by admin
Xarxa FP held its XXI General Assembly last 19th of February in Viborg (Denmark) gathering around 50 representatives from 24 European cities. During the General Assembly participants reviewed the results of the network in 2019, discussed new actions and projects for 2020 and welcomed two new cities: Leuven (Belgium) and Vejle (Denmark).
2019: a new record in student mobilities
A total of 756 mobilities have been managed by Xarxa FP cities in 2019, the second best mark in the history of the network.
During 2019 the network managed 539 mobility actions for students, the best performance in the history of the network, most of them internships (60%), and 217 training activities for VET teachers and professionals.
A total of 29 cities participated in mobility actions in 2019, with five cities coping almost 60% of all mobilities done within Xarxa FP network (sending and hosting): Barcelona (ES) managed 285 mobilities; Zwolle (NL) 166; Munich (DE) 158; Alcoi (ES) 157 and Viborg (DK) 135.
35 cities from 15 European countries
With the incorporation of Leuven (BE) and Vejle (DK) Xarxa FP membership enlarges to 35 cities from 15 European countries, which confirms the sustainable growth of the association in the recent years, going from 21 member cities in 2015 to 35 in 2020. Members also approved the incorporation of the city of Graz (AT) pending to submit the letter of intent from the Municipality.
Leuven, situated only 25km away from the capital of Belgium and Europe (Brussels), holds one of the oldest Universities in northern Europe (KU Leuven), topping the Reuters ranking of Europe’s most innovative higher education institutions. The city has 102.000 inhabitants and 7 Vocational Schools, including more than 7.000 students following vocational and/or adult education professional courses.
Vejle is a Danish city situated in the southeast of the Jutland peninsula with a population of 115 000, being the 5th largest city in the country. The city has just opened a new Vocational School targeting young NEETs (Neither in Education or Employment), a very innovative institution offering tailored-made basic vocational courses to encourage them to carry on studying and/or to help them accessing the labour market.
Expertise in Erasmus KA2 strategic partnerships
The network also confirmed its work in the management of Erasmus Plus KA2 projects. Currently the Secretariat is running two strategic partnerships on Vocational Education and Training with some members from the network: the Industrial and Port VET Hub.
The general objective of both Hubs is to build a sustainable transnational partnership to exchange good practices and implement strategic recommendations to tackle both the industrial and port related skills mismatch by adapting the Vocational Education Training offer to this economic sectors needs. In this sense, the Secretariat will put forward a similar project proposal this year tackling the the Logistic sector.
Moreover Xarxa FP is also a dissemination partner in an Erasmus KA2 project run by our member from Rovaniemi (FI) on “Personalised competence-based learning paths for vocational education and training in Europe (PE-LE project)”.
Networking at the Mobility Managers’ meeting
On the 20th of February Mobility Managers met in order to take stock of what has been done in 2019, discuss how to improve the management of mobility actions according to ISO 9001 quality standards and network in order to increase cooperation with other members. In this sense a speed dating activity was organised among participants.
