Mobility makes a difference: Presentation of Xarxa FP Impact Study

The second edition of Xarxa FP Mobility Impact Study was launched last 5^th of February in Barcelona during the XX years celebration of the Association.

“This study constitutes our most precious output, as it shows the real added value that our work has in the life of our students, showing the benefits that mobility has on their employability, career prospects and competences”, said Jordi Castillo, Secretary General of Xarxa FP.

The study is based on an online survey replied by 560 students that took part in mobility actions between 2014 and 2018.

During his presentation Mr Castillo highlighted a few interesting facts:

 

Xarxa FP students do longer internships than the European average

The vast majority of Xarxa FP students did an internship with duration from 1 to 3 months (76.6%) compared to 18.9% of Erasmus+ VET learners.  7% of the respondents did an internship of more than 3 months duration compared to 5.3% (2014-2016). Moreover, mobilities of less than 1 month count for 75.7% of Erasmus+ VET students compared to only 16.4% of Xarxa FP learners. The average duration of VET learner mobility (2014-2017) is 32 days according to the European Commission.

Source: European Commission, 2018

 

Women take more part in international mobility actions than men

62.3% of the participants in the study are women. Conversely, the share of women among upper secondary students enrolled in vocational education and training in the European Union is 44.5% (Eurostat, 2016). Therefore, even though there are fewer women enrolled in vocational education in Europe, they take more part in European mobility actions than men.

 

The increase in the student’s transversal or key competences is higher than in technical skills

Even if the focus or target of the mobility activity is professional (i.e. doing a work placement / internship), students value more their improvement on a personal level (98.2%) than in the acquisition of technical/professional skills (93.7%), showing the decisive role and importance of key competences in people’s career development.

 

Doing an international internship is a key factor to access the labour market

In particular the survey reveals that 79.1% of participants consider that undertaking an internship abroad with Xarxa FP as a key factor to help them access the labour market. A proof of that success is that 16.8% of total respondents were offered a job contract by the company after their internship. If we have a look at long-term internships (above 3 months) almost 1 out 2 of our students received a job offer after their work placement (46.2%).

 

Low unemployment rate

Only 8.2% of the respondents were looking for a job at the time of closing the survey (October 2018). Remarkably, this low unemployment rate coexists in a context where the youth unemployment rate was 18.7% in EU-28 in 2016 according to Eurostat, with countries like Spain, which provides more than half of the students that participated in the study, with exceptionally high youth unemployment rate (44.4%).

 

The study also collects data about the students’ European sense of belonging, lifelong learning and current situation of the learners by professional fields.

For more information you can download the presentation, including data by country of origin, and the infographic of the study.