International competencies become more and more important in many professions. Mobility programmes foster the European cooperation of schools, companies, chambers as well as initial and further education providers in Hamburg. The project “Hamburg goes Europe” aims at strengthening the European placement programmes and the professional exchange within Europe in order to contribute to the assimilation of vocational education in the EU and to identify the need for qualified employees. In cooperation with the Hamburg Institute for Vocational Education (HIBB), Arbeit und Leben Hamburg develops ECVET transnational learning units and intents to strengthen the European dimension of vocational education and to improve the transparency of vocational education systems. With that, the technical, linguistic and intercultural competencies of participants are to be improved. The project is to promote the mobility of trainees in vocational training as well as participants in further education of all professions and to provide incentives for the Europeanisation of the initial and further education in Hamburg. The aim is to strengthen the city of Hamburg as an international commercial capital with its well educated skilled workers and to affirm and further develop the role of Hamburg as a front-runner concerning trainees’ mobility. Employees working in vocational education are enabled to getting to know innovative working techniques and teaching methods abroad as well as to developing and evaluating transnational ECVET learning units. With this project, Arbeit und Leben Hamburg as applicant body, the vocational schools in Hamburg as well as the Hamburg Institute for Vocational Education plan to send 350 learners and 200 people working in the vocational education sector in another European country within 2 years. The project “Hamburg goes Europe“ has the following target groups: - Learners in initial vocational preparation: Young women with Abitur (A-levels) enhance their intercultural and practical skills during a placement abroad while being in a vocational preparation course in the industrial-technical sector. - Learners in initial vocational education: This target group comprises all learners in the 1st, 2nd and 3rd year of vocational education. Therefore, over 60,000 trainees from Hamburg are part of this target group. - Learners in their 1st year after completion of an initial or further vocational education regulated by law: Through a qualification abroad they can enhance their intercultural, linguistic, communicative as well as technical competencies and improve their employability on the European labour market. - Employees working in vocational education: Teachers at vocational schools, employees at chambers and ministries as well as trainers, HR managers in companies and other vocational education experts are important multipliers when it comes to enhancing the learners’ mobility. They have an important share in further developing the vocational education with regards to the future demand in the working life. Through transnational mobility the employees working in vocational education can be prepared for the challenges of internationalisation, can face the skills shortage and can contribute to the development of learning units for learners. Learning phases that take part abroad should be integrated into the vocational education and ECVET learning units should be developed. Therefore it is indispensable for experts of initial and further education to educate themselves accordingly. The current demand of this target group is higher than the average demand of the last 2 years. Arbeit und Leben Hamburg enables learners and employees in vocational education to educate themselves linguistically, technically and with regards to intercultural competencies especially in Denmark, France, the Netherlands, Spain, UK, Sweden, Malta, Ireland or Italy for a period of three weeks up to five months. With the extensive network of partner organisations abroad Arbeit und Leben Hamburg support companies, chambers, vocational schools and other institutions in planning and carrying out vocational stays abroad in the following sectors: crafts, logistics, aviation, IT and new media, hotel and tourism, gastronomy, education and health, business. All sectors have been developed through long lasting partnerships. The choice of hosting partners is the result of an already existing cooperation between the vocational schools, Arbeit und Leben Hamburg and the partner organisations.