Erasmus is not just for students !
Ever thought of broadening your horizons during a job shadowing? Thanks to the Erasmus+ programme, you can do it anywhere in Europe, and it's even easier within the UNIC network. Véronique Fettweis, Technopedagogical Advisor for MOOCs at CARE Digital Tools, spent 5 days in Bilbao at our UNIC partner, the University of Deusto.
On her return from her trip to Bilbao, Véronique Fettweis invited all the members of CARE Digital Tools to a lunchtime get-together in the MOOC studios. This was an opportunity for the technical education advisor to look back on her experience in the Basque Country and share her impressions and lessons learned with her colleagues. "Every day, I had resource people to meet. It's not just about attending a course. This job shadowing format forces us to go into depth, while being totally à la carte", comments Véronique. Meeting our counterparts, exchanging views on each other's practices, making contacts for the future, visiting sites, discovering the equipment and methods of colleagues who work in totally different environments to our own: "It gives us a perspective on what we're doing and feeds into our unit's ongoing reflections!"
Staff mobility concerns you too!
The mechanisms that enable you to go abroad as part of your job are often little-known, yet they are within everyone's reach. As Véronique Fettweis explains, "as far as the administration and organisation are concerned, I have nothing to say, it was very easy and I would urge everyone to try it! This experience has also enabled me to strengthen internal links within the University of Liège, by sharing my feedback".
The mission formats supported by ULiège's International Office enable short-term stays, where the benefits outweigh the constraints. "You don't have to go away for 3 months and cut everything short. There's a way of finding a balance with this type of short-term stay, for someone who doesn't want to leave their job for too long, who has a family life, and so on. That's what I really liked about it," explains Véronique Fettweis.
In English or ...
While the language used during stays in non-French-speaking establishments is usually English, you can also take advantage of the opportunity to improve your skills in other languages. In the case of Véronique Fettweis, her stay in Bilbao was also an opportunity to improve her Spanish. "Before doing the exchange, I took Spanish classes for a year at ISLV. So the immersion allowed me to force myself to get by, and I really benefited from it." On her own initiative, Véronique Fettweis contacted the ISLV's equivalent department at the University of Deusto to attend Spanish language classes with other foreign students once she was there. "I mainly wanted to practise, so I wasn't alone, and I wanted to try and connect with campus life. And everywhere, people were extremely welcoming, took the time to explain things to me and found solutions to help me discover as many things as possible!"
If you too would like to discover another culture, expand your network, share your best practices or seek inspiration from colleagues, within the UNIC network or elsewhere, don't hesitate to get in touch!
Intranet - Mobilité du personnel
