The beginning of October brought all 5 SEPLO project partners together for our fourth transnational meeting in the Netherlands, hosted by our Dutch partners, Katrine and Barbara, from Euricon, in the Southern city of Maastricht.
Maastricht is known as the birthplace of the European Union through the Maastricht Treaty, which meant that it was particularly appreciated by our diverse European group.
The meeting gave us an opportunity to catch up with partners, and share some of the highlights of our work since we last met in Denmark, for the SEPLO project funded by Erasmus+. We facilitated 2 project workshops to look at proposals for developing our project resources for College tutors, vocational learners and hosting organisation.
Our project objectives are to simplify the processes for understanding and engaging with ECVET, and evidencing learning whilst on placement. Over the next six month we will be developing tools to support this process for different stakeholders, which we will be piloting in the New Year.
We were honoured to have Franz Van Schaik, International Coordinator at Horizon College as an external speaker at our meeting. Franz travelled from the north of the country, to give an inspiring presentation about his experience of internationalisation within his College. Horizon College is part of a national consortium of schools, offering opportunities across a range of vocational areas. Franz spoke about the EMEU project, ‘Engineering mobility for all’, through which he is partnered with a number of Colleges across Europe to provide face to face and online mobility opportunities to learners.
The perfect way to end the second evening was with a guided city tour, exploring the history of the many squares and monasteries that give Maastricht its fame as a thriving cultural destination. The oldest city of the Netherlands was captured in autumn colours. Our humorous guide was able to explain its extraordinary transition from a Roman settlement, to a Medieval religious centre and then on to an industrial hotspot.
We would all like to thank Franz for sharing his insight into internationalisation with us and especially Katrine and Barbara for their highly praised hospitality!