2/17/2007 - Individual Pupil Mobility project: first part successfully completed!
First Interim Report submitted to the Commission…
On Friday the 9th of February, EFIL presented the so-called “First Interim Report” of the Individual Pupil Mobility project to the European Commission. This was the second official report to the Commission, following the “Initital Report” that was submitted on the 1st of December. The First Interim Report drafts an overview of the current European context in relation to individual pupil mobility at secondary school level. The overview refers to specific information concerning existing mobility schemes, as well as legal aspects and official documents linked to mobility and recognition issues. The First Interim Report is an analysis of the results of the research and study in 31 European countries, based on the reports that we received from the National Coordinators in all the countries involved. Those reports were the result of analysing existing documents, distribution of questionnaires to mobility providers and schools, and interviews with relevant actors in the field of education (public administrations, National Agencies, etc.).
We would like to thank all involved for the hard work and the contributions. Circumstances were indeed far from ideal, with the very sharp timeline, school exams going on everywhere keeping school staff very busy and unavailable, and the quite inconvenient Christmas break right in the middle of the study phase. It should be noted that it proved difficult in a number of countries to locate the exact department where information on legal issues regarding matters referring to minors, could be found. In some countries, schools reacted in a rather uncooperative way or with delay, giving the National Coordinators a hard time in closely following up the distribution and return of the questionnaires. All together 324 schools from 31 countries responded to the questionnaires, which makes our sample quite small, but then again, it was never the intention to collect statistical information as such. 70 mobility providers of study programmes abroad answered our questionnaires. This part of the research proved to be the most challenging, as there has been a lot of reluctance to share date, since other mobility providers consider EFIL and its Members as competitors in the field.
But in spite of all this, we got the job done. A lot of useful information has been compiled. With the approval of the Commission, we will use the weeks to come to add a few unfinished parts to the Report. Once the Report will be officially approved by the Commission, we will find a way to distribute it somehow (most likely through our website).
Moving on to the pilot phase…
An even more challenging part of the project are the upcoming pilot exchanges of a maximum of 650 pupils between schools in the ten countries involved in this final phase of the project: Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy and Portugal. In several meetings with the Commission, a Project Steering Committee meeting in Brussels at the end of January, and through a lot of mails and calls with our Partners, we’ve been moulding a framework for the pilot phase. Discussions have not always been easy, as for various reasons, unfortunately this project is not and cannot be a copy of the standard AFS way of working, creating perfectly understandable frustration with some of us, as familiar procedures and necessary quality standards that we are used to and that we truly believe in as organistions with a long history and experience in exchanges of young people, are being challenged.
A pre-call to warm up interested schools, and a suggested time frame to start preparations on country level, have recently been distributed to all Partner countries, in anticipation of the official launch of the pilot phase to come out soon. The actual call and all accompanying documents have been drafted by EFIL and submitted to the Commission for approval in January. As soon as the go-ahead is given by the Commission, the race is on!
On Tuesday and Wednesday 20-21 February, a meeting has been set up with all Pilot Coordinators. The proposal for this meeting got an overwhelming, positive response. The meeting will give us all a unique opportunity to exchange ideas, discuss the guidelines and official forms, the tasks of all actors involved, the tight timeframe, etc. We will be able to share the difficulties we face and try to find reasonable solutions, meanwhile using the occasion to get to know each other, which will make our future cooperation and communication easier! Let’s all come to the meeting with an open mind, aiming for the best possible arrangements for the upcoming pilot phase, taking in account the sometimes difficult restrictions and the somewhat different approach needed for this specific project. At EFIL, we are looking forward to meet all of you in Brussels!
In the photo: The Project Steering Committee (Roberto Ruffino, Ina Winther Groth, Joke Zwart, Elisabeth Hard), the project Evaluator (Soren Kristensen) and the EFIL Management Team (Michela Bortoli, Lennart Dhulst and Paul Claes)
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