If you are a young member of the European Community and you want to improve yourself over the summer, read on and know more about the Leonardo da Vinci program.

Leonardo da Vinci is a program by the European Community which has a main goal to support national training strategies through funding a wide array of transnational partnership projects designed at improving quality, nurturing innovation, and promoting the European dimension in vocational training.  It was established by the EU for the field of professional training to support the partnership of EU and EEA Member States. The program promotes projects which are based on cooperation between a range of participants in vocational training such as vocational schools, universities, training bodies, chambers of commerce, businesses and a lot more.  The program which is sometimes referred to simply as Leonardo, aims at helping people improve their skills throughout their lives.

Leonardo is a program which has three major objectives such as to improve the skills and competencies of people; to improve the quality of and access to continuing vocational training and the lifelong acquisition of skills and competencies; and to promote and reinforce the contribution of vocational training to the process of innovation. The program aims to improve the quality and skills of people especially the mobility of young people in initial vocational training at all levels which can be achieved through work-related apprenticeship and vocational training with a vision to promote employability.  The program also supports measures which qualify for support from the European Community such as mobility, pilot projects, transnational networks, and reference material and language competencies.

The Leonardo program is best known for its mobility projects.  It encourages young people to spend a working period abroad from three to twelve months in order to achieve valuable intercultural and practical experiences.  The program gives grants to students from the EU Member States and EEA countries who are interested in doing internships abroad and learning new skills.  There are many reasons why you should apply for an internship such as to expand intercultural experiences, to be familiar with a foreign working environment, to apply the academic knowledge you have learned, and a whole lot more.

Some of the conditions of the internship program of Leonardo include you to be a student in one of the European Community countries; an internship that will last from three months to a year for students from universities or other institutions of higher education, or two months to one year for those who are within twelve months of obtaining a diploma or educational degree; the activities and projects to be carried out by you as an intern must be related to your studies at your home university or educational institution, if your internship is not related to your field of study you are not legible for a grant; and the internships must be accomplished on a full-time basis with at least thirty-five working hours per week.

If you already know the language being spoken in the country where you wish to be an intern, that is a bonus but if you still need to learn the language, there are several available language programs prior to your internship abroad.  Most interns are required to have at least basic knowledge of the language in the country of internship. You can avail of language courses either at your home country or the country where you are going and you need not worry since the program can refund a portion of your expenses for your language courses.  Once your internship starts, you will be able to improve your skills in your field of study and you will also be able to develop your language skills since you will be immersed in the language and the culture where it is spoken.
If I were you, I will learn more about the kinds of Leonardo grants on hand for young students by doing more research on the matter and if I will be able to avail it.  Who knows, a great adventure lies ahead!  Being an intern in another country and being able to explore and experience its language and culture is surely one great way to spend summer!

This entry was posted on Monday, June 23rd, 2008 at 1:06 pm and is filed under Language Schools. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.