After thirty years of the most successful mobility program in the world, the figures amaze. It was created in 1987 and through it 9 million students have enjoyed one of the most productive and unforgettable educational experiences of their lives. Already far away are those 95 brave who in 1987 packed their bags for adventure, in a world without screens and with very little information towards the unknown. Today Erasmus + is a consolidated and constantly evolving program that this year opens its doors to new continents including destinations in Asia and Africa. All an achievement.
In addition to students, Erasmus allows annual teachers to visit new centres, share experiences and develop international collaboration projects that result in the improvement of the education system by adding value to teachers and educational institutions involved.
From the Vocational Training centers we have been taking part in this program since its inception with increasing participation figures and a much higher potential than other educational levels. The fact that students leave their comfort zone for three months and move to work far from home has proven to be a very effective formula for training excellent professionals. In the course of this experience, students have to face a series of new experiences on a professional and personal level, such as meeting new people, living with them, a new language, working in international work environments, living only for the first time. time with the responsibilities and tasks involved … ultimately take charge of your destiny.
At the time of overcoming these challenges, young people develop a range of personal skills and competences very valuable. Between them, the capacity of adaptation, resilience, communication, decision-making, learning languages, troubleshooting and above all much emotional balance in the most stressful events.
All this backpack of skills and knowledge with which the young people who participate in the Eramus+ program return has not gone unnoticed by companies seeking talent. In my experience as a professional counselor, it begins to be a normal thing for companies to apply among the ideal requirements of a candidate for the fact that he is an “Erasmus student” sometimes above a specific degree, just a degree generic in a certain professional family. However, the curriculum vitae of an Erasmus incorporates an added value since it usually corresponds to the highest profile, both academically and personally, of each class. If three months of professional and competence “tuning” are added to this, it is very logical that when joining the jobs or developing professional projects, these students will be more interesting for companies looking for talented young people.
It is not strange the effort of the SEPIE to disseminate the program, or that projects such as #MIERASMUSENFP appear to pretend to make visible and give voice to the protagonists in the first person. In this collaboration project between centers of different autonomous communities, voice is given to the experiences of students, teachers and VT institutions that have participated in an Erasmus + mobility. The project aims to raise awareness, remove fears and share experiences told by the protagonists to serve as a reference and motivation to students who may be valuing that alternative. It is surprising to hear from most students that it is one of the most productive and unforgettable experiences of their life. There are few who recognize that life has changed them. It is not easy to achieve that with other types of educational programs. More info: http://mierasmusenfp.blogspot.com/
We could go so far as to say that Eramus has become a “personal brand” of a student’s talent and companies value it. In addition to being one of the best experiences Erasmus has become the perfect icing on a CV and a guarantee of job insertion.
