Day 7: Bye-Bye, Garbsen

Friday has been a tiring day. We left home at about 12:00 to take the flight to Amsterdam, where we had to wait for about four hours. By the time we get home, it will  already be 23:00. It has  also been a very sad day because it was our last day in Garbsen and some of us may not see our partners again. Anyway, we are coming back home after living a really positive experience and looking forward to meeting our families again!

We have learnt a lot about the types of Educational Systems in other countries, especially about Vocational Studies. After comparing the situation of Youth Employment in Germany, Norway and Hungary and that of our country, now we understand how big the problem of unemployment can be for our future.

Today, when we go to bed and fall asleep, we will know that we have two families; one here and another one in Germany.  Ane San José

Day 6 - Presentations and Evaluation

 Thursday was our last day at school. We started the morning finishing up our work in the workshops, and after lunch, we gave the presentations.
Our final task was to evaluate the activities during the week. The evaluation sheets were taken by the guest countries to be analised.
Finally, we all left school and said goodbye to our new friends from Norway, Hungary and Germany. we still had one more day to enjoy the company of our partners and German families before flying back home.

Today we have continued working at school in the workshops that we chose three days ago. Some people worked in filmmaking, photo stories ,advertisements, etc… It has been a sad day for the Norwegian students because they have to go back to their country today. Gaizka Paulin

Today was our last full day here. It was a sunny and beautiful day. I woke up at 8:00 in the morning because we had to be at the high school at 9:00. When I got up and I looked through the window, I realized that the weather was fantastic. I had a shower and then, my German sister and I had breakfast together. We left home at 9:15 and we went walking to the high school. From 9:30 to 12:00 we worked in our workshops and then, at 12:00 we had lunch all together at the cafeteria. After this break, we presented our workshops in the auditorium and we finished the presentations at 3:00. Then I went home with my partner to rest because we were really tired. Finally, we met with the other students at a restaurant for dinner. It was an amazing day and I enjoyed a lot. Maialen Mata

Day 5 - Working at School

On our 5th day in Garbsen, Wednesday, we worked very hard. We started the morning with a Panel Discussion. We listened to 6 different people talking about their experiences. Ms Kremkow (Counselor). Mr Jagla (Entrepreneur) ,Mr Scharnhorst and Mr Rosenthal (two Dual Studies Students), Mr Cardenas (Vocational Trainee from Spain) and Mr Kamphuis (Recruiting Manager)

Our students also asked questions and we all learned a lot from them such as the importance of soft skills when looking for a job.

Afterwards, the Principal of Geschwister-Scholl-Gymnasium talked to us about the importance of these European Projects and how we can all benefit from them.

In the afternoon, we went on working in our different workshops: Film making, Press Group, Photo Story, Advertisements and Role Playing. In them, we had to prepare creative products related to our topic: Youth Employment. All the knowledge acquired throughout these last six months was taken into account. We also video recorded some students´ opinions about the visits that took place on Monday and Tuesday.

Finally, we took a family picture in the school yard and were really happy reading the article published in Hannoversche Allgemeine Newspaper.  

In the morning, at 9 am, we met at school. We listened to people who are working or doing vocational training. At 11:45am, we had lunch at the canteen. At 2pm, we worked with the computers on the project that we have to do. When we finished, around 3:30 pm, we went back home. Later, we met at 6pm more or less. We prepared everything for the National Evening and at 7:30 pm it started. It finished at 9:30pm, so as soon as we cleaned the room, we went home. Alazne Lopategui

In the evening, we had a Cultural/National Evening. each country prepared something to show their partners, we had wonderful food and we sang and danced a little bit. we would have liked it to last longer, but by the time we left it was already 9:30.

Visits to Companies and Institutions (days 3 and 4)

These two days were very especial. Instead of working at school, we visited different educational institutions and several companies in the area around Hannover. We were divided in groups with no more than 20 students in each group.

On Monday we visited four educational institutions. The International office of Leibniz University, a Vocational School, the Design Faculty in Hannover University and the Police Academy of Nienburg. We were given general information about them, which qualifications are required to enter them, the kind of studies offered, future careers and types of jobs that you will get once you get your degree there.

My group visited  the Design Faculty in Hannover University, where we learnt about the kind of studies offered there. We also learnt how important creativity and team work are to help you find a job. It was a very entertaining and interactive visit with practical games. Gaizka Garcia.

At 8:30 we were driven to the train station. We took the train to Nienburg to visit the Police Academy. They gave us a presentation about the academy and three students explained what it is like to study there, their expectations and why they decided to enter the academy. We had a practical part, we learnt how to take the mark of footprints. Laura de Freitas

On Tuesday, we went to five different companies. Bewernick, a textile company, Grecon Fagus-Werke, a company that makes wooden soles for shoes, Solvay GmbH, a chemical company, the Town Hall in Garbsen and HAZ, a newspaper. On these visits we learned about the kinds of jobs offered and the skills needed for these jobs. Some of the people who we met there were students in their training practice (trainee) or in their internship.

Here, in the following presentation, you can see a few pictures of all these visits.

This morning I took two buses and two trains to go to the Town Hall of Garbsen. There, with other Spanish, Hungarian, Norwegian and German students, we visited the different parts of the building, such as the meeting point or the conference room. Three trainees showed us a presentation with the main information of the type of work they do there. Iker Benito-Butron

In the morning, Tabea and I intended to meet Ola and Leire but we lost the train. Luckily, while we were waiting for the next one, we met Oihana, Leila (her partner), and some of the Norwegian and Hungarian people so we went with them in the train to Haz, the newspaper company.
Hanoversche Allgemeine, Neue Presse. This newspaper is one of the top 10 newspapers in Germany and it was founded by MADSACK in 2007.
We were privileged because we could see the newspaper printing "factory" and the 8th floor of the building. There, the journalists write their news about politics, sports, culture, art, celebrities, etc. It has been really interesting.
After that, we went to Hannover to have lunch. Then, we went to school for some hours to go on with Workshop II and III. We had a choice of 5 activities and we chose Photo-story. It has been very funny and I hope tomorrow it will be funny too.
After school, some of us went to the Kebab to have dinner. We had a good time there too, because the boss of the restaurant gave us free food only because we were Spanish!! And we taught him some Spanish words. Then, we stayed at Leila's house having fun and eating chocolate.
It has been a great day! (Naia Ostaikoetxea)

Today, Tuesday, I woke up very early, at 7 o'clock because some of us had to go to the shoe factory and it was too far. When we arrived there, they explained to us how they work and what you have to do to get a job in the factory. It was really interesting. Then we went to  school where we were divided in different groups. I was in the and I was in the advertisement workshop. We thought about the advertisement that we are going to prepare tomorrow. Then some of us went to eat a really good and big kebab. Then, a lot of us came to Laila's house and we had a lovely time all together. Amaia de Velasco

We started the day waking up at 11 o'clock in the morning. We had breakfast, we prepared ourselves to fight against the cold and we left home at 11:45. We picked up Alazne, Laura M and Aitana as their partners were at a prize delivery, and we went to our last company visit of the week. We visited a little textile factory and we were received by the boss of this company. She told us the amount of countries her company works with and the importance of every employee's job. She also told us that it's a family job that it only includes 7 employees. When we finished this little visit we went back to school and started with our workshops. I was assigned to do a film and Hungarian, Norwegian, German and Spanish students worked together for two full hours. At 6 pm we left school and Kübra, Alazne, Laura, Janika, Rickard, Svenja, Aitana, Jan Ole, Gorka and I met at the Café del Sol where we had a nice snack. After that, we all went back home, had dinner, and went to sleep, hoping that the following days would be as nice as the days before. Gaizka Criado

Days 1 and 2 - Workshop I

Summaries of Saturday and Sunday

                             Gorka and Laura                            Ane and Irati

We spent our first day in Garbsen with our German families. We visited Hannover,went shopping and we bought bus tickets for the week. Here, you can see something  really special that we saw and heard in the city.  In the evening most of us had dinner at a restaurant called Bar Celona. It was a good beginning for our first day with our German partners.

On Sunday, our second day, we started working on our project. We met at the school Assembly Hall, where the teachers from the four countries (Norway, Hungary, Germany and Spain/The Basque Country) welcomed us. First, we got to know all the participants of this multilateral meeting through some ice breaking activities and then, we gave the presentations that we had prepared on Reasons for Youth Unemployment. After that, we were divided into multinational groups, we discussed about the information given by the four countries and came to conclusions which we showed on posters. Finally, we prepared a gallery walk with all our posters. In the following slides you can see what we did, how we did it and our products: the posters summarising the reasons for Youth Unemployment in the four countries. 

After all this hard work on a Sunday, we deserved a good ending for the day so, we went to Hannover and took a lot of pictures of the lake, the Town Hall, the University and The Museum. Finally, some of us went bowling. We had a great time!

MULTILATERAL MEETING : THE FLIGHT

On March 11th all the Erasmus+ students went to school as every Friday, but it was a very especial day!!!

In the afternnon, we met at the airport and after saying goodbye to the parents,brothers and sisters, we got on the plane.

We flew to Amsterdam and from there to Hannover, where our German families were waiting for us. We arrived safe and sound. Everybody was excited about the week ahead.

Have a look at some images of our flight there.

Erasmus + Students Travelling to Germany

Here we are back again to give news about our Erasmus + project.

We are travelling to Garbsen (Germany) next Friday. There, we will be meeting our partners from Germany, Hungary and Norway.

Last November you saw pictures of our sad students saying goodbye to their German friends. Now, it is time to meet them again and get to know the partners from two of the other schools taking part in our project Youth Employment.  The other three schools from France, Poland and Greece will also meet in Caen (France).

Since November we have been working at school comparing the Educational Systems of the different countries in the project and preparing presentations about Reasons of Youth Unemployment in our country. We have done a lot of research and have also learned about employment in History lessons.

 After all this work, we are going to spend a week in Germany (March 11th to 18th ) where we will learn about the reasons of youth unemployment in the other countries and  visit companies to know about the German labour market.We will also use the e Twinning platform to upload the products created during our stay in Germany and to learn about what our partners in France will be working on.

In the following presentation you can see some pictures of our group preparing this multilateral meeting and the articles published in two local newspapers about us. (Getxo Berri and HIRUKA)

Everybody is looking forward to the meeting!!