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Leonardo da Vinci 2007-2009
Youth Reality - International Work Experience in Audiovisual Communication and Youth and Leisure Fields
The target groups of the project are the students in the Youth and Leisure Study Programme and the Audiovisual Communication Study Programme at Haapaveden Opisto. As partners there are 8 institutions from Germany, Sweden, Scotland, Estonia and Lithuania.
The aim of the project is to improve students' ability to work in other European countries and to give them better vocational readiness by working in culturally different settings. Through the exchange project the students will learn to understand their own vocational field (audiovisual communication/youth and leisure work) in partner countries and intercultural aspects in work place communication as well as to improve their intercultural communication skills. The mobility programme will furnish students with background information and experience out with the classroom setting and develop their skills through the sharing of ideas and identification of good practices. The projects also motivates to language learning and gives the student an opportunity to improve his/her English as well as furnishes the student with "survival skills" in one rare language. In the project formal and informal learning will go hand in hand.
The three weeks' exchange is a part of the curriculum. The students can spend, if so agreed, a part of that time in the host institution getting acquainted with their training system and participating the classes. The rest of the time they will spend in local enterprises, organisations, youth centres etc. learning good practices and skills of their own field. The Youth and Leisure students have their work placement in various youth centres, youth organisations and youth premises. The Audiovisual Communication students have their work training period in various audiovisual production environments like video/film/photography studios and laboratories. The exchanges take place mainly in spring 2008 and spring 2009. During the exchange the student has an opportunity to make a skills demonstration in case the work place in question has readiness for it.
In this mobility project the students will - in addition to the work placement - study the Youth Reality in the partner countries. The Youth and Leisure students will, when instructing at various youth centres, meet the young people in their activities, in hobby circles, together with their friends, hanging around in the streets etc. On the other hand, AV communication students will document the youth reality by means of multimedia. The outcome (documentary, exhibition, reports etc.) will be available also for the partner institutions.
Some years ago Haapaveden Opisto has made an International Work Training Handbook with several partners of this project and this handbook will be used also in this mobility project. In the Tulevaisuuden Oppimisympäristöt (Future Learning Environments) Project, Haapaveden Opisto has, together with other institutions on the secondary level in the municipality, made education material for international work place instructors and this material will be used in the project when training the work place instructors. At the same time its suitability will be tested and later it will be moved to the virtual learning environment and also translated into Swedish and German.
Sanna and Lamin in Zschopau in April 2008
