Faro, march of 2022

More than two years after the transnational meeting that brought them together in Barcelona, Spain, all the partner schools met in Faro, Portugal, for this third transnational meeting of the NEAR in Europe project. The host organization, the Instituto do Emprego e Formaçao Profissional de Faro, represented by Marco Malanho, Ana Sofia Delgado, Ana Margarida Gonçalves and Patricia Guerreiro, was the site of an enthusiastic and emotional reunion and of a warm welcome to the new participants who had joined the project over the last two years of chaos and change.

Let us have a quick reminder of the project participants present at this meeting: the coordinators of the GIP-FTLV and the CFA de l’Education nationale de Bourgogne, Liliane Garreau, Sylvie Charreau, Nadia Khadir, Fadela Choual and Dominic Michelin; l’Instituto do Emprego e Formaçao Profissional de Faro; M&M Profuture Training from Cornella de Llobregat, represented by Mónica Moreno; the PIKC Liepajas Muzikas School of Art, makslas un dizaina vidusskola, represented by Inga Auziņa, Dace Rozenbaha, Sintija Kurvina and Evalds Vanags; the Accitania Public School of Languages, the ACCI Secondary School and the Guadix Art School, represented by Cécile Darracq, Carmen Real Martínez, Carmen Guerrero Fernández, Isaac Expósito Fernández, Andrés Navarro Garulo and Alejandro Brox Berrugilla.

The soft skills

The GIP-FTLV of Bourgogne and M&M Profuture Training prepared in advance and presented in the first workshop a dozen activities putting into practice the soft skills selected for the project, which were each reviewed by all the participants, commented on, modified etc. Each organization committed itself to carry out with their students two activities selected from this list and also to record and share them with all the partners.

In the second part of the workshop, an activity called "Look for your family" was spontaneously tried out by the whole group, creating a moment of sharing, laughter and analysis of emotions, much appreciated by everyone. Unanimously, it was decided that each organization would also carry out this activity, adaptable to all kinds of public and various themes, in order to exchange impressions on the feelings experienced.

A publishable soft skills guide was shared by M&M Profuture Training, as well as a link to a Padlet to exchange and disseminate the videos created by the Accitania Public School of Languages. It is worth noting the large amount of extremely useful material created thanks to this project.

The mobilities

A substantial amount of time was dedicated to the resumption of the organization of the apprentices’ mobilities for their internships in the different European countries involved in the NEAR in Europe project. The difficulties arising from the pandemic and the travel restrictions in certain countries over the last two years did not discourage the project partners, who were firmly determined to carry out the mission of opening up Europe to young apprentices.

The end date of the project being August 2022, the organization of the last two transnational meetings and the apprentice mobilities as yet not carried out were, understandably, at the top of the agenda. The health situation, along with the tense international geopolitical context of the war in Ukraine, will require the project actors to adapt to the circumstances, but everyone left the meeting in hopeful anticipation of the next get-together.