Overall Estrategy

IES Duque de Rivas is a public high school with Vocational Education and Training instruction that develops Basic, Medium, and Higher Vocational training levels in different professional domains authorised by the Spanish Ministry of Education and Comunidad de Madrid. We have been participating in different Erasmus programmes since 2013 when the institution took part in a Comenius project.

For the last six years IES Duque de Rivas has been successfully promoting and developing a Comenius Association (2013-2015), and two projects, Key Action 1 and Learning Mobility of Individuals. These are also called KA103, Training mobility for higher education (mobility for individuals), and KA102, Project for VET learners and staff through a Consortium led by the DGFP.

All mobility activities have been supported and funded by the European Union, as they contribute to the objectives of the project in aiming to help generations of Europeans become active citizens, with the skills, knowledge, and experience to tackle the challenges facing our society, both now and in the years to come.

Additionally, this past year we applied to a K229 Action, which is being considered as a potential application in this field. We have also been awarded the ERASMUS CHARTER FOR HIGHER EDUCATION 2021-2027.

The Erasmus Charter for Higher Education (ECHE) provides the general framework for European and international cooperation activities that a higher education institution may carry out within Erasmus+. The award of an ECHE is a pre-requisite for all higher education institutions located in a Programme country willing to participate in the learning mobility of individuals and/or cooperation for innovation and good practices under Erasmus+.

Based on what has already been achieved, IES Duque de Rivas is committed to continuing to meet these objectives and to establishing new ones, following the guidance from the European Commission based on the following priorities:

• Erasmus+ will be more inclusive: it will offer greater opportunities to all people, including people from diverse cultural, social, and economic backgrounds.
• Erasmus+ will be more digital: Erasmus+ will support the development of digital skills, in line with the Digital Education Action Plan. It will offer high-quality digital training and exchanges through platforms such as eTwinning, School Education Gateway, Aula Virtual Educamadrid and encourage traineeships in the digital sector.
• Erasmus+ will be more sustainable: In line with the European Green Pact, the program will encourage participants to use more sustainable modes of transport like the bus or train, if possible, promote awareness of environmental issues and facilitate exchanges related to the climate crisis, like reducing the use of paper with more digital integration.

The Erasmus Programme has been integral to the construction of this European Higher Education Area, and the IES Duque de Rivas has participated in it since 2013. Since then, objectives have been defined in accordance with the goals planned in each edition of the Erasmus Programme. These goals have had a very favourable influence on IES Duque de Rivas’ modernisation process, governance, and the definition of strategic lines of internationalisation.

Our objectives, in summary, are:

• To continue promoting the mobility of students for traineeship and extend this mobility to internships and to accompanying academic staff, to achieve not only an increase in mobility figures but also an improvement in the quality of the activities carried out.
• Establish new mobility schemes that include online and virtual teaching and activities through the development of information technologies.
• To promote cooperation with institutions and companies through participation in KA122 and KA131 actions.
• To support and promote the development of greater cooperation through collaboration with educative and non-educative institutions.
• Encourage the establishment of international bilateral agreements with the mechanisms to be integrated into the new Erasmus Programme through coordination in the learning field.
• To contribute to the construction of a true European Higher Education Area through participation in traineeship in other European countries.
• Provide our students with a sense of initiative, intercultural richness, greater development, and promotion of an entrepreneurial spirit.
• To improve the employability of our VET students.
• Improve digital skills through communications, connections, and use of European platforms (e-twining, Aula virtual Educamadrid, etc) 
• To continue with the CLIL methodology to improve the linguistic competence aimed at Certification.
• To improve and increase self-esteem, interculturality, and awareness of the European project and the EU to generate a broader understanding of education, training, or youth work practices, policies, and systems in all EU countries.
• To extend existing and adopt new inclusion measures for people with diverse cultural and disadvantaged socioeconomic backgrounds.
• To promote Digital Skills as an instrument to foster the social commitment of students, as well as other types of activities related to volunteering and international cooperation for development.
• To continue working on measures that promote care for the environment, both in and out of the school setting.
• To promote the inclusion of the Sustainable Development Objectives in the different activities of the school, as well as in the international field, especially objective 4 and 11, which are directly related to education and equality.
• To work on simplifying the management of academic and administrative procedures, namely promoting the use of non-paper methods.

Implementation of Erasmus Activities in the Institution

• KEY ACTION 1: LEARNING MOBILITY OF INDIVIDUALS

The IES Duque de Rivas has been participating in mobility actions since the beginning of the Erasmus Programme, back in 2013 (Comenius Project). Since then, our institution has developed other Erasmus Projects by means of KA103 - Higher education student and staff mobility within programme countries - and KA102 - VET learner and staff mobility. This long experience has allowed the development of an efficient institutionalised management system. In this new stage, the aim is to continue promoting mobility opportunities, both for VET and Higher education students, as well as for complementary students from ACTION 1 in the following eligible activities:

Mobility of higher education students and staff - KA131-HED (Student mobility for traineeships)

Mobility for pupils and staff in school education-KA-122 (Long-term learning mobility of pupils)

Impact of Erasmus+ Programme in the Institution

The main mentioned impact of the Erasmus Programme is its important contribution to modernising and defining the internationalisation strategy of the school.

Furthermore, we conclude that there are other relevant impacts of the Programme on achieving our objectives, which take advantage of synergies between the different levels of education, beyond just professional studies: 

• Inclusion and diversity in mobilities:  The quality of mobility will manifest itself, on one hand, by increasing the number of mobilities every year to reach, if possible, the objective proposed by the European Commission, and on the other hand, by offering mobility to people with diverse cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds. In other words, people with otherwise fewer opportunities is a potential participant. Special attention will be given to alliance between institutions in partner countries, according to strategic guidelines.  Qualitative indicators, such as annual mobility figures, will be used as references for the implementation of new European organizations, as needed according to necessities for student mobility for placements. This builds the capacity of schools to engage in cross-border exchanges and cooperation, as well as to carry out high-quality mobility projects.
• Quality of mobility: Cooperation in the development of curricula, working on reincorporation to the home school after mobility. Mutual recognition of learning between institutions supervising the process by means of common projects developed on online platforms (e-Twinning), analogous objectives, improved language learning, incorporated innovation, and digital advances in education (Digital Transition)
• Sustainable and responsible environmental practices work on the development of the Erasmus Without Paper project, which will contribute to the simplification of the management and the environmental sustainability of the programme by reducing its environmental footprint. Provide support to participants on practical issues such as using environmentally-friendly transportation, finding appropriate accommodation, and arranging health and liability insurance, where appropriate. It will also offer linguistic support (OLS) and help in integrating into the host country and school life, through a system of mentoring-tutoring in which associated institutions participate.