Elisabeth Görsdorf-Lechevin & Sergio Fernández Valero

• As part of the Erasmus+ programme, our school does not only send students and teachers to other schools across Europe, we also receive guests. In so-called job shadowing exchanges, teachers visit a school and learn more about its system, attend and observe classes and exchange with teachers and students.
  Thus, from April 24 to 26, 2023, Sergio Fernández Valero, an English and German teacher, and Aurora Bastida Lobato, a tourism teacher, visited our school for three days. Both of them teach at IES La Pedrera Blanca an upper-secondary vocational school in Chiclana de la Frontera, Andalusia, Spain. Our Spanish colleagues came to Graz to learn more about our school type, the vocational and dual school system and see teaching and learning practice in action.
  Throughout the visit and many discussions and exchanges, we found out that the Spanish system works differently. In Austria, we can do lots of practical training in our school kitchen and restaurant which is integrated into school and well-equipped, whereas in Spain, a dual system has been introduced to combine school and practical training. This implies that students attend school for general subjects and do in-house trainings in hotels for their practical subjects (learning on the job). In various further exchanges and meetings with teachers and students as well as through observing language and practice classes, our colleagues got a deeper insight into how a vocational school and the system in general works in Austria. One afternoon, they could also see the manager of Hotel Süd, one of our practice hotels in the South of Graz.

As a teacher and coordinator for Erasmus+, it was great to have Sergio and Aurora as guests, and it was also a big pleasure to see how professionally our students dealt with inquiries in English, in particular in service and at the reception. A group of final year students also practiced their Spanish skills by giving a school tour in Spanish. We are looking forward to further cooperation with IES La Pedrera Blanca!
A final word by Sergio Fernández Valero on his visit: “We must admit that we had great expectations with our visit to HLW Schrödinger in Graz and the truth is that the Erasmus experience has been totally profitable for us. We have been able to see first-hand how professional training works in another country, how the dual system is organized and how facilities are managed at school. We have to say that we are delighted with the wonderful organization of HLW Schrödinger’s school. We really liked how students learn foreign languages more autonomously following a portfolio and always based on basic competences. We have felt superbly welcomed by teachers there and, especially, by the school’s internationalization team. Thanks a lot, Elisabeth. We would like to continue sealing a fruitful collaboration between both schools and hopefully we can visit each other very soon, for sure.”