Nemzetközi Erdészeti Együttműködés

The two schools both wanted to expand their international networks, find partner schools in forestry VET, which is a very small part of VET, so internationalisation was important. To learn about d...

The two schools both wanted to expand their international networks, find partner schools in forestry VET, which is a very small part of VET, so internationalisation was important. To learn about different teaching and learning methods and to experience different classroom teaching styles were also important. We also wanted to expand and refine the students' perspectives on another country, culture, people, food, language, urge them to speak English as much as possible and be more open to others and expand their social network internationally. We also wanted to give the chance to students to have more field practice on forestry machines in Finland, which is a lack in Hungary, while the Finnish students and teachers were introduced to different forest types in Hungary and their problems concerning climate change. Work based learning and learning by doing is a strong pillar of the Finnish education that can be a good example of students participating in the project and the intensive exposure to different forest types in Hungary can give knowledge advantage to Finnish students of the project.

There were six definite activities in the project. The first one was a teacher visit from Hungary to Finland. It was planned to meet in person the colleagues of WinNova, explore the area and the school itself. Two teachers from Hungary took part in this activity. The second activity was an intensive preparation course for students in Hungary. The students learnt more about Finland, its forests and nature, culture, language, practiced professional English. This prep course was open to everyone. The third activity was a one-week long study-trip to Finland. Participants from Hungary were treated as Finnish students and got a full-scale insight of Finnish education in the forest. The fourth activity was another cultural preparation course held for Finnish students. It was conducted in Finland by teachers of the profession and online by a Hungarian teacher. The prep courses were for students and accompanying teachers as well. It was followed by the second one-week long study-trip to Hungary (5th activity). Participants learnt more about different forest types and about problems and solutions caused by climate change. The last activity was the dissemination event alive and online both in Finland and Hungary.

The one-year long project was summarised and its results were shared in a leaflet in three languages (English, Finnish and Hungarian). Both organisations have these printed leaflets in order to advertise the project and the importance of internationalisation. We could open up students' curiosity about another nation's teaching and learning practices, culture and make them more inclusive. This project was a pilot programme as well to learn about the two institutions and continue cooperation with student mobilities in the future.