Context/background of the projectCollegesWales is the national organisation that represents the 14 Further Education institutions in Wales. CollegesWales has employed a full time International Coordinator since November 2010 to engage the FE institutions in European funded projects. Initially, the job was funded for one year by the Welsh Government who specified that a key outcome was the submission of a centralised application for Leonardo da Vinci funding in February 2011. This funding enabled apprentices to undertake two/three week work placements in Europe. Subsequent centralised applications for funding in 2012 and 2013 were also successful and have attracted funding of over 400,000 Euro enabling 138 participants to undertake short term work placements in European countries. There was a successful consortium application for Erasmus+ funding in 2015 for 92 learners and two successful applications for staff mobility funding in 2014 and 2015. The International Coordinator's role is now funded by the membership fees of the colleges and consortium applications for staff and learners will continue to be submitted under Erasmus+. In 2016, CollegesWales is the applicant organisation submitting a consortium bid on behalf of 9 FE colleges in Wales, 1 private training provider (ISA Training) and 1 large employer (TATA Steel). The objectives of the project are to enable participants to:-explore and deepen their knowledge of their vocational subject within a European context and within, at times, a totally different working environment -consider future employment opportunities in Europe within their chosen field -enhance their professional profile and employability by providing evidence of having acquired additional professional skills during their work placements overseas as well as enhancing their personal communication and team-working skills through working with their European counterparts- to support the European tools for transparency and portability of qualificationsFor the sending and receiving organisations, the project will enable them to develop and strengthen partnerships across a range of curriculum areas and to contribute to the European Commission's objective to improve and modernise VET education across Europe. The project will also support the EU transparency tools for qualifications and enable vocational learners to become more work mobile across Europe. Number and profile of participantsThere are 215 participants in this project - 197 are full time VET learners from FE colleges across Wales who are studying national vocational qualifications at either Level 1, 2 or 3 and who are defined as those whose studies typically include work-based learning. 18 of the participants are apprentices from TATA Steel, ISA Training and Coleg y Cymoedd. The participants will be selected from the following curriculum areas:- Childcare, Travel & Tourism, Hair & Beauty, Catering, Sport, Outdoor Education, Aerospace, Business Administration, Engineering, Health & Care, Leadership & Management, Creative Arts & Sport Therapy. The participants haven't yet been selected even though all curriculum areas have identified target groups of learners and some (those working with partners for the second time or more) have drafted sample training plans with the receiving organisations. Activities The participants will undertake two or three week training periods in VET schools and/or companies/businesses in 8 European countries. The sample training plans that have been developed for this application have been produced by the sending and the receiving organisations. They take into account the qualifications that the target group of participants are working towards in Wales and have identified learning outcomes that can be achieved during the training period that will contribute to the achievement of that qualification. Europass Mobility will also be obtained by the participants to provide evidence of the learning achieved.Impact and longer term benefitsThe impact of these opportunities on individual participants is significant and will lead to some participants having the confidence to consider working in a different country in the near future or later in life. Returning participants who share their positive experiences with their peers, staff in their sending organisations and possibly with their employers will generate an enthusiasm for this type of activity and provoke others to consider participating in a similar project in the future thereby increasing the numbers of participants from Wales. There is no doubt that for some of the participating organisations, taking part in this type of activity has had a positive impact on student intake into specific curriculum areas within that organisation. CollegesWales will seek to maximise the dissemination of the project to ensure that it has as wide an impact as possible on the greatest range of relevant groups.