Apprenticeship mobility in Europe

InT#Tech was an ERASMUS+ Strategic Partnership project investigating the internationalisation of apprenticeship or Cooperative programmes. Four universities (INSA (France), Duale Hochschule Baden Württemberg (Germany), Metropolia (Finland) and Heriot-Watt University (United Kingdom)) offering apprenticeship-like programmes worked to understand the route to international experience for apprentices during their programme. Part of this project involved the comparison of delivery models to identify commonality that the partners can use to facilitate exchange. In order to test the efficacy of exchange a Summer School was organised in Edinburgh during the Spring of 2019 for a limited number of apprentices from each of the four partner universities. The Summer School comprised expert lectures on subjects relevant to the areas of study and work of the apprentices. This Summer School was the pilot run for an International Module designed to run over an extended period in 2020. The plans for this were curtailed because of COVID and eventually a compromise programme was required, and this was delivered between March and June 2021. This paper will identify the challenges uncovered as part of this work and recommendations for other providers who want to design an international element to their apprenticeship programmes.