Bridge the Ocean (BTO)

Developing international activities in VET requires new initiatives to global mobility. The Bridge the Ocean (BTO) project meets these needs. The mobility between European and Canadian VET colleges is still very rare and since we want to prepare our students for the global labour market, we look forward to the new Erasmus programme 2021-2027 and want to develop our services accordingly. There is a growing interest among students for mobility overseas. Besides, the New International Education Strategy launched in Canada in 2019 promotes international collaboration.

The BTO project will develop the structures and practises of overseas mobility and by establishing a network to support the internationalisation of VET. Besides, we will build the partnership with partner countries, i.e. Canada. The activities of this project include validation and recognition of learning outcomes as well as encouraging students with special needs to participate.

The objectives of BTO

At the end of the project we want:

  • to understand the global perspective in VET;
  • to strengthen the international aspect in the strategy of partner organisations;
  • to create a structure for reciprocal mobility and further cooperation between European and Canadian VET colleges;
  • to build a network of VET colleges to support the international collaboration;
  • to promote the validation and recognition of nonformal and informal learning;
  • to create study modules in three professional sectors: Hospitality, Construction and Entrepreneurship;
  • to prepare a toolkit with practical information to help other VET providers to start overseas mobility.

Products i.e. intellectual outputs

We will develop:

  1. a model for international collaboration as a part of strategies of VET providers;
  2. a hospitality in International working environment study module in Finland;
  3. a green construction study module in Denmark;
  4. an entrepreneurship study module in Canada;
  5. a Canada-Europe VET mobility -toolkit including practical advice to carry out overseas mobility

The expected impact and long-term benefits

Bridge the Ocean will have an impact on the individual participants through developed professional skills especially in a global context. The participating organisations can incorporate the global aspect to the strategies of the organisation. In addition, they will get more skilled and competent staff in the field of internationalisation. There will be more visibility for global issues in internationalisation of VET. For Canadian community colleges the project will have an impact as promoting mobility with European VET providers. We expect that we can reach a wide group of VET colleges through our networks and our dissemination activities. In VET colleges the topic is quite new, and we believe that our project will have a positive impact by sharing the best practises of overseas collaboration and preparing VET colleges for a new Erasmus programme. We will provide a practical toolkit for VET providers to enhance the collaboration. The products will be available for wider use after the project.

The partners within the Bridge the Ocean project are:

If you want any further information. Please contact Durk van Wieren (d.vanwieren@aventus.nl)

The project has support from the Erasmus+ KA2 program under the name ‘Bridge the Ocean’ (agreement number 2020-1-FI01-KA202-0666532020-1-FI01-KA202-066653)