Individual pupil mobility

It’s time for a school internationalisation strategy embracing all learning mobilities!

Are there any students in your secondary school who enrol in a Long-Term Individual Pupil Mobility programme, with Erasmus+ or private providers? Are you hosting any exchange students?

If yes, then you have probably been confronted with the question on how to manage these great learning mobility opportunities for the benefit of students involved and the whole school. This means ensuring a fair access to information on mobility programmes, recognition of learning outcomes to all the students involved, and adequate training to teachers on how to assess competences of incoming and outgoing students, as well as managing the reintegration of the students upon re- entry. In addition, you might have been wondering: individual pupil mobility is a life-changing experience for the students that get the chance... but what about the others? How can sending and hosting on IPM be complementary to other shorter and group mobilities, and of benefit to all the students, in a whole school approach?

These issues are also at the centre of the The Europe on the Move Council recommendation adopted by the Ministers of Education in May 2024, which calls for:

• Fostering cooperation between regional and local authorities, education and training providers, the youth and sports sector, civil society organizations and private bodies to promote and support outgoing learning mobility, and creating a welcoming environment for incoming learning participants from abroad

• Providing systemic learning mobility opportuni- ties as an integral part of school education embedding incoming and outgoing mobility.

• Promoting youth information on learning mobility

• Making progress towards automatic recognition of learning periods abroad within Long-term Individual Pupil Mobility programmes

We are glad we can now offer support to school heads in tackling these aspects and design a school internationalisation strategy that embraces all types of learning mobilities, including Individual Pupil Mobility offered by public and private providers.

Based on the 70 years experience of its Members, 22 AFS organisations across Europe sending 6000 pupils a year on Long-Term IPM, and the
tools developed for recognition of outcomes of learning periods abroad, the European Federation for Intercultural Learning (EFIL) has launched the IPM eTwinning Group to directly support school heads and teachers!

We are here to guide and support you every step of the way to:

• Develop an internationalisation strategy which includes IPM and recognition of its learning outcomes

• Get tips on handling Learning Agreements and more

• Access valuable resources for organising IPM

• Connect with like-minded educators and schools

Through the eTwinning group we will organise webinars based on the requests and interests with teachers and colleagues – a leaflet is also available.

In addition, we will offer two rounds of a workshop on Leadership for Mobility at the ESHA Congress in Rome on 29-31 October which will build on our expertise on the topics mentioned above and the cooperation between our Member organisation AFS Intercultura and ESHA’s Member in Italy, the National Association of School Principals (ANP).

We are looking forward to working closely with school heads across Europe to make inter- nationalisation of secondary schools a reality!