#erasmus #mobility #skills #students
Let’s start from scratch: Study abroad and student mobility are seen as positive indicators for enhanced employability, however only when students are able to unpack what they have gained while being abroad. We are all too familiar with a student saying it was ‘great fun’. Even though this was undoubtedly the case, students will need to dive deeper when they want to maximise the employability benefits of their mobility.
It is not only important for higher education institutions to offer different support along the international student lifecycle, but also to have the knowledge and tools on how to support the students in their learning path abroad. A way of doing that is by offering comprehensive and adapted support services and trying to help them reflect on their learning process and the acquired competences, understood as a combination of knowledge, skills and attitudes (KSAs), gained during their exchange experience.
As mentioned before, all stages of the international student lifecycle are important to maximise the student’s learning period. In the returning stage, initiatives and services offered in the home institution could be very valuable: they provide advice and serve as a self-reflection mechanism for reintegration and identification of learning outcomes.
In line with the Erasmus Skills Self-Assessment and webinars that you can share with your students, university staff members can find guidelines to design workshops on European values and culture, European integration and mobility-related skills, attitudes and knowledge, tailored to prepare students prior to the mobility period and facilitating integration upon return.
This way, you will have the necessary key information to prepare training sessions to help students understand the context of their upcoming mobility experience and the challenges and benefits of international mobility experiences.
You might find the self evaluation tool here: https://www.erasmusskills.eu/eskills/tools/workshop-guidelines
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