Youth programs - Vocational placements abroad
Leonardo da Vinci szakmai gyakorlat Európában magyar fiataloknak

Running projects

 

References

Between 2001 and 2004 the Artemisszió Foundation has sent sixty young people to foreign vocational placement projects in France, Italy, Portugal, Spain, and Sweden under the Leonardo da Vinci program of the European Union.

In our projects the majority of participants have been socially disadvantaged young people either at the beginning of their professional careers or unemployed people having had vocational training in the fields of traditional handicrafts, the catering industry, and gardening. Many of the participants experienced for the first time in their lives the value of their efforts and the achievements that they are able to reach.


   
 

The target groups of our latest projects have included both socially disadvantaged young people as well as university students studying social work and cultural anthropology.

Why are the projects important?

For our foundation the Leonardo da Vinci program is important because in the course of these projects the participants do not only acquire professional experience, but they can also gain the experience of communicating across cultures. Living and working in another country, even if only for a few months, can open completely new horizons to participants, providing the opportunity to learn about themselves and about the world around them. Experiencing the conflicts and joys that arise from encounters with people from different cultures can be the first step on the way to understanding such encounters and to exploring the opportunities embedded in them.

These projects foster the social integration of participants. The young people take part in vocational training at work placements where they can have a regular work experience and the need for a sense of responsibility allowing them to use and improve their already acquired skills and competencies. At the same time, these experiences help them in their future professional careers by teaching them to face the challenges of a workplace more effectively. This vocational training project also helps them in their search for a job. Many young people are refused at their first job interview because they do not have professional experience outside of the school environment. This program can also help them fill in this black hole of their CVs.

How is a Leonardo da Vinci project organized?

Before their departure we provide the participants with a short or long preparatory training course, which is aimed at helping them prepare for the vocational placement as well as to help them to get the most out of the opportunities offered to them by the Leonardo da Vinci program.
The Leonardo da Vinci projects that we organize are based on professional cooperation with other organizations. In the case of the projects for socially disadvantaged young people, we look for the participants through local Hungarian organizations that deal with the social integration of disadvantaged young people. In the projects for social workers and anthropologists, we cooperate with their universities. We select, prepare, and monitor the participants relying partly on the professional expertise and experience of these organizations.

Professional cooperation with foreign partners is also important. In line with this, the young people are not hosted directly by the vocational placements but by non-profit NGOs similar to Artemisszió. These organizations are responsible for the organization of the accommodation of participants, the language course, the search for the vocational placements, the training of participants, the monitoring and evaluation of the project, the organization of cultural programs, and the administrative and financial management of the project.

During the three or four months that the participants spend abroad they take part in vocational training at work placements, attend an intensive language course, and they also take part in the cultural programs organized by the host/coordinating organization.

Being a Leonardo Trainee In Italy - Personal Report

Our Foundation was awarded a Mobility Quality Award for its Leonardo da Vinci sending project for socially disadvantaged young people in 2001.

The National Agency of the Leonardo da Vinci program is the Tempus Public Foundation
 


Europass Mobility - The passport To European Mobility

In the European Union more and more young people have the chance to do a vocational placement or to study abroad. In the domestic labor market people who have foreign work experiences have an ever greater advantage. But, the training systems of the countries of the European Union are quite different. In order for their compatibility the so-called Europass documents were established to help the transferability of their holder's skills and competencies. As a result, the training institutions and employers can easily interpret the different diplomas, certificates, and qualifications from the different countries. The Europass documents are the following: Language Passport, Europass CV, a Europass Mobility certificate, and a Diploma Supplement.

The Artemisszió Foundation provided participants with a Europass Mobility certificate in its project for social workers titled "Kaláka: - Socio-Cultural Animation And Social Work (Practical Intercultural Education For Future Social Workers)". The Europass documents the contents of the vocational placement abroad. We will provide the participants of our future projects with the Europass certificate.

More information on Europass: www.europass.hu


Running projects

Points of Encounter - a project for social work and anthropology students
Within the framework of Leonardo da Vinci program, Artemisszio Foundation is organizing a vocational placement program for social work and anthropology students between 2007 September and December.

Description of the project:
Countries of destination: Germany, Portugal, Spain
Planned period of vocational placement: September- December 2007

Our Hungarian partner organizations:
  • University of Debrecen- Department of Social Work http://odin.de-efk.hu/
  • ELTE University Social Sciences Division - Department of Cultural Anthropology http://www.tatk.elte.hu
  • ELTE University Social Sciences Division- Department of Social Work http://szocialis.tatk.elte.hu/
  • ELTE University Social Scineces Division - Department of Social Work and Social Welfare
  • Cultural and Visual Anthropology Department of the University of Miskolc http://inka.kvat.uni-miskolc.hu/
  • University of Pécs - Social Sciences Division, Department of Social Work and Social Welfare
  • University of Pécs - Social Sciences Division, Department of Communication and media Studies
Our foreign partner organizations:
Background: Since 2001, Artemisszio Foundation has organized several Leonardo mobility projects. The Points of Encounter project has been born out of the lessons we had learnt from our two previous projects. During these projects, it has become obvious to us that social work and anthropology could learn a lot from each other both in terms of methods and approach. Social workers are in great need of acquiring intercultural capabilities and the approach of cultural anthropology to the "Other" in order to improve their everyday work, while anthropologists need to explore the possibilities of applying their knowledge and to get to know social and community work, and the ways to build their elements into their own work. Apart from this, the project aims at complementing the practical training of social workers with an international and intercultural dimension while in the case of anthropologists it wishes to offer practical training that is completely missing from their education.
 
The aims of the project are: 1. to create a dialogue between social work and cultural anthropology 2. to improve the social, intercultural and professional capabilities of students of social work and cultural anthropology 3. to introduce students of cultural anthropology and social work into the world of labor, and to explore the applicability of their learned skills in order to help their integration into the labor market 4. to help students of social work and cultural anthropology to get an international experience in order to strengthen their independence in a foreign environment.
 
Set up of the project: The project is made up of the phases of preparation, training, foreign placement, follow-up and dissemination. The project participants will be students of social work and cultural anthropology who will be provided with a preparation training organized by Artemisszió Foundation between 2007 March and June. The participants will spend 16 weeks in Portugal, France, Spain and Germany, where the first three weeks will be made up of a language course and 13 weeks with practical training at work placements. The follow-up and dissemination of the project will be between January and March 2007.