PARTICIPATE+ | Open call for ESC places in Leipzig/Germany

All the projects are Longterm ESC-places from the

1st september 2020 - 31st august 2021.

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ESC in Media laboratory in Social Culture Centre »Die VILLA«

(one place)

Project dates: September 1st, 2020 – August 31th, 2021 (12 months).

Project topics: one ESC place: media laboratory (work with children and youth within media pedagogical projects, assistance of preparation, process and follow-up of courses and workshops)

Volunteer profile:

• age 18-30 years

• language: basic German knowledge is required (A2 / B1)

• interest in working with children and youth/ active and interested in social and cultural work

• interest in media and media technics

Project details: pdf

Application: Please complete the online application form that you find here.

The application deadline is February 18th, 2020.

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ESC in Social Culture Centre »Die VILLA« (one place)

Project dates: September 1st, 2020 – August 31th, 2021 (12 months).

Project topics: one ESC place

Volunteer profile:

• age 18-30 years

• language: basic German knowledge is required (A2 / B1)

• interest in working with children and youth/ active and interested in social and cultural work

• interest in media and media technics

Project details: pdf

Application: Please complete the online application form that you find here.

The application deadline is February 18th, 2020.

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ESC - international youth work: »Kindervereinigung Leipzig«

(one place)

Project dates: September 1st, 2020 – August 31th, 2021 (12 months).

Project topics: international youth work (support and take part in international youth projects), youth work like creative games and sportive activities, cultural youth education

Volunteer profile:

• age 18-30 years

• languages: basic German knowledge is requested (A2 / B1), good English knowledge

• interest in social and cultural work

• some practical experience in the work with children and youths is welcome

Project details: pdf

Application: Please complete the online application form that you find here.

The application deadline for the ESC projects is February 21th, 2020.

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ESC - Montessori Kindergarten (two places)

Project dates: September 1st, 2020 – August 31th, 2021 (12 months).

Project topics: Kindergarden, pedagogy and didactics, afternoon activities with kids eating, singing, dancing, music, games, creative activities...

Volunteer profile:

• interest in working with children

• some practical experience in the work with children is welcome

• interest to see and live the Montessori-concept

• basic German knowledge

• open-minded and communicativ

Project details: pdf

Application: Please complete the onlineapplication form that you find here.

The application deadline for the ESC projects is February 10th, 2020.

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ESC – After school care/nursery at Nachbarschaftsschule (one place)

Project dates: September 1st, 2020 – August 31th, 2021 (12 months).

Project topics: pedagogy and didactics, afternoon activities with kids (age: 6 to 12 years, eating, singing, dancing, music, games…), creative activities, after school, homework

Volunteer profile:

• interest in working with children

• some practical experience in the work with children is welcome

• be openminded and interested in free/progessive/reform pedagogy.

• A basic knowledge of German is essential.

• A plus is if the volunteers speak French native because of the bilingual profile.

Project details: pdf

Application: Please complete the online application form that you find here.

The application deadline is February 14th, 2020.

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ESC – open youth club Rabet (one place)

Project dates: September 1st, 2020 – August 31th, 2021 (12 months).

Project topics: afternoon activities with kids and youth (age: 10 to 18 years; sports, music, games…), creative activities

Volunteer profile:

• open-mindedness for all religions and social backgrounds

• interest in working with youths and some practical experience in this field

• asertiveness, friendliness and humour

• German knowledge is needed.

Project details: pdf

Application: Please complete the online application form that you find here.

The application deadline is February 14th, 2020.

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ESC - cultural youth work: »Kinder- und Jugendkulturwerkstatt JuKuWe« (one place)

Project dates: September 1st, 2020 – August 31th, 2021 (12 months).

Project topics: artistic youth work (theatre, ceramics, art, literature, pottery, drawing, photography), leisure time activities with children and youth, creativity and culture, pedagogy

Volunteer profile:

• age 18-25 years

• language: basic German knowledge is a plus

• interest in our social and cultural work

• some practical experience in the work with children and youths is welcome

Project details: pdf

Application: Please complete the online application form that you find here.

The application deadline is February 11th, 2020.

USE+FUL | What is it like to be an Erasmus+ Spanish student

My amazing Erasmus+ experience during the winter semester of last year was at the beautiful University of Madrid “Universidad Ray Juan Carlos”. I have experienced, seen and learned a lot and I am sure that many of my discoveries and memories will accompany me for the rest of my life. In the end, I not only lived in Madrid, but it also remained as a second home with many new lifelong friends.

As with any "fresh start", my first two weeks were basically about navigating the urban jungle, finding an apartment and finding the people I would like to spend my time with. In Spain, there is the "idealista.es" website that almost all of my Erasmus+ fellows visit and check on a daily basis. I was lucky and didn't have to spend much time searching for a room: a Spanish friend from Madrid provided me with a central and beautiful room in a 3-bed apartment. So, I had enough free time to meet all the interesting people in my intensive Spanish language course at Erasmus+ University. Unfortunately, there were some Bulgarians among them, which made it difficult to speak Spanish. Nevertheless, a ridiculously small group of Germans, Greeks, Canadians, French, Portuguese and Mexicans had formed relatively quickly, contributing to the multicultural environment. In retrospect, it must be said that the mix of many different nations is more important to my time in Spain than to the culture in which the whole work took place. Other Erasmus + programs in Padua, Valencia or Istanbul also confirm this experience: the meeting of so many countries is characteristic of Erasmus+.

Overall, my semester abroad has taught me to manage my time properly and to be responsible when it comes to learning. Of course (despite the great temptation to speak English or Bulgarian), I have also improved Spanish and established my own connection with Spain. However, my biggest souvenir is the connection with all those people who live different lives than me, who come from different cultures and regions that have different ideas for a successful life and a successful evening, and that look to the future with different eyes. Although everyone is unique at home, Erasmus+ has let me know how different these things can actually be.

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by Rosen Ivaylov

VIE+W | Studying “Banking” in high school

My name is Yoana Zapryanova. I am from Plovdiv, Bulgaria and I am 18 years old. I have always been fascinated by finances and banking. Therefor I had decided from young age that this was the sphere I wanted to prosper in. Which is why I began studying in the National High school of Commerce in my hometown. It was founded in 1910 at the initiative of the Plovdiv Chamber of Commerce and Industry and currently it has more than 1000 students.

I had the chance to choose between many profiles, for example: Accounting, Industry, Business Administration, Customs and Tax Administration, etc. but at the end I chose “Banking” because it appealed to me the most. I also chose it because of the language. I have always been studying English and finding that my speciality was with German language made me love it even more. Another thing that made me chose it was because I don’t like language high schools and would have loved to study a speciality instead of just 1 language.

The banking profile has 2 parts when it comes to subjects. The ones that are mandatory for every student in the country are language studies, science, biology, etc. And those that are only for that specific profile. We start the specific subjects at grade 9 which till 12th grade makes trainees 24 in total. We study few types of accountings (practice with theory), banking, few types of finances, law, statistics, entrepreneurship, economics, business communication, economical informatics. We study: how the National bank is connected to the commercial bank; how to open an account; how to lead the accounting in a firm, bank and the budget; how to make a statistic research; how to read and understand the laws; how to create our own programs which help with our speciality; about foreign investments in Bulgaria, financial analysis of the bank's creditworthiness, non-cash forms of payment used in international trade, value of money over time, financial portfolio, marketing mix, foreign exchange market operations, etc.We study things in dept and from what I talked with my friends who study in universities, we study things with the intention of learning and understanding more than they do in university. Sometimes I even have to explain to them stuff. It amazes me how much more one can learn in a trade high school.

The most interesting subject for me was “Work in a school enterprise” in which we had to create our own bank. We worked like a real bank in the virtual website called buct.org and in April 2019 we had to represent ourselves and our bank in the International School Firm fest 2019. We even won 3rd place in the Best Bank contest which made me very proud.

This year we will have a similar subject but instead of a team making a firm/ bank on their own. I find it good to have those things because they help us develop as people since they bring out our inner motivation and help us work as team.

Another thing I love in our school is the mandatory practice. In 11th grade to graduate we needed to attend mandatory practice in real firms/banks for 2 weeks with 10 topics to write about with our experience in the bank. We, as trainees in the banks, learned how to work with clients, how to manage dealing with co-workers, how to use web banking and fill out documents. I am very excited to have this class this year as well and go to the bank again and learn even more things.

As the last year of high school is approaching the National Professional exam is very close. It will show us how well we have learned about finances and banking for all those years. It would be difficult but I know I can do it.

Speaking about the exam makes me sad because it means time to leave school is near. I would miss my school and especially my teachers. They made learning this hard material easy and understandably. I would really miss them and the school.

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by Yoana Zapryanova

Participant in

YE “Save our money”