Erasmus Policy Statement

 

CIFP Aguas Nuevas has supported and fostered its student mobility for work practices within the European Union ever since it was granted its first Erasmus University Charter.

Now that we boast the Erasmus Charter for Higher education 2014-2020, we can offer opportunities for placements and apprenticeships abroad to students and teachers across the range of our vocational courses, under ongoing Erasmus+ KA102 and KA103 programs.

We strongly believe that mobility in Vocational Education and Training enhances the learning experience for our trainees by equipping them with a wide range of skills relevant to the job market requirements. Internships in EU companies offer the best of two unique and mind-opening experiences: workplace-based training, which is sometimes the first professional experience for many of our students together with the mobility factor, since this on-the-job training abroad is also often the first opportunity our students have to live in a foreign country.  

Similarly, staff training abroad has also proven to impact teaching practice in a very positive way, although it is an action that is still at early stages of development in our school.

We select our Erasmus partners via careful consideration of our criteria, and collaborate fully with them to ensure each party is obtaining the fullest benefit from the experience. When choosing partner institutions, our criteria include: finding placements that seek to improve the employment prospects for our trainees; to set up and develop relevant and appropriate apprenticeship training; and to ensure each apprenticeship offers a quality experience, by means of measured and assessed goals. We are always looking to expand the program and are seeking to develop further links in these countries, in the wider EU and further afield with the institutions to which we supply graduates.

Our program currently functions in different countries across the EU, thanks to a net of reliable partners that we’ve managed to create through all these years of experience (over 10 now). We select our students according to equal-opportunity, open and transparent criteria. Then, we prepare our students for work and life abroad by offering language courses aimed at enriching the cultural experience for our students. We monitor and follow-up carefully their internships during and after their stay.

Cooperation between training institutions like ours on the one hand and the business sector on the other, can be highly beneficial for all involved. As a training centre, we are constantly learning from our students’ experiences and take a dynamic approach to our curriculums in order to better prepare them for today’s changing job market. Meanwhile, businesses can get to know the next generation and benefit from their new ideas and fresh approach, as well as having a direct influence on the training of their future workforce.

Internships offer a variety of benefits to the student as an individual: they benefit from the acquisition of technical, social and personal competencies and employability skills, whilst making a significant contribution to the workplace. Each placement helps ease the transition from training to the workplace, and encourages a more effective social and occupational integration into working life and the labour market.

 

At CIFP Aguas Nuevas, we strongly believe that every single one of our students should have access to work experience abroad. For this reason, we know how important it is to ensure that due account is taken of equal opportunities in participation in European pathways. Every student is a potential candidate to Erasmus+ Student Mobility for Practices action (SMP-P) and we support each and every one of our students in their applications.