"Apprentices in Estonia“ is the title of the placement programme which involves the “Kaufmännische Schulen Offenburg” (vocational secondary school focussing on business in Offenburg, Germany), the “Kaufmännische Schule I Villingen” (vocational secondary school focussing on business in Villingen, Germany), the “Tallinna Majanduskool” in Tallinn and the “Võrumaa Kutsehariduskeskus”, a vocational training centre in Väimela, both in Estonia. Further cooperating partners are the German embassy, the German foreign trade cooperation, as well as various Estonian banks and companies. It is planned to send 9 students for three weeks to Estonia. There they will attend Estonian schools and will do placements in various Estonian companies. It is also intended to send two teachers with them for one week to accompany and support them. This particular exchange programme aims at increasing the students’ independence. Independence meaning in this case the ability of the students to plan and organize their educational environment and learning conditions more self-reliantly. For this reason it is important, to have partners for these objectives, who provide the necessary space and possibility to develop and establish independent work connections for the students. The ideal partners are the two Estonian schools. Both are business-orientated vocational colleges that are similarly structured like the vocational colleges in the cities of Offenburg and Villingen. Which other goals are to be reached with this project? Nowadays many future colleagues in the above mentioned business fields are from abroad or from different cultural backgrounds. It is obvious that nowadays it cannot be guaranteed that a young person will be able to remain where he or she was educated. Therefore the project aims at increasing the student’s awareness of the neccessity of being mobile. Apprentices will be increasingly required to work in intercultural environments, be it with cutomers or with colleagues at the work-place. Beeing able to deal with diversity, to show understanding and the ability to approach foreign colleagues and clients alike is especially important. Therefore self-organization skills are educational highlights in this programme. Within the framework of the project, participants will have to get involved with eachother, will have to make joint decisions and will have to communicate in order to find solutions and compromises. This framework is structured in different phases: first, before the students have been placed, they will communicate through email with the partners in Estonia. At the same time, participants will have to communicate and coordinate among themselves. Secondly, during their time in Estonia they will do the same within the placemt and during their lessons at the Estonian schools. They will be encouraged to show initative and reponsibility which will lead to more creativity; a skill that will be of advantag in their future jobs. The aforementioned skill are important for the participants from Germany and their Estonian mentors alike. Offenburg is located in the three-countries-triangle Switzerlan, France and Germany. Many employees work in regions near the borders – especially because of this intercultural skills are of utmost importance. It doesn’t matter that Switzerland and France are closer to home than Estonia – significant is that students are ready to experience language bariers and deal with feeling alienated. This can be practiced in Estonia. The project will be carried out in October/ November 2014/15 in two locations in Estonia: in Tallinn in the North and in Vaimela in the South.