The 2nd Transnational Meeting of PRODIGE project in Barcelona

On 15th and 16th November, all partners of Erasmus+ project PRODIGE met in Barcelona for the 2nd Transnational Meeting. It was the first time partners had the chance to meet in person, to get to know each other and work together for the development of the project activities.

PRODIGE is a KA2 project and it stands for PROmote DIGitalisation for Education & training, as our aim is to strengthen the European dimension of VET centers by innovating their internationalisation strategies thanks to the use of digital tools and to the development of teachers’ digital competences. Let’s see how it went!

On the first day, we were welcomed at Citilab Cornellà in Barcelona by the representatives of Institut Esteve Terradas i Illa, the Spanish partner of the project: the teachers Lluis Vives, María Soriano Maudos and Gorka Maiztegui. At the meeting all partners were present: Cécile Aillerie and Delphine Gicquel from SEPR (FR), Lucia Mancino, Lucia Amadori and Eleonora Tagliavini from UNISER (IT), Loïc Le Glanec and Hélène Reyreaus from MFR (FR), Riikka Suhonen and Katjusa Merisaari from LUKSIA (FI), Katrin Guerra, Thorsten Noelle and Sandra Willemsen from BEZIRKSREGIERUNG KÖLN (GE), and Rita Festi from SCF (IT). Lidia Ruffa from SCF and teachers Tiina Vesanen and Heidi Häyrinen from LUKSIA took part in the meeting online.

The event opened with the introduction and overview provided by SEPR, coordinator of the project, where Cécile Aillerie welcomed us all and presented the 2-days programme.

After a round of presentations, we went straight to the project’s core activities: the Intellectual Outputs. Each IO coordinator provided an update of the activities and what it has been done so far regarding all IOs:

• IO1: Online toolkit for managing learning mobility going digital (led by SCF)
• IO2: E-Platform for a community of families supporting the internationalisation of VET schools and a tailor made learners mobility (led by UNISER)
• IO3: E-Learning course for teachers on internationalisation at home (led by SEPR)

The morning was concluded by an overview of the project development in a broader perspective, provided by Lucia Mancino from UNISER, where she presented the next steps and final goals, as well as the updated GANTT.

After the lunch break, the discussions were once again focused on the development of the Intellectual Outputs and for all of them there was a 1-hour working group moment to devise together methodology and strategy to proceed, also in preparation for the Design Thinking Seminar in January 2022.

After work, partners took some time to discuss and network and in the evening we visited a local wine cellar recommended by our hosts, to taste local specialties and get to know each other better.

The second day started with the presentation of Lucia Mancino from UNISER who summarized the discussions and activities of the previous day and gave a detailed overview of the next steps to be done, highlighting the deadlines that were decided together.

Following that, Cécile from SEPR and Eleonora from UNISER focused on the administrative tasks of the project and reminded partners what is needed in general and for the first semestral review.

After the coffee break, it was time for dissemination updates with Thorsten Noelle from EU-GES. It was reminded what the tools for dissemination and what our goals are, how to work together to produce communication materials and how we can improve what we’ve done so far. We also took a moment to discuss about the final logo of our project, who was designed by a student from Luksia (FI), Teo Ursin, was the winner of a competition with his classmates.

In line with dissemination topics, we had a workshop led by UNISER on how to design our PRODIGE website, focusing on the content, graphics and homepage. It was conducted in world café mode and after all groups finished the activities, Lucia M, Lucia A. and Eleonora summed up the main outcomes to the partners.

Finally, Loïc Le Glanec from MFR gave a presentation about quality management of PRODIGE: we had a look at the quality questionnaires and at the quality indicators for the project.

Before finishing our meeting, we had the chance to visit the Institut Esteve Terradas i Illa. Once we got there, Lluis, Maria and Gorka showed us around, explained to us how their school works and let us visit the classrooms and laboratories.

After a lunch at the school canteen, where we celebrated 2 birthdays (Katjusa’s and the school director’s Olga Quesada!) we gathered at the gym for our last workshop: creating together the Design Thinking seminar draft program and discussing in teams the people to invite.

It was an intense 2 days of works and discussions together and we are already looking forward to meeting again in January in Bologna for our next big step: the Design Thinking seminar!