Young generations facing Safety awareness Across Borders

An increasing number of secondary education students is involved nationally and internationally nowadays in«work-based learning”,hence the need for them to be acquainted with the health and safety regulations that govern the work environments in their own countries and abroad.So the idea has grown that a solid preparation in the above subject matter must start within the educational systems at an early stage. The two partner schools(Ist.Scolastico G.Galilei-Treviso,Italy and Max-Born-Berufskolleg,Recklinghausen,Germany)have agreed to develop a common project on the above issues and focus on the aspects of self-induction on the part of their students through a multiple approach enabling them to reach a higher awareness on safety questions.They are convinced that self-induction carried out through autonomous research work,a problem posing approach,a personal knowledge-based and creative contribution to the project theme is an effective pedagogy capable to motivate the students to learn while at school and develop a lifelong ‘learning to learn’ attitude.Moreover,the transn.comparison planned is expected to have the triggering effect necessary to widen the students’ horizons,to strengthen the continuing professional development of the teachers,to improve the educational systems of the two schools by renovating their curricula and training. As a consequence,positive results are envisaged in terms of a meaningful reduction of failures in studies/dropping out/ESL.In fact,the students'retention in schools will be higher if the quality of education is elevated and the interaction with the labour market can bring more employability prospects significantly oriented to updated technology and know-how. The project has planned,in its two years' life,an exchange of groups of pupils (EGPs)of 23students+4 teachers from“Ist.G.Galilei”(coordinator)to MBBK with 2 visits of 7 days,while 28 students and 4 teachers from MBBK(partner)will carry out 2 EGPs of 7 days each at“Ist.G.Galilei”.One joint Staff Training Event(STE)of 3teachers from G.Galilei will take place at MBBK(1st kick off meeting)and 2 STEs from MBBK(2 teachers in the 2nd STE and two in the final STE)to the Italian school.The 16/18-year-old Italian pupils from the 3rd/4th year of the building studies will participate together with those from the foreign language and sports science courses. The German students(16/22 years old)come from the 1st year of apprenticeship in insulation and construction depts;they will cover the Tech/crafts side of the project work in a complementary way with the general/scientific/tech approach to the project theme to be carried out by the Italian partners.During the LTTAs the students will jointly work in English in mixed nationality/ability groups(but also basic communication in German and Italian will be encouraged)in order to:examine some of the most frequent causes leading to work accidents,analyse a number of hazardous situations emerging in the labour market,have an insight into the national/international measures used to prevent risks,learn the specific language related to safe and unsafe practices,investigate updated health and welfare solutions for the workers,create a commonly devised diary of prevention-related matters. The project educational pathway will bring into play the growth not only of professional/transversal/multidisciplinary competences but also of personal,content-reliant,methodological,language/communication/ICT skills.To these must be added the social/civic/global mindset skills that will help to interact flexibly in new environments/to understand values of cultural diversity/to contribute to enhance the access,participation and performance also of disadvantaged learners(among whom the migrants).The tangible products will be:a self-induction booklet with graphic design created by the participating students to enable their reflection on the issues and prevention policies to be adopted when entering the labour market;a pedagogical model of gymnastic drills to be used as a fitness method to abate the physical and psychological strain of the Labour market workforce;a visual English/Italian/German dictionary with pictograms representing the signals/gestures and actions to be undertaken in hazardous situations;videos showing all project phases and inclusive of interviews given by its participants;a blog.The impact on the stakeholders will be:a positive image of vocational studies,an increased motivation in learning also addressed to migrants accessing formal education,a solid basis in tackling health and safety matters when entering work-based learning or future employment nationally and internationally,a dynamic way of teaching and training.The long term benefits will be:accurate knowledge,skills and competences inclusive of ICT to meet the European job market;empowerment of accurate and updated teaching/training;transferability and benchmarking potential for the project sustainability