Delegates of three croatian schools, High school of Koprivnica, Commercial school of Buje and Technical school Ruđer Bošković from Zagreb, together with representatives of Zaklada Znanje na djelu, visited city of Ellwangen, within the project „VET Schools Partnership Network“, on 21st of october. This is a joint project of the European Foundation for Education – EFE, as a project leader, as well as Kolping Bildung, organization from Germany and Znanje na djelu.
„I am very happy to welcome you in my city of Ellwangen because this is exactly where we are opening a big Educational academy for all European citizens in two years. We hope this will be a place where young people from Croatia will come to study, with emphasis on the fact that our wish is for these young, newly educated individuals to return to their come countries and build a career.“, said Volker Grab, mayor of Ellwangen, in his opening speech.
This three day conference was a place where many interesting discussions about ways of connecting education and employment took place. Professor Wolfgang Schuster, the founder of EFE, emphasized that young people in Croatia deserve a fair chance of career development. „I hope that these three schools that are participating in the program will be a multiplicator for spreading knowledge and that this project will have a longtime impact on the development of education in Croatia“, said Schuster.
Project „VET Schools Partnership Network“ has a goal of connecting trade schools in Croatia with similar schools in Baden Württemberg county, county that has decades long and successful tradition of dual education, and to organize working visits for teachers of partnering schools – croatian teachers visiting german schools, as well as the other way around.
„I think this is a truly european project. On one side we have a small country like Croatia, with four million inhabitants, that is fighting with brain drain, and on the other side there is a powerful initiator like Germany with 80 million inhabitants. Together we can truly create educational opportunities for young people, but also create potential to develop their skills in Croatia“, concluded dr. Caroline Hornstein Tomić, chair of management board of Zaklada Znanje na Djelu.