Erasmus VET placements in Córdoba are one way to bring learners to southern Spain, but they are not the only one. This October, three different formats are running in the city at the same time: a school mobility for a carpentry class, VET placements inside local companies, and job-shadowing for professionals. If you are planning a project and wondering which format would suit your learners or your colleagues, here is what each one looks like on the ground.
School mobility: a class learns a trade by building
The month opened with a Swedish carpentry class on a school mobility, a short stay in which a whole vocational class travels together. Most of the week was practical. In an outdoor workshop, the students built brick arches from scratch: chiselling bricks to fit, mixing mortar and laying each course by hand, alongside local students.
For a teacher, this is the appeal of the format. The class stays together, the programme is built around a trade the students already study, and at the end of the week there is something real they can see and touch.
Erasmus VET placements in Córdoba: learning inside real companies
A VET placement is a different experience from a school mobility. Instead of a class project, each learner joins a company and becomes part of its team for several weeks. This month our groups are spread across very different trades, and that variety is the point.
Technical trades
Our Swedish electrical trainee is fitting equipment at ceiling height inside a Córdoba office, doing the installation work an electrician does every day, only in a second language and on someone else’s site.
The Danish mixed group shows how different two placements in the same group can be. Some trainees are with ITEC Instalaciones Técnicas, a technical installation company, where the work is practical from the start. Others are in a car workshop, learning on real vehicles alongside the local team.
Retail, services and care
Erasmus VET placements in Córdoba are not only about workshops. In the Swedish mixed group, one trainee works in a sports shop, where the owner welcomed the newcomer into the daily life of the shop.
Our Finnish hairdressing trainee has been at Pastorini Peluquero since late September, building skills in a working salon.
The Hungarian architecture and construction group is placed with local companies, including MASOL, and the German administration and education group is hosted by, among others, Centro de Educación Infantil Sonrisas, a childcare centre.
Job-shadowing: a few days, a lot of ideas
Not every professional stay needs to be a full placement. In job-shadowing, a teacher, trainer or other professional follows a colleague at a host organisation for a few days, sees how things are done and takes new ideas back home. This week a Lithuanian professional started a job-shadowing stay in Córdoba, and a Hungarian job-shadowing group arrives later this week. It is a lighter alternative to Erasmus VET placements in Córdoba, and a good way to see another way of working before committing to a bigger project.
What every good host company has in common
The trades are different, but the formula behind good Erasmus VET placements in Córdoba is always the same. Learners are given real tasks, not busywork. They have a named tutor who explains what to do and why. And they are treated as part of the team from the first day. Córdoba is not a big city, yet its local businesses keep opening their doors to young people from across Europe, and that generosity is what makes these experiences work.
Learning in a workplace gives young people something a classroom cannot: a real context for the skills they already have. Technical vocabulary, safety routines and teamwork take on a different meaning when they are used to get a real job done for a real customer, and learners practise a foreign language where it matters most, on the job.
Is Córdoba the right place for your project?
Whoever you talk to about Erasmus VET placements in Córdoba, a few questions are worth asking. Which companies will host my learners, and in which trades? Who will be their tutor on the first day? What does the first week look like? We are happy to answer all of them, and our article on the first week of an Erasmus+ VET placement in Córdoba shows what to expect from day one.
Planning something for next year? Get in touch with us and tell us about your learners, their sector and your dates, and we will suggest the format that fits. Companies in Córdoba that would like to welcome a trainee are just as welcome to write to us.
Coming up
A German nursing group and a Czech mixed group arrive at the end of October. To learn more about the programme behind Erasmus VET placements in Córdoba, visit the official Erasmus+ website.