DEMO – Digital European Mobility: transnational internship in Europe
Context
The DEMO project was designed to offer students from our Vocational and educational training course MEG – Operatore grafico professionale the opportunity to gain valuable work experience abroad. Its aim is to promote the development of professional, linguistic, and soft skills that are highly relevant in today’s job market, through direct exposure to real-world working environments.
The project is structured in three main phases:
A preparatory training phase
A three-week international mobility experience in Bernburg, Germany
A final reflective and dissemination phase
Objectives
The project pursues two key objectives:
- Bridging the gap between school and work by fostering skills such as active European citizenship, foreign language proficiency, and professional expertise.
- Encouraging personal growth and independence, as participants lived in shared apartments during the mobility period, supported by mobility tutors. This setting is to help them develop responsibility, autonomy, and teamwork skills.
Project Details
- Funding: Fondo Sociale Europeo Plus – Regione Toscana
- Project Coordinator: Zefiro Società Cooperativa Sociale
- Duration: October 2024 – October 2025
Project Development
PHASE 1 – Training (Completed)
After a first round of dissemination and selection (6 participants), students took part in a comprehensive training program from January 2025 to August2025. This included:
- Digital skills through a video-making course
- Language development via a German courses
- Soft skills through cooking classes, orientation activities, and teamwork sessions
PHASE 2 – Mobility (Ongoing)
On August 19th, the group departed from Lucca and arrived in Bernburg, Germany. There, with the support of a German partner organization, students carried out internships in various local companies.
They lived in a shared apartment with support from two dedicated tutors. This kind of setting has been designed to foster a sense of community and cooperation, while also encouraging autonomy and responsibility in managing the house independently, as well as personal and group routines. .
PHASE 3 – Reflection & Dissemination (To do)
We believe this experience should not be an isolated episode in the students’ lives. For this reason, we scheduled a series of meetings after the return from Bernburg to:
- Reflect on personal and group experiences
- Discuss what went well, what was challenging, and what lessons were learned
- Explore how this experience can influence their future paths
- Evaluating the long-term impact of the project
- Organizing a final celebration event, during which participants will share their stories—supported by videos they created during and after their stay in Germany.
