Interview with our student April that has been in Wales for a Leonardo traineeship

April Jade Conte Piamonte: 
 Interview with
the Ramis Student that stays in Wales 

1.- Describe the place where you have done
your practicals 

I did my practicals in a company called Boyns Information Systems. 

Most of their works is helping PYMES by providing technical support via 

phone or on-site. They also do laptop and computer repairs. 

They sell computer stuff too. It is a small company with only about 

10 employees working in their nice newly built office.

2.- Where were you living? How was food?

I lived with a family in the town of Ruthin. It is a very quite place without

 much going on. The family who took care of me is very lovely.
The food is great if you like jacket potatoes, green peas and the 

occasional meat. Their plate is quite big so I often not finish my
meal.

3.- Do you think you were well prepared for the task you
did at work?
Yes. because I have basic understanding and IT knowledge that I learned 

from school. It's thanks to this that I did
quite well at work without needing a lot of explanations from them.

4.- Which cultural things you found more different
between Spain and Wales?
I'm really amazed that they drink a lot of coffee and tea. They drink 

about 5 cups a day compared to me that
only drink 2 at most. They also are very polite and seems formal to 

everyone. I really need to speak carefully to avoid saying something
rude.

5.- Will you go back to Wales?
Yes, I've accepted a job offer from the company that I've been doing 

my practicals so I'll
only be staying here in Menorca for about a week before going back to 

Wales. It was really unexpected that I still can't believe it myself.
I'm really excited about this opportunity!

More info:

http://ramisinternacional.blogspot.com.es/2015/02/preparatius-estades-lestranger.html

http://ramisinternacional.blogspot.com.es/2015/03/viatge-galles-liverpool-i-londres.html

New Erasmus+ project proposal (KA1 2015 - vocational studies) Abstract

IES Joan Ramis i Ramis is located on the island of Menorca and it offers two vocational studies in Computing (Intermediate and Higher Level). We are convinced that the exchange of students allows the improvement of their technical and language skills, as well as their personal growth. Besides, it provides new experiences and the knowledge of the European cultural diversity to our students. As a receiving center of foreign students, all our students have the opportunity to meet young European people that share their same interests. The foreign students we receive will have a tutor from our institution and the possibility to live in a quiet island, with a natural and scenic environment to discover, while they carry out a practical training in a local company.

Our institution has some experience in student exchanging and we are developing an Erasmus+ project right now. One of our students is spending 6 months in Hamburg and the visit of a German expert in Professional development of web pages is scheduled for the next term. In the past, we have sent students to Portugal, Italy and Finland.

In the current project we intend to send two “Technician in Microcomputer Systems and Networks” students to Finland and the UK. We have another partner in Italy, in case the level of English of our students is not enough. Our students are selected by mastering their technical knowledge, a good English language level to do their traineeships and being young, mature and enthusiastic people. We are also willing to receive two practical students from our partners. They could do a traineeship in a local company with our supervision.

Our center has a quality system integrated in GoogleDrive. The Mobility Commission has managed for the last 5 years the European practicals of our students, the Erasmus Charter for Higher Education, and the new Erasmus+ projects.  All is done in a transparent way and is published in our Mobility Blogs:
  http://ramisinternacional.blogspot.com.es/ (Blog for our students
  http://ramisinternational.blogspot.com.es/ (Blog to get exposed to international access)

The expected result is the awareness of students that it is realistic to do a practical training abroad or even work in another European country. These are very enriching experiences, both personal and professionally. We have already some experience as we have an ex-student working in London that encourages our current students to follow his steps. We also expect to improve the average linguistic knowledge, especially in English.

Our goal is realistic: to have more students interested in the following years in participating in European projects. In this way, the impact will grow, and when our students start their professional career, they  will be able to transmit their experiences to the companies they will work for.
In the long term and also thanks to other High School programmes, as the European Sections (teaching non linguistic subjects in English, in secondary education) we expect to have students with better language skills and more prepared to be updated in the last ICT technologies.