13.1 MOBILITY IN EARLY CHILDHOOD AND SCHOOL EDUCATION
There are no national programmes, projects and/or initiatives enabling pupils, students or trainees to undertake part of their studies in another country. All realized projects are related with European Community action programmes in the field of education and training.
Mobility in early childhood and school education in the Republic of North Macedonia is mainly enabled within the framework of the Erasmus + programme and is realiezed through the variety of key actions such as: KA 101 School Education Staff Mobility, KA 102 VET Learner and Staff Mobility and KA 116 VET Learner and Staff Mobility with VET Mobility Charter.
In the Republic of North Macedonia, for the period 2014 - 2020 the total number of approved projects for KA 101 School Education Staff Mobility is 88 projects and for KA 102 VET Learner and Staff Mobility is 124 projects. For the same period the primary and secondary schools in the Republic of North Macedonia realized the pupils / student mobility as well as teacher mobility and other activities in the total value of 1.305.544 Euro for projects in KA 101 School Education Staff Mobility and 6.154.657 Euro for projects in KA 102 VET Learner and Staff Mobility. From 2017 the VET schools started to participate in the KA 116 VET Learner and Staff Mobility with VET Mobility Charter. In the period 2017-2020 the 7 VET schools were granted with VET Charters and 13 projects were funded with 930.765 Eur. The Erasmus+ VET Mobility Charter encourages VET schools to organise high-quality VET mobility for learners and staff and to build their European internationalization strategies.
• 1 Pupil and student mobility
Within KA 102 VET Learner and Staff Mobility, the learners’ mobility is an important part and the project comprised one or more of the following activities: (1) mobility in VET providers and/or companies abroad, from 2 weeks to less than 3 months; (2) long-term mobility in VET providers and/or companies abroad (ErasmusPro), from 3 to 12 months. In the period 2014 – 2020 the total number of mobilites of VET learners is 2811, out of which 2472 mobilites are realized with approved quotas for mobility and the others 339 are paid from the organizational support.
Activities were realized in the form of full work placements with learners hosted in a company or other relevant organisation, or at a VET provider (a school, institute or other organisation providing vocational education and training) offering a combination of school based learning and work placements. In the case of long-term mobilities (ErasmusPro), the activity had a clear work-based learning component – usually in the form of a work placement in a company.
Each mobility activity is set within a quality framework previously agreed upon by the sending and receiving organisations to ensure a high level of quality for the activity, including a "Learning Agreement". The learning outcomes are formally recognized and validated at an institutional level; course contents are adapted as necessary to ensure that the mobility period abroad is well fitted to the course in which the apprentice/VET learner is enrolled.
Within the projects in KA 116 VET Learner and Staff Mobility with VET Mobility Charter, the total number of 327 students’ mobility was realized in the period 2017-2020.
• 2 Teacher mobility
Within КА101 Mobility School Education Staff, one or more of the following activities are related to the staff mobility: (1) teaching assignments: this activity allows teachers or other school education staff to teach at a partner school abroad; (2) structured courses or training events abroad: support the professional development of teachers, school leaders or other educational staff; (3) job shadowing: provides an opportunity for teachers, school leaders or other school staff to spend a period abroad in a partner school or another relevant organisation active in the field of school education. In the period 2014 – 2020 the total number of mobilites in of school education staff within KA 101 was 584.
Within КА102 VET Learner and Staff Mobility, one or more of the following activities are related to the staff mobility: (1) teaching/training assignments: this activity allows staff of VET providers to teach at a partner VET provider abroad. It also allows staff of companies to provide training at VET provider abroad (2) staff training: this activity supports the professional development of VET staff in the form of a work placement or a job shadowing/observation period abroad in a company or any other VET provider. The total number of 300 VET staff mobilities were realized within KA 102 in the period from 2014-2020.
Within the projects in KA 116 VET Learner and Staff Mobility with VET Mobility Charter the total number of 78 teachers’ mobility were realized in the period 2017-2020.