A fulfilling career is full of opportunities to learn new skills and broaden horizons. A job shadow placement is one of these.
A job shadow placement is an opportunity for an individual to learn new skills and broaden their career horizons. Working alongside their peers in a similar field in another European country, our job shadow placements facilitate both personal and professional growth. Returning with newfound knowledge and ideas, brand new contacts and a broader understanding of the European jobs market, individuals that have completed job shadow placements abroad are uniquely equipped to enhance their own organisation’s course design and delivery.
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‘As a department we are continually looking for improvements and as T levels are introduced with a much greater level of vocational placement it is a chance to explore ideas that have been tried and tested and see what might work for us and our students. Personally, I have worked for 22 years in education in London without any experience of how other culture’s education systems work. It would be fascinating to see how other systems work and develop their students’.
Job shadow opportunities for vocational staff
This year, we are piloting 9 job shadow placements for teaching staff working in Health and Social Care. We will be sending and hosting teachers from the UK, Portugal and France.
The placements are an opportunity for staff to collaborate, share good practice, and learn about different approaches to curriculum development and delivery, contributing to their continuous professional development.
The objectives of the placements are:
- Gain a broader perspective on the development and delivery of vocational courses
- Increase staff capacity to operate at European level and build relationships with peers
- Gain a wider understanding of the European labour market
- Support staff to better understand the realities of work placements abroad and the importance of working collaboratively to design specific course learning outcomes (in the context of the ECVET framework)
How will it work?
Participants spend time within the hosting educational institute, collaborating with staff and observing course delivery. Placements feature visits to local employers,
Throughout the placement, participants will get the opportunity to:
- Visit local employers to consider if course delivery responds to their needs.
- Share assessment and validation of learning approaches used in overseas work placements.
- Learn about the working practices of host organisations.
- Compare practical approaches to course delivery and share best practice.
Our first placements were hosted in Marseilles in December 2019. We are looking forward to hosting teachers from France and Portugal with our College partners in the UK in March 2020.
Nathalie, a lecturer at in Health & Social Care at South Gloucestershire and Stroud College, shares her experience here.
To learn more about our work to date or explore opportunities to partner with us, please get in touch.
Tutor insight
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“Students trained at a local Spanish academy and learned different ways to play and understand football. The Spanish style is far more technical than the English style of play so the knowledge complemented the group’s skills set. The group spent time on both the pitch and in the classroom, and developed their teamwork and communication skills whilst becoming much closer friends.”
