Student Working Exchange Programme

EDUCATION AND TRAINING 2010
DIVERSE SYSTEMS, SHARED GOALS


''Ministers of education agreed on three major goals to be achieved by 2010 for the benefit of the citizens and the EU as a whole:

to improve the quality and effectiveness of EU education and training systems;
to ensure that they are accessible to all;
to open up education and training to the wider world.''

-strengthening links to the working world.
-broadens one's perspective on the working world.
-encorporating business initiatives into school subjects.


European Union portal.


Thousands of students every year travel abroad on vacation. What if we were to provide them with a longer vacation period and simultaneously,encorporate the material taught in schools into the culture of a foreign country and vice versa?
What if we based social cohesion on the experience students gained through living and working abroad? What if we combined Tourism, Education and Working Experience?


We propose the creation of a student educational working exchange programme which could achieve social cohesion through:

learning a foreign language in the host country,

living with a family in a foreign country,

actively participating in the customs and traditions of a host country,

gaining working experience as an educational tool.


According to our opinion, the standards that make a student eligible to enter the programme are as follows:

1. A minimum of 15/20 according to the Greek high school grading system.

2. A thorough knowledge of one of the following languages:

-English
-French
-German

3. The student should take part in an after school activity or a certain club at school. The participation in social work or community service would be appreciated as a benefit for not only the community that the student lives in, but for also been accepted into the programme.

4. Other characterisitics or interests provided on the CV should be considered, objectively.

These are the three basic elements that a student should acquire in order to be accepted into the programme.

The standards that the families should have in order for students to be able to live with them should match those of the European Union and programmes such as Erasmus, Comenius etc...

The standards of the businesses that the students will work at should be as follows:

1. Friendly working atmosphere and environment.

2. Certified officially of the European Union (In this case, the European Union should create an open call of proposals in order to select the businesses which wouldn't exploit the students)and universities.

3.Provide equal working conditions. All students working for a certain business have the right to be treated equally by their officials.

4. All of the above standards apply to part-time working posts/courses.


The entire action plan should be accompanied by certain tourist packages which will allow the parents of the students to visit their children and meet the family and the business that they are living with and working in.

At the end of the programme, the student should have acquired basic knowledge of the language of the host country, the local culture, customs and traditions, work experience, a certain sense of responsability and individuality as well as life skills, which will be useful to him/her in the future, an augmented self- confidence and self-esteem level, a more mature perspective of foreign countries, cultural diversity, gaining an understanding of the differences between countries. In addition, the student will be able to interact with others and integrate their knowledge and personal views into certain cultural aspects of their host country, resulting in an ameliorated comprehension of the intentions of the locals.

Cordially,

Dimitris Pappas and Samantha Mckenzie Olszewski