “E-Bridge to Mobility”, that was develop between
2009 and 2011. It received too the support of the EU Lifelong
Learning European Programme as a “Development of
Innovation”project. The promoter was the Warsaw Academy
of Computer Science, Management and Administration,
from Poland.
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Newsletter 1 - 2013
Supporting the Mobility of VET Students in Europe

5. Trends on
VET Mobility
Reports about mobility during the vocational training
coincide that the great challenge is learning a foreign
language and intercultural skills. Students and teachers
recognize that they don’t participate in exchanges because
of lacking language knowledge and cultural problems that
would restrain them to understand the labour environment
and common situations in the everyday life in a foreign
country. Spain, followed by Portugal, is the European
country with the fewest VET mobility: less than 3% of VET
students participate in these kinds of programs (Ministery
of Educación 2010) and just 41% of them receive a previous
preparation (WSF 2007). In the case of Portugal, the
corresponding numbers are 4% (Eurostat, 2009) and 43%.
The majority of mobility is addressed to English speaking
or Latin language speaking countries. This indicates that for
diversification, the knowledge of other languages and other
countries should be aided in the vocational training.
The Move-iT study (CINOP, 2006) affirmed that employees
and employers of 33 European countries considered the
acquisitionofmulti-culturalexperiencesandbetterlanguage
competencies as key aspects for the internationalization
of the labour force and the lack of foreign languages and
multicultural skills as serious obstacles in VET mobility. The
study also revealed that Germany, Spain, Italy, Great Britain
and Sweden are preferred destinies, but it has been detected
a growing interest in the new member states of the UE
(Poland and Lithuania) and Turkey.
In Germany, there exists the concept of an international
occupational qualification (Borch et al. 2003), considering
language skills, intercultural knowledge and international
dispositions as basic and key qualifications to permit
mobility in the field of work (Cologne Institute for Economic
Research, 2009).
Green Paper “Promoting the mobility of young people”
(COM(2009)329/3)andtheEurope2020strategy(COM(2010)
296 final) stress that these competencies should be provided
through motivating the mobility during the formation and
that it is important to provide that countries with minority
languages can also be destinies of this mobility. In 2010,
the European Youth Forum (COMEM 0354-10-FINAL) also
recommended the VET education schools to increase the
quality of their education programs with a view to guarantee
that its students acquire these transversal skills.
Finally, it is important to consider that of the benefits of
the modern business world is that it allows participate in
a multicultural working environment. This occurs quite
commonly in the Anglo Saxon world but it has now extended
to Asia and many other parts of the world. Working in a
multicultural environment is hugely important, and allows
grow and develop both on a professional and a personal
basis.
There is no doubt that Europe needs qualified human
resources to “understand” an increasingly diverse internal
marketandtomanagediversitybothinthepublicandprivate
sector, and to encourage much needed internationalization
of the European economy.
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Newsletter 1 - 2013
Supporting the Mobility of VET Students in Europe
Competitive Advantages of
Cultural Diversity in Companies
• More and better ideas.
• Greater problem solving ability.
• A more inclusive working environment.
• An increase in creativity and innovation.
• A greater ability to recruit and keep highly
qualified employees.
• A greater knowledge and understanding of
different markets and consumer preferences.
• An improvement in customer service.
• An improvement in corporate image.
• An improvement in social commitments.

6. Foreign Language and Intercultural
Competencies in VET EU Policies
With regard to appropriate measures to enhance
transnational mobility and competences in existing VET
structures and policies, European governments have defined
a number of concrete short-term objectives for the period
2011-2014 in the Bruges Communiqué:
• To encourage a greater number of VET students and VET
professionals to participate in transnational mobility.
• To encourage local and regional authorities, as well as
VET providers, to develop an internationalisation culture
and strategies, including cross-border mobility;
• To address legal and administrative obstacles related to
the transnational mobility of apprentices and trainees;
• To encourage professional chambers, business
organisations and other relevant organisations to
support the host and sending enterprises in providing
appropriate conditions for apprentices and trainees in
transnational mobility;
• To ensure the provision of language learning and
intercultural competences in VET curricula;
• To make optimal use of other EU tools (e.g. EQF, EQAVET,
Europass) for enhancing the mutual recognition of
qualification and competences.
The lack of language and intercultural competences is the
main reason recognized by European VET students and
teachers for not participating in exchanges and mobility
opportunities.
Just the final report “Future Skills Needs in Micro and Craft(-
type) Enterprises up to 2020 ”, financed by the European
Union and edited by the FBH Cologne (January 2011),
concluded that foreign language competence is therefore
crucial to promoting economic competitiveness and for
personal and social well-being and cohesion.
ItisforthateBridge2toVETMobilityisstrongconnectedwith
the acquisition of these key competencies, due to the fact
that the linguistic and intercultural transversal competencies
are considered basically to guarantee Life Long Learning in
all European education policies and in the European 2020
strategy.
As it is explained in this document, the promotion of multi-
lingualism has therefore been an important aspect of
European education and training policy and nearly half of
EU countries report that foreign languages are part of VET
curricula in their countries. The following two broad trends
were identified in the study:
• Foreign languages are included in VET programs where
these are deemed to be appropriate to the qualification,
for example in such areas as hospitality or tourism.
• At least one foreign language is a compulsory part
of the VET curriculum at some stage, in particular in
smaller countries such as Austria, Belgium, Finland, the
Netherlands as well as most of the new Member States
(Cyprus, the Baltic States, Poland, Slovakia).
Newsletter 1 - 2013
“Future Skills Needs in
Micro and Craft(-type)
Enterprises up to 2020”
Supporting the Mobility of VET Students in Europe 5 of 5

7. This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This Website reflects the views only of the authors,
and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained there in.
ITURBROK S.L.
(Spain)
Spāņu Kultūras Centrs Séneca
(Latvia)
LHL / Lanbide Heziketaren Lagunak
(Spain)
ALETHEIA s.r.o.
(Czech Republic)
MESCOMP S.A
(Poland)
Centro Europeu de Línguas
(Portugal)
Projinal Education Consultancy
(Turkey)
www.ebridge2.eu
eBridge2 VET Mobility Partners