Erasmus Charter for Higher Education 2014-2020.pdf


ERASMUS POLICY STATEMENT (OVERALL STRATEGY)


IES VIRGEN DE LAS NIEVES' INTERNATIONAL (EU AND NON-EU) STRATEGY

IES Virgen de Las Nieves is located in La Palma, a non-capital island of the Canary Islands archipelago, from where the access to the Mainland and elsewhere in Europe is quite complicated. The students of our institution come from all areas of population of the island, which has 85,000 inhabitants. Our economy is based mainly on tourism and agriculture, being the presence of manufacturing and industry very poor.

Our HEI offers six Short Cycle Degrees, corresponding to four Departments:
- Hotel Industry and Tourism
- Electricity and Electronics
- Administration and Management
- Sports and Physical Activities

Since 2006, IES Virgen de Las Nieves is certified in ISO 9001, which means that all processes, activities and tasks performed in our HEI are organized according to a quality management system. Thus, it has been possible to better respond to the educational needs of our students, thanks to the effort and daily commitment of all the staff, that drive fowards continuous improvement.

The purpose of our international strategy is that students and staff of our HEI could be part of projects under Erasmus+ programs, participating in mobilities and hosting students or staff from other institutions. The actions to be undertaken in these projects aim to achieve the following objectives:
- Achiving greater awareness of the European project and the values of the EU.
- Complementing professional skills through experiences which occur in regions where training, business and manufacturing dimensions are different from the island’s ones.
- Improving foreign languages skills.
- Giving students the opportunity to experience other cultures and developing skills such as autonomy, maturity, selfempowerment, self-esteem and entrepreneurship.

The above objectives, together with the knowledge areas of the six degrees we teach, are the starting point when looking for cooperation partners (companies and other institutions) and define the criteria for their selection. We are not limited to a geographical area, although try to choose sites where price of stay, accommodation, meals and flight do not exceed our budget.

The international projects that we will develop once granted the Erasmus Charter for the 2014-2020 period can be of various types. Thus, we can classify them into:
· According to the origin of the participants. Projects may involve participants from our own HEI (outgoing) or other institutions (incoming).
· Depending on the type of participants. They may be students, teachers or administrative staff.
· Depending on the action to be performed. The mobilities can be students for studies, students for traineeship, staff for training or staff for teaching.

Our first objective when applying for the Erasmus Charter is to be able to offer our students the opportunity to carry out their traineeships in a company abroad. However, taking advantage of the ECTS credits system, we would also like to open ourselves to the possibility of developing mobilities of students for studies. Finally, but very important, IES Virgen de Las Nieves desires to develop mobilities of staff for training and teaching. These will make a great contribution to the training and experience of the staff involved and therefore, for our institution, benefits that we have already felt in the past with the Leonardo Da Vinci programmes.


IES VIRGEN DE LAS NIEVES' STRATEGY FOR THE ORGANISATION AND IMPLEMENTATION OF INTERNATIONAL (EU AND NON-EU) COOPERATION PROJECTS WITHIN THE FRAMEWORK OF THE ERASMUS+ PROGRAMME.

Our strategy is focused on two actions:

1. Creating alliances with companies that perform innovative and creative activities within the professional profiles of the studies that are taught in our HEI. This will be a learning opportunity, for students delivering mobilities for traineeships, as well as for the teachers who will get involved in projects for training.

2. Cooperating with educational institutions in other countries. These partnerships will allow us to import and export ideas, activities, methodologies, experiences ... and will encourage the modernization and internationalization of higher education in the partner countries.


EXPECTED IMPACT OF OUR PARTICIPATION IN THE ERASMUS+ PROGRAMME ON THE MODERNISATION OF OUR INSTITUTION.

The participation of IES Virgen de Las Nieves in the projects which include the Erasmus + program will contribute to modernize and update of our HEI. Thus, taking as reference the five priorities of the Agenda for modernization and internationalization:

1. Increasing attainment levels to provide the graduates and researchers Europe needs.
The opportunity to participate in mobility for studies and traineeships is an added attraction that appeals to potential students of our titles. These projects allow our students to acquire better abilities in both their professional skills and personal as autonomy, maturity, self-empowerment, self-esteem and entrepreneurship. In addition, the mobilities are an effective motivation method for the students to decide to continue their education and access to other higher studies.

2. Improving the quality and relevance of higher education.
The mobilities of staff, for teaching and training, provide strategies to innovate the techniques applied among schools.

3. Strengthening quality through mobility and cross-border cooperation.
In order to develop European projects, our HEI establishes bonds with companies and other institutions. This favours the improvement of our management skills and strategies of internationalization, encouraging greater operability in an EU level.

4. Linking higher education, research and business for excellence and regional development.
Our HEI is located in La Palma, a non-capital island of the Canary Islands archipelago (outermost region), where the presence of manufacturing and industry is very limited. The development of European mobilities allows knowledge and experience innovation to be transmitted to the business sector of the island; also supposing an opportunity to build international contact networks and to develop an European awareness of citizenship and identity.

5. Improving governance and funding.
The further development of European mobilities will allow continuous improvement of actions and strategies in their implementation, as well as the opportunity to get alternative forms of financing from companies that value the benefits which these bring.