Mrs Daria Mihaylova from Bulgarian associated ENNE network partner National High school in finance and business completed 5 days Job shadowing program at EPROMAT – Escola Profissional de Matosinhos in Portugal.
Within ENNE Project, the implementation of Job-shadowing experiences abroad among VET teachers and Staff aims to:
- Give teachers the opportunity to observe and learn the best practices developed in other EU countries;
- Get inspired by new ideas for teaching in VET;
- Give the hosting organisation the opportunity to interact with a teacher coming from another country and discuss about today’s educational challenges and opportunities;
- Create/strengthen connections between teachers and potential partners, capable of providing them with expertise and resources for their classrooms and schools.
Here is what Daria says about her experience:
Why did you participate in the Job Shadowing activity? What were your main goals?
I took part in mobility with the intention of accumulating additional experience in the organization of the learning process in a vocational school, to observe the work and functionality of a vocational school outside my country. As a humanitarian discipline teacher at a vocational school, I wanted to see ideas that I could implement in my day job. My interests were focused on IT and the field of multimedia, as these are areas where I make efforts to increase my qualification and the experience I have gained will be useful to me in working with students, and it is also know-how to share with my colleagues. I was able to see a practical absorption of digital, professional and humanitarian competences. To discover the benefits and opportunities that vocational education provides so that I can include them as part of my daily teaching and administrative work. I gained knowledge and competencies in the field of VET teaching and administration, as well as had the opportunity to learn about new teaching methods.
What were your expectations? Did you manage to get most of the experience?
My expectation was to see a functional and interdisciplinary application of professional competences. During my stay at the school, I saw interdisciplinary approaches and the application of extremely many inter-essential connections, also emphasized teamwork and enhancing students’ cognitive and performance skills. Together with our Portuguese colleagues, we had the opportunity to participate actively in the teaching process and the work process, which was key to gaining experience.
What was the most interesting thing you learned related to your job/duties?
The most useful experience I gained from my stay at the Epromat school was the different approach to teamwork of students, the evaluation of their projects and their presentation. The ability of students to work extremely interdisciplinary, such as in IT and multimedia classes, to prepare sites and projects related to other subjects. In this way, they accumulate professional skills, but also build on their knowledge in all school disciplines.
The overall experience was extremely useful, I found new ideas and techniques that I will be able to apply to teaching in my school. I have also enriched myself with a lot of interesting information that I can share with my colleagues.
