During the Week for Apprenticeships, the industrial ‘Pavarësia’ school in Vlora hosted the visit of teachers in the automotive direction from swiss school IDM. This is the first exchange visit of teachers since the schools signed the twinning agreement in January 2017. The aim of the visit was to gain a better understanding of the VET systems in both countries, as well as the learning materials and training programmes they use used.

Swiss teachers were impressed by the progress the school has made with the support of S4J. They were really interested in new module on e-cars, which they consider a pioneering initiative even for Switzerland. The e-cars module is considered a potential field for future collaboration in terms of curricula development.

The concept of the Development Unit within the school, and especially the Business Relation function fascinated the Swiss team, which is now evaluating the possibility to introduce similar structures in their institution.

Apart from exchanging with school teachers, the Swiss team also met with professionals from SHIP partner businesses to discuss how practical training is implemented in Switzerland.

Within next year, Albanian teachers will visit IDM as well. Both schools are discussing on extending the exchange also at student level.