Erasmus Policy Statement 2021-2027 

The secondary education School "Príncipe de Asturias" in Lorca (Murcia), is a public school under the Ministry of Education and Culture of the Autonomous Community of the Region of Murcia, which provides official education.

 Our institution is located in an area of the city of Lorca whose socio-cultural and economic level is slightly below the average of the rest of the city. One of the levels of studies taught in our centre is Higher Level Vocational Training in the speciality of International Trade. A part of these studies is developed by doing internships in companies during three months. 

 With our participation in the Erasmus Programme we aim to increase the internationalisation of our centre to make it more attractive, as well as to encourage our young people to take part in their studies and professional practices in other EU countries. In this way, we want to encourage the desire of students to continue their studies abroad or seek employment in other countries. This will increase their opportunities to learn a European language other than their mother tongue as well as their chances of finding the job they are looking for.

 For several years our school has been participating in programmes and actions that promote European citizenship among our students. We have a bilingual section in English in Secondary Education and Baccalaureate, through which the students receive some subjects in that language and exchanges are made with other schools of the same characteristics abroad. These exchanges are carried out through KEY ACTION 2: "Cooperation among organisations and institutions. In addition, our centre has participated in the KEY ACTION 3: "Support to policy development and cooperation

 Since the award of our first Erasmus letter 2007-13, our students are doing exchanges in which they have the opportunity of a work experience abroad perfecting their knowledge of English and getting to know cultures and ways of life.

 Participation in the various European programmes in both secondary and vocational education and training has contributed to the modernisation of our institution and to the construction of a European Area, both in secondary and higher education.

 The main objectives of our Erasmus policy

• To strengthen the European identity, introducing our institution in the internationalization and modernization strategy   of the European Union.
• To complement the training of our students with stays in companies in European Union countries.
• To promote and support student and staff mobility, especially for people with fewer opportunities.
• Guarantee a fair and transparent selection system to ensure equal opportunities for participants from disadvantaged backgrounds.
• To learn about the different curricula and to establish collaboration agreements with centres that provide vocational training in the European Union.
• To recognize the mobilities carried out automatically through ECTS.
• To ensure the quality of the mobilities both for student and staff placements.
• To implement the priorities of the programme ( European Student Card, Care for the Environment and Civic Responsibility)
• To inform the educational community about the results of the mobilities to improve the good functioning of our centre.

 Participation in the Erasmus programme contributes to:

• Improving the quality and attractiveness of vocational training among students and companies.
• Increase their language skills by attending language courses.
• Help to promote creativity, competitiveness, employability, the promotion of entrepreneurship and lifelong learning.
• To promote language learning and the culture of the countries of the European Union.
• To learn about the labour market in European Union countries.
• To promote the attractiveness of the European area of Higher Education.

To facilitate the approach and integration of Europe to the students (through priority initiatives of the programme, such as the European Student Card, Care for the Environment and Civic Responsibility)

Actions you would like to take part in and explain. 

• In the field of Education and Training, it is Key Action 1 (KA1) that is fundamentally in line with the achievement of our objectives. We believe that in order to improve the vocational training system it is important that both students and teachers know how to act in other countries around us, observing and learning from the different forms of organization and development of work both in companies and in training centers of our same level and specialties
• Within the activity "KEY ACTION 1" Learning Mobility", the students will carry out the internship in companies in countries of the European Union related to the sector of the higher education cycle of international trade. The duration of these internships will be three months, equivalent to their period of work experience in companies in Spain .
• We will also carry out mobility of teachers and staff of the center to meet vocational training centers in other European countries, mainly through observation (job shadowing)
• We could also participate in Projects with European Vocational Training centres.
• We are interested in participating in actions framed in Key Action 2 (KA2) through Alliances for Knowledge, for the promotion of the entrepreneurial spirit in higher education students.
• Also within the activity "KEY ACTION 2 "Cooperation among organisations and institutions", we will participate in cooperation and exchange projects with secondary education students.
• Finally, within the activity "KEY ACTION 3": Support to Policy development and cooperation", our school will continue cooperating with other European schools to carry out this activity.

 All three activities contribute to achieving all the objectives of our Erasmus policy.

Impacto que supondrá la participación en el programa Erasmus.

The impact that participation in the Erasmus+ programme will have on our school will be an overall increase in European knowledge, which translates into students and staff identifying with a European identity.

Through the different actions of the Erasmus+ programme (KA1, KA2 and KA3), both secondary school students, higher education students and staff will acquire social, educational and cultural knowledge from the different countries where we carry out the mobilities. All this means an enrichment at a formative and personal level that will lead us to be better European citizens being aware of the importance of digitalization, the environment and civic responsibility

The impact will be measured through self-assessments to be carried out during the different phases of the projects where the number of participants, the knowledge and skills acquired, the support provided to participants, the possibility of future employability in the case of trainees and the degree of educational innovation acquired in the case of teachers will be assessed. We will also evaluate the degree of sustainability of the projects in relation to the strengthening of relations with European educational institutions and companies.

Every year at the beginning of the course, the Erasmus actions to be developed by the Institute will be published on the Institute's Erasmus Project website, thus making known the international environment in which Higher Education intends to develop. 

To achieve the growth of the number of students and teachers who request stays and professional practices abroad, talks will be given about the opportunities offered by stays abroad.

On the other hand, students who have already participated in previous years in Erasmus Projects will be counted on to tell their experiences to the students who can apply for the experience each year. The aim is to increase the number of students who apply for work experience in companies in other EU countries each year.

We will ask participating students and teachers to present a summary of their stays, highlighting the customs, monuments, cultural features and business characteristics that have most caught their attention for publication on the school's website. Likewise, a survey will be carried out on the returned students regarding their desire to increase their level of studies in other EU countries.

Calendar

In relation to the KA1 action, year the students will carry out internships in companies and sometimes we will carry out mobility of the centre's staff.

In the following years we will try to find educational institutions to carry out collaborative projects to learn about the functioning of vocational training centres.

In relation to the KA2 action, our centre is involved in a Digital Project together with centres in Wales and Romania.  The name of the project is "Digital Competence in Action", number: 2017-1-UK01-KA201-036578 (years 2017-2020). Furthermore, this year 2020 we have applied for a K229 "Lor-Para" project with Liceo Cicognini-Rodari di Prato in Italy with a duration of 24 months.

Within the KA3 action, our centre is also involved in a project with this Italian institution: Liceo Cicognini-Rodari di Prato.