Introduction

With this newsletter we like to inform you about the ongoing activities of our Erasmus+ project HanDS.  An overview is given of the activities of the last semester.

The project is executed by a partnership consisting of two secondary schools (Vakschool Diekman, Enschede The  Netherlands) and Ten R. Righetti, Melfi Italy) and two development organisations active in the field of labour market  policy (Stichting Surplus, Enschede The Netherlands and EEPL Finsterwalde Germany).

Aim of the HanDS project is to develop an integrated innovative approach to prevent current pupils to be unemployed  and get stuck at home, and to reengage people in education and training who have had their education interrupted  due to various reasons.

More specific the project will have the following outputs:
  1. a measuring system to categorize pupils and job seekers in order to offer them the rightful attention and  guidance.
  2. a suitable employment/internship programme for pupils to gain as much as possible practice work experience  in a short period as possible (internship carousel).
  3. a connection between the (warm) school and the (cold) labour market through the development of two new  school environments: a labour‐based training centre and a labour‐based evening school.
  4. web based “guidelines” based on the job carving principle.
For this purpose, during a three year duration period, the partners in close cooperation with each other:
  • have four transnational meetings (TPM’s) in three countries (The Netherlands, Germany and Italy) as to  exchange relevant information making possible the development and implementation of the products  concerned;
  • work continuously on the development and implementation of the products concerned;
  • have four one‐week visits of students and teachers in Italy and The Netherlands as to secure the optimal  implementation of the project (LTT’s)
TPM2 Finsterwalde, Germany
 
 
It was great to meet in Finsterwalde last Autumn. We especially welcomed our new colleagues from Melfi. After three days of working intensively together, it felt we cooperated already for years. 
 
By sharing the outcomes of our ongoing activities we enriched  each other with new insights and for sure all of us gained enthusiasms to make the joined project to a success.
 
By visiting the facilities of EEPL and thanks to the afternoon excursions to the neighbouring areas, we better understand  the labour market related difficulties the area is facing. Once over more we realized how important it is to develop tailor made instruments to support the unemployed (or the persons facing unemployment).    The full report is available here.  
 
 
LTT2 Enschede, The Netherlands
In the first half of March a group of 12 students and three accompanying teachers from Ten R. Righetti paid a visit to Enschede as to get a better understanding of the Dutch educational system and the connection to the labour market.
Overall the visit was highly valued by the Italian visitors and the Dutch partners from Vakschool Diekman too.
Both schools are thinking over, as a next step in their co-operation,  how the youngsters from Melfi and Enschede can have longterm crossbordering internships with help of the Erasmus+ Mobility programme  

 

 
Upcoming, TPM3 Melfi, Italy …time is flying
 
Next month the partnership will meet again in Melfi. The partners are going to present the interim results of their intellectual outputs. Mid-March the participants were informed about their expected contributions.
 
 

Erasmus+ 30th Anniversary Celebrations
Amersfoort The Netherlands
Amersfoort (NL), 7 December 2017 – The HanDS  project came in action at the festival to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Erasmus+ program. The Dutch Erasmus + national agency organized this festival that took place last December 7 2017. HanDS  coordinator Ivo van Dongen from Surplus Foundation and Mabel Lengton teacher from Vakschool Diekman, facilitated a workshop related to the project HanDS. ’ The workshop was visited by 15+ participants from Dutch education.
 
After the introduction and an overview of the workshop program, Ivo presented the HanDS project by introducing the co-financing by the EC through the Erasmus+ program, the aims, the partners, the pilot products and the pilots that now take place in the different countries. He also referred to the project website.  Mabel Lengton then started with showing the participants a number of slides and she came up with questions arisen in our running project. During this inspiring session we were enriched with new ideas amongst others from the colleague organisations.