The Steering Committee and the Work Package leaders of the SAAM project have gathered in Rome to celebrate a Project Partner Meeting from the 21st to the 24th of November. Read more to discover the main topics that were discussed!

 

From the 21st to the 24th of November, the SAAM steering committee and the work package leaders met to present the progress and achievements of the last months of work and to plan the upcoming activities, mobilities and events. The meeting was hosted in Rome by CNOS-FAP.

The first day, there was a welcome session that was useful for all the partners reunited to understand the general current status of the project. Right after that, one of the main topics of the meeting was already introduced: the student mobility. This is the most important part of the project since the final objective of SAAM is to demonstrate the advantages of this type of mobility and to promote educational exchanges between the two continents.

Since August 2022, students from the African partner VET centers, always accompanied by a teacher from their school, have been traveling to Europe and completing their one-month stay in an European partner VET center. All the student mobility so far have been very enriching experiences both for the students and the sending partners and for the entities that host them in Europe. However, there are still many mobilities to be done, and for this reason it was important at the Rome meeting to review and to discuss all the steps needed to achieve a successful student mobility from start to finish.

On this subject, there were sessions dedicated to the intercultural preparation of the student, on the implementation of mobilities (logistical issues, experiences of European partners who have already received students) or the post-mobility period and how to measure the impact that this exchange has on the students and the centers who have been involved.

Besides the student mobility, other work packages are being key for the project at the moment and the partners who lead them had the opportunity to present their recent work and their next tasks. Scuola Centrale di Formazione (SCF) talked about the ‘SAAM Network’, a tool that will allow the sustainability of the project over time. European Association of Institutes for Vocational Training (EVBB) presented the ‘African VET Study and Observation’. Don Bosco Tech Africa (DBTA) and the meeting host CNOS-FAP offered updates on their work package ‘Curriculum Development and Capacity Building’. Meanwhile, AKMI and the SAAM team also explained the current state of the quality and the communication and dissemination of the project respectively.

As always, the project meetings are useful to strengthen ties between the partners and the network of project collaborators and to learn about the city of the meeting, in this case the magnificent Rome. The last day, the meeting participants enjoyed a very interesting cultural activity. They had the opportunity to discover the ancient city of Rome through the eyes of various migrant citizens, thanks to the project ‘Guide Invisibili‘.

 

From the SAAM partnership we want to thank the work of CNOS-FAP as host of the meeting.