Education. Vision. Mission.

Organised by the Education Working Group of the European Students' Forum and sponsored by the German Ministry for Education and Research the initiative is the first of its kind in Germany.

Education is supposed to replace an empty mind with an open one.

(Malcom Forbes)

What is it all about?

The Mobility Training School (MTS) will assemble 25 students from all over Europe who work as a volunteer in their organisation or who collaborate with their universities in order to recruit and consult their fellow students in matters of going abroad.

What's the purpose behind?

During this 1-week training we intend...

... to widen the participants' view of European education policies [in other words: how come that we are doing what we are doing?]

... and to train on project management, self-presentation, workshop and team leadership.

You won’t just have the chance to considerably boost your soft skills and knowledge on European education matters, but to meet and work together with some most highly ranked representatives of Europe's student organisations..... Read more

visit webpage: http://www.mts2008.de.vu/

The Organizers
The AEGEE EWG

The AEGEE Education Working Group (EWG) assembles active European students who initiate training seminars, conferences, open debates, exchanges and study trips on what is at the core of AEGEE’s fields of action: higher education matters.

Founded in 1990 EWG has contributed to European Projects such as EuReka, the UniDebate and Education Unlimited. Based on our belief that cooperation in Higher education in Europe and student mobility play an important role in creating a European Identity we strive to foster student collaboration in:

- European education policies (Bologna Process etc.)

- mobility issues

- matters of lifelong learning and

- the recognition of non-formal education.

www.aegee.org/wg/ewg

AEGEE - European Students' Forum

AEGEE stands for Association des Etats généraux d'Etudiants de l'Europe, or: European Students' Forum.

With 241 local groups in over 40 countries AEGEE is the largest interdisciplinary student association in Europe: secular, voluntary, politically independent and a non-profit organisation open to students of all faculties.

AEGEE strives for cross border co-operation, communication integration among students and to create an open and tolerant society of tomorrow. We promote the idea of a unified Europe trying to focus on four main fields, which are Higher Education, Cultural Exchange, Peace and Stability and Active Citizenship.

With its head office is situated in Brussels, AEGEE is supported by the European Commission and enjoys a consultative status at the Council of Europe, UNESCO and the United Nations. For years now it is also member of the European Youth Forum.

www.aegee.org or www.aegee-mannheim.org

About the MTS

Having catered for almost 2 000 000 international students last year German universities are at their peak when it comes to receiving and sending students from and to other countries. With 30% of those figures Central and Eastern European countries hold the lion share of this ever growing rate. At the same time prosperous economies make hundreds of German students travel back and forth every year.

Multiplying mobility in Central and Eastern Europe.

The overall aim of the MTS is to significantly improve the quality of student counselling and consultancy in promoting mobility at their home university. Unlike the usual training the MTS goes way beyond lectures, workshops and simulations, but challenges participants in real life situations which will be evaluated in small peer groups in order to maximise the personal learning outcome. Debates with representatives from university administration, political institutions and companies as well as the planning of a “real” European project on mobility will be part of the training.

The objectives of this training are

... to increase the participants’ knowledge on: European education policies, mobility benefits and obstacles, chances and drawbacks of the existing grant schemes.

... to empower participants to run and follow up projects (organisation, PR, fundraising), to use feedback correctly and as a tool to motivate team members, to design workshops and to competently lead project teams.

The methodology consists of a sound mixture of lectures, workshops, simulations and case work that are spiced up by a number of realistic training sessions where participants will debate with representatives from higher education institutes, companies and political institutions. The lectures and sessions are run by university authorities and experienced youth trainers, all current of former European board members of their student organisations and European-level project managers.

The MTS Trainers

Astrid Schrader - Germany

astrid

Having graduated from high school in the UK Astrid has lived in Canada, France and (most of her time) in Germany. She has lead a range of international youth projects, the first being a cooperation between The Netherlands, Bulgaria, Turkey and Germany.

Since mid-January she is also the designated representative of German youth towards the United Nations.

www.jugenddelegierte.de

Her training background ranges from local level workshops via international youth trainings to trainings of European Boards of other student organisations. Since March 2007 she presides the Education Working Group Board within the framework of which she initiated a project in Greece on active citizenship, self-leadership and non-formal education which will (hopefully ;-)) take place in collaboration with the Council of Europe and the European Commission. She holds a certificate as a business mediator and is a member of the AEGEE pool of trainers, AEGEE-Academy.

Core fields of training: higher education, project management and teamwork.

Maarika Merirand - Estonia

maarika

In her "civil life" Maarika is doing a Master in Economics and working at a cancer research company in Tartu.

She was found by AEGEE and the idea of international youth work in 2001. During those years she participated in and organized a range of local and international projects.

Having managed the financial flows of the "EuroIslam" project, a project aimed at investigating Muslim life in Western Europe, she took over the post as chief manager in the AEGEE flagship project 2006: The "Take Control" Project. "Take Control -Ways to Democracy in Europe" consisted of a series of international training events, conferences, political campaigns, educational and media activities all intended to increase the involvement and engagement of young people in the (European) political process.

http://www.projects.aegee.org/euroislam/

http://www.projects.aegee.org/takecontrol/

Core fields of training: organization and project management

How to apply

Interested in the MTS?

For non-AEGEE members:

1. Read the invitation email here

2. Download the form here

If you are an AEGEE member or if your sending organisation has been contacted by us personally, you will have an application form which is slightly shorter than this one. In that case just ignore what is on this website and fill in yours. If you lost it, just send us an email :-) and we will send it again.

3. Send it back to Laura.Thissen@aegee-mannheim.de until January 15th 2008. 24:00 CET

We will inform you, when your application has been accepted.

For AEGEE members:

1. Read the invitation email here

2. Fill in the application form you have received by the EWG board. In case you would like to request it, simply write an email to Astrid.Schrader@aegee.org who will send it to you accordingly.

3. Send the form back to Laura.Thissen@aegee-mannheim until February 4th 2008. 24:00 CET

4. and tell Laura in case you need an invitation letter or any other help with your VISUM!

We will inform you when your application has been accepted.