Expand your horizons with mobility: an interview

This is the main idea that Ullmo offered during his interview with Educaweb, the portal for professionals, institutions and training centres dedicated to mobility. The following is the complete interview, in which Ullmo discusses the importance of promoting mobility in all levels of society.

The majority of universities offer international mobility programs for faculty, with the goal of allowing participants to enrich their knowledge regarding their field of interest, while acquiring cultural training, international experience and foreign language skills. However, what are the options for primary and secondary teachers?

Teacher mobility at the primary and secondary level is oriented toward praxis, for example, within the framework of collaborative educational projects (Comenius, Leonardo) which allow for short-term exchanges, or within more complex networks oriented towards teacher training (e.g., Comenius networks). The big difference from options at the university level is that the teachers themselves must create their own mobility proposals. Everything depends on their motivation to change how they teach and their interest in discovering new models. In fact, teacher mobility opportunities are frequently under utilised due to a lack of motivation or support within the educational system.

Do teachers from all educational sectors need more mobility? How can we increase mobility on an international level?

What are the arguments against teacher mobility? Mobility expands our horizons, transforms our perceptions and increases our knowledge. Mobility is, above all else, a disposition to go out to meet others in order to share and learn from them. In this sense, mobility has many different dimensions. It can be “limited” to virtual encounters. The European Union project e-twinning brings together tens of thousands of professors who collaborate online in work that is then introduced in the classroom. Reading the compendiums of best practice that the European Union publishes about their mobility programs helps us understand the reach of teach mobility and its innovative role. I invite Educaweb readers to visit the portal www.elearningeuropa.info to learn more about these best practices.

Increasing international mobility also requires evaluating how these experiences enhance the  curriculum that teachers develop on their own, establishing a framework for recognising these experiences within training programs, and "freeing" the teachers of some of their teaching duties in order to allow them to spend time developing such time consuming projects.

Do you think that knowing or not knowing multiple languages affects international mobility in Spain?

Nine out of ten Spaniards believe that knowing a foreign language is very important, but 91% of people haven't studied one, nor do they feel hindered in their workplace or degree program even though they don't have this skill (CIS, 2010). These data speak, more than any other study, to the magnitude of the problem we face. Knowledge of foreign languages and, more importantly, the value we place on cultural diversity and its role in promoting exchange are key to enhancing mobility and improving the education system.

Do you believe that we need more government funding to promote teacher mobility? What about student mobility?

Yes and no, given that educational competencies still come from each State – and in Spain, from the Autonomous Communities. An educational system oriented toward mobility would require a modification of teaching training programs, in order to introduce more flexibility in the curriculum so that exchange projects can take place during school hours, and to establish new indicators for evaluating teaching practices...

However, the European Union now regulates different aspects, and appears to use their own programs to counteract the lack of initiative on the state level, where nations suffer from inertia when faced with the task of creating their own mobility plans. We can look with awe at the success of the Erasmus program, while only 27,000 professors benefit from it each year. Regarding students, “Erasmus mobility” represents less than 1% of all the students who benefit from it (it would be 4% if we took into consideration the average duration – 4-5 years – of a student's studies).

The European Union has set ambitious goals that can not be achieved without the involvement of Member States. The initiative "Youth on the Move" http://ec.europa.eu/youthonthemove/  foresees that “by 2020 all young people in Europe will have the opportunity to complete part of their educational careers abroad, including workplace training”. This goal requires a much greater commitment from Member States. However, there is still an inconsistency between defending nationally determined educational material while waiting for Europe to solve – and finance – everything, and this has to be resolved.

What is the position of the European Commission regarding teachers' international mobility?

Within the limits of its powers, the European Commission is committed to teacher mobility. All mobility programs promoted by the European Union include teachers, albeit directly or indirectly. It is clear that the European Commission - within their limits of powers ... and budget - can not promote teachers' international mobility much more than it is doing today. Without the support of Member States, teacher mobility will remain, at a statistical level, a very minority action.

Spain is the top destination for European students who want to carry our their studies or do workplace training while participating in the Erasmus exchange program. It is also the country that sends more students to other Member States. Why do you think that this program is so successful? What options are there for students who have finished their time at the university?

The program's success throughout Europe, and in Spain in particular, is undeniable. There are about 200,000 Europeans students annually who benefit from this framework and more than 2 million from the Erasmus generation since the inception of the program. The cultural awareness that encourages mobility, and its regulated nature – this form of mobility is organised by the University and included in the curriculum - are some arguments that explain the success of Erasmus.

Spain has cultural attractions that can explain that it is one of  the most popular destinations, followed by France and Germany. However, Erasmus has had an impact in European student culture and Spain, after Germany and France, is one of the countries with the highest percentage of Erasmus students in relation to their entire university population (after Luxembourg, Liechtenstein, Austria and the Czech Republic).

It still remains to be seen what will happen to youth after having this mobility experience; right now the data on youth unemployment (reaching 45%) are chilling in this regard. In fact, there is a real risk that "Erasmus" mobility will lose its appeal if it fails to generate more employment opportunities. We are facing a challenge: inventing the "post-Erasmus", i.e., finding ways to encourage other forms of less "protected" mobility .

Do you think that more guidance is needed in order to know about all the options for studying and working abroad?

Absolutely. Building a mobility project requires more than a brochure or website. Creating contexts that allow for an exchange of experiences among youth, for example, seems to be one of the conditions that increases mobility among young people. Facilitating dialogue between businesses, the non-profit sector and young people, to generate knowledge about how mobility can help to develop new core competencies for personal and professional development, is also essential.

We organize participatory events for the European Commission which present the initiative "Youth on the Move" to encourage participation and dialogue among and with young people. This dialogue model seems to be something that could also be developed at the national level and we are trying to move in this direction.

According to the HR consulting firm Randstad, in 2010 the profile of the person willing to travel for work is a male, unemployed, immigrant, who is young and has a low educational level. Does this information match the data you work with?

Knowing that almost half of young professionals are unemployed, I question what relevancy this study by Randstad has.

The recent Eurobarometer on youth mobility in Europe shows that for 55% of Spanish young people, the largest difficulty they encounter in the labor market is the inability to find a job in their own city or region. It is interesting to compare this figure with the low mobility of Europeans in general. Unlike people in the U.S., for example, only 18% of Europeans change regions and only 4% have gone to live in another country. We are faced with a trend that transcends differences in age, social class or education level: there is low mobility among all Europeans.

However, 68% of Spanish youth say they want to have the opportunity to work abroad, while only 19% have had the opportunity to go abroad while they were studying or training (Eurobarometer, 2011). How can we respond to this desire for mobility?

Do the current economic conditions favour greater worker mobility?

31.2% of Spanish youth between the ages of 18 and 24 have left school without completing secondary education, according to the latest available data. The European average is at 14.4%. The rejection of higher education in Spain is above the European Union average and one of the the main reasons for this is the fact that higher education doesn't lead to getting better jobs and wages.

According to the E.U., the high dropout rate in Spain and the "imbalance" between a university education and the qualification level on demand in the labour market, are the two main causes that explain the high level of unemployment among young Spanish people.

At the same time, studies show that students who have done part of their studies or training in a different county have a greater chance of finding work. Employers value these students' foreign language skills, and their ability to adapt and relate better to others.

Finally, independently from today's economic situation, do you think we need to be working on mobility for the younger population? How could we achieve this?

Two thirds of young Spaniards believe that the number of immigrants is excessive and that we need to control migration patterns. 14% would vote for a racist political party if the immigration rate continues to increase. (Injuve, 2008)

Only 35% of Spanish youth are involved in activities or sports associations, which is well below the European average. 20% participate in volunteer work. (Eurobarometer, 2011) http://ec.europa.eu/public_opinion/flash/fl_319b_sum_en.pdf

Mobility has a global impact in cultural awareness and dialogue, it expresses an interest in going out to meet others, in search of opportunities.

Speaking another language,  engaging in collaborative work, conducting  research, creating your own company, participating in an art project, forming part of a social network, looking for a job in another city, region or country – all these activities are examples of mobility .

We should respond to young people's desires for mobility, uncover existing opportunities, create new prospects for training in the workplace, develop skills that businesses need and foster democratic values... In short, we need to rely on youth.