Working abroad in a foreign country is a challenge which implies a great effort in order to familiarize with the customs and the culture of the new country as well as the chance to assume bigger roles and greater responsibilities in their professional career. Either the culture shock or even issues like support, the uncertainty, etc. can directly affect the professional efficiency. For this purpose, the project aims at finding out, which components an ideal intercultural preparation and an integration programme for companies should contain.Usually the need for being prepared for international exchanges is restricted to those who will go abroad. But a decisive role for a successful exchange program plays also the mobility partner that is i.e. training instructors or those who work with foreign employees. Similar to employees they have to deal with intercultural and communicational challenges. Combining these two target groups permits an overall preparation of all parties involved in mobility programs: foreign participants as well as companies and their employees. In the first step, there will be a research and collection of studies regarding early termination of mobility and significant problems during mobility experienced by expats and apprentices/trainees. On this basis, the main reasons for early termination of mobility will be summarized.In the second step, the opinions, fears, hopes and experiences of different target groups (see below) in connection with their mobility will be discovered. This will be done by interviews and surveys with these target groups. 1. Expats- Expats, who are going to go abroad (e.g. their aspirations, aims, fears, hopes and, most importantly, their opinion on how a perfect preparation should be like.)- Expats, who are currently abroad (e.g. their current challenges, whether they participated in some kind of preparation and if it was adequate to prepare them for those challenges)- Expats, who just got home from abroad and especially those, who terminated their mobility earlier than planned. (e.g. their experiences and difficulties during the mobility, especially reasons (e.g. whether they do have preparation programs, what components they include and how successful they are)2. Companies, who work with expats (e.g. whether they have some kind of integration programs for their employees and incoming expats and how successful they are)There will be a minimum of 25 surveys per partner and per target group (Expats and companies), so 50 surveys per partner, thus 250 surveys in total.There will also be a minimum of 12 interviews conducted by each partner, so 60 interviews in total.The aim of the research, the surveys and interviews is to identify and categorize:1. The most crucial factors in the different areas (such as intercultural competence, language, building a social environment, psychological aspects, etc.), which lead to severe problems or early termination of mobility.2. The factors/components which should be included in every expat preparation program3. The factors/components which should be included in every integration program for incoming expatsThe final aim is the Elaboration of a report which summarizes all findings from the surveys and interviews. This analysis will reflect the real situation of abroad assignments as well as a list of recommendations or best practices to improve this kind of professional mobility in all the countries involved (Germany, Italy, Belgium and Spain). For this reason, we expect significant findings, as there will be a deeper knowledge of the key factors which guarantee a successful expatriate assignment.The participants can use the results in order to improve the quality of their work, intercultural communication skills and the success of their foreign assignments. The project partners benefit from the project from gaining insights regarding education paths in other countries, establishing and broadening their international network and moreover, they can use the results as a basis for further projects in this area, such as the design of a preparation/integration program, that contains all of the most crucial factors that were found during this project and to use it.The results will be disseminated even after the project has ended, so its sustainability implies results in the short and long-term. Also, every person with whom the results are shared, can use them for their own creation of preparation/integration programs. Besides, the participation of project partners in international networks ensures its incorporation and multiplier transfers to other people interested in or even companies which want to develop good strategies for their present or future expats.

BACKGROUND The high rate of accident occurrence, especially at works in heights was confirmed by the results of a previous project “H&S Games. Serious games on Health and Safety for mobile learning” (2015-1-ES01-KA202-016003), showing that works at height were the most important topic in terms of Basic H&S skills. According to Eurostat (2014), the construction industry is leading the ranking regarding incidence rate of serious and fatal accidents. This project addresses this difficulty directly, focusing on risk prevention associated to works at height since the training stage. It seems necessary to anticipate better the training needs on Health & Safety (H&S) at works at height, in order to set up an EU common training scheme that will provide workers with the skills to work under safety conditions nationally or abroad. OBJECTIVES *To tackle Health and Safety risks on works at height using open online training tools which allow autonomous knowledge, skills and competences learning on occupational risk prevention. *To propose an innovative educational approach through the development, testing and implementation of serious games (gathered in an app). * To define a theoretical and practical learning frame of the main risks, risk factors, and preventive measures for works at height, including trainers, students and experts on VET from the beginning. *To allow the autonomy, exploitation and transfer of learning processes and training over time, even beyond the end of project’s life cycle. * To design a roadmap which establishes the standards and necessary steps to recognize the content of the proposed traineeship (in EQF terms) according to the European frame and EQAVET recommendations. PARTICIPANTS Different profiles linked to construction sector targeted: VET entities, local public bodies of VET, students or apprentices, low-skilled workers, migrants, companies, trainers, teacher trainers, social agents and H&S entities. -Direct participants: 500-600 -Potential or indirect participants: +1.000.000 7 entities experts in VET and/or the application of ICT to training participate: -Fundación Laboral de la Construcción (Leader, ES) -Institut de Formation Sectoriel du Bâtiment. (LU) -Open Universiteit Nederland (NL) -Westdeutscher Handwerkskammertag (DE) -Warrington Collegiate (UK) -Centro Edile A. Palladio (IT) -Chamber of Construction and Building Materials Industry of Slovenia (SL) METHODOLOGY The project is structured along 24 months planned in different steps which include specific activities leaded by the partners. The working methodology will combine qualitative (focus groups) and quantitative (questionnaires, online survey) techniques, to get first-hand information regarding H&S and ICT. ACTIVITIES *PROJECT MANAGEMENT AND IMPLEMENTATION ACTIVITIES. This activity will be devoted to guarantee a proper implementation of project activities as well as a financial monitoring thereof, under ISO and EQAVET quality criteria. *PROJECT IMPLEMENTATION. FIELD WORK This group of activities will cope with the development of the key contents: IO1. Set of learning outcomes on prevention of hazards IO2. Development of the App with serious games IO3. Guide for trainers: pedagogical use and technological exploitation of Upp_Games IO4. Experimentation and external validation: Pilot experience and validation *PROJECT IMPLEMENTATION. ENDORSEMENT This activity will have a double aim: to create the National Advisory Groups (NAG) and the Technical Advisory Group (TAG) and to start up a standard process of recognition (IO5: Standard recognition of the Learning Outcomes). *PROJECT DISSEMINATION, VALORISATION AND SUSTAINABILITY This activity will put into motion concrete divulgation actions aimed at achieving the highest impact possible: multipliers events (Infodays, Final conference), international events as well as a complete set of activities to spread project results throughout social networks, press and targeted diffusion. RESULTS AND IMPACT The project is expected to have impact in some main target-groups: - Low-skilled workers from the construction industry: they will improve easily their skills on H&S issues especially in the works at height by using the new App. - Construction VET trainers / teachers: they will have at their disposal a clear and user-friendly resource to improve and/or develop the serious games of the App, adjusting them to the needs of the target group in each teaching-learning process. - Construction VET students and apprentices: the implementation of the project throughout learning outcomes will allow these target groups to acquire new skills adapted to the evolution of the labour market needs during their training or apprenticeship. - Construction VET providers: they will directly benefit from the activities in several ways: their training contents will be modernized, more adapted to the H&S skills required by companies.

At the origin of the project, several surveys conducted by observation structures of construction trades in France, Germany, Belgium, Spain, Italy, Poland, Portugal and the United Kingdom showed a mismatch between the expectations of the companies and the nature of trainings for middle management on sites. In addition, analyzes demonstrated difficulties in recruiting team leaders and sites managers, not because of the shortage of manpower in general, but often for lack of training sufficiently adapted to the evolution of these functions.This is why the partners reviewed, updated and experimented the training courses concerned, so that they match more to the evolution of standards, organizations and operating procedures on site, in accordance with the wishes of the economic world and in relation with the profile of the candidates available to be site manager or team leader. 9 organizations took part in the project:•8 training centers for construction trades (4 national networks : CCCA-BTP (FR) – coordinator, FLC (ES), Formedil (IT), Cenfic (PT) and 3 regional networks : IFPAME (BE), BZB (DE) and FLC Asturias (ES) and a local center : Warrington Collegiate (UK)),•A research organization specialized in training engineering and validation of learning outcomes (IBE (PL))The partners realized the following productions:•Identification of the transversal skills of the team leaders and site managers desired by the companies and their matching with the training available,•Formulation of the training contents for team leaders and site managers grouped in 9 thematic blocks and 43 training units (with the evaluation criteria) that can be grouped into larger blocks of training,•Accuracy of training methods and tools adapted to the objectives and contents of the targeted trainings, aiming the individualization of the training and support process of the learners,•Design and life-size experimentation of a transnational model for the validation, recognition and transparency of the learning outcomes from the training courses designed and implemented by each partner. These main productions were accompanied by numerous ancillary productions: progress reports, national analyzes and methodology tools (annexes 15-27).In addition, the partners organised:•8 results dissemination seminars (Infodays) specifically dedicated to the project that brought together training professionals, representatives of social partners, researchers, institutions and representatives of companies,•Communication actions during meetings and seminars not specific to the project but concerning its target audiences (board of directors of partners training organizations, professional days, trade fairs for vocational guidance, technical meetings concerning other partnerships for skills),•Publications, mainly digital, on their websites as well as on www.constructyvet.eu about the life of the project and the available productions.Common productions can be adapted to the specific contexts and objectives of each partner, in terms of contents, teaching and evaluation methods. The intention was to propose a model allowing each organization to take a step back from its national references, to integrate the good practices and to select those which can be the most useful. Annex 1 contains a summary of the project phases and a list of productions. Annex 2 presents its progress over the time.Key figures:•Interviews in the companies: 112•Learning units designed : 43•Experimental sessions implemented : 59•Number of participants in the experimental sessions : 782•Number of Infodays: 13•Number of participants in the Infodays: 286ALL THE ANNEX ABOUT THIS PROJECT ARE AVAILABLE ON THIS INTERNET ADDRESS : http://www.reforme.org/2018/10/31/constructyvet-project-mission-accomplished/