Page 26 - Compendium

Award for guiding secondary vocational school pupils through the
international mobility experience:

Mária Kubišová, K.A.B.A. Slovensko
Between the years 2014 and 2017, Association K.A.B.A. Slovensko arranged
short-term international mobility stays for 256 secondary school pupils from
the city of Martin within the fi rst Slovak consortium of secondary vocational
schools under the Erasmus+ Key Action 1: ‘Turiec do Európy a Európa do Turca’.
Prior to starting their mobility, pupils went through both individual and
group counselling sessions (3 meetings: each with duration of 3 hours) in
order to fully grasp the value of international mobility for their own personal
development and skills acquisition. They were led to think more in depth
about other aspects of the mobility, in addition to the vocational training,

which might help them in their future professional life.
Experience-based learning was used throughout the preparatory phase,
encouraging pupils to open up and participate actively in diff erent activities.
As an outcome of the preparatory phase, each pupil fi lled in an on-line skills
account (Ucetzrucnosti.sk) by drawing up list of strengths and weaknesses,
personal motivations, career goals and obstacles. During the mobility stay,
pupils were asked to log in to the skills account and record what they had
learnt and experienced, and how they coped with new situations during
both work and leisure time up until that point. After the return from mobility,
individual counselling on the choice of future educational and professional
path was off ered to pupils.
The main benefi t of the activity was that participants gained better
understanding of the world of work, it became easier for them to analyse
and assess their knowledge, skills and competences, values, and they learned

where to look for relevant information. Pupils were, in addition, asked to
search answers to the questions ‘Who am I?’; ‘What do I know?’; ‘What do
I want?’; ‘What can I do?’, and it was explained to them how important is to
set personal and professional goals. The main purpose was to develop pupils’
career management skills and ability to work in teams through set of exercises,
brain teasers and interactive games. Feedbacks were collected via specialized
on-line questionnaires integrated into the skills account.

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