International mobility projects allow specialists from an educational institution to undertake further training or teaching activities abroad. How does it work in practice? Simone Rizzi, member of the SVEB Executive Board, reports on his visit to the Netherlands.
Thanks to movetia’s support, from the 27th to the 30th of March 2023 a delegation from Ticino had the opportunity to visit the HKU Utrecht University (University of the arts) and the Floreshuys Kunsteducatie Nederland training institution in Zwolle. The aim of the study visit was to explore the topic of the use of ludodidactic in adult education. Among the participants of the trip were three people working for the vocational training department (Divisione della formazione professionale) of the canton of Ticino in the field of adult education and a SVEB representative.
The topic of ludodidactics is currently being explored by the SVEB as part of the Erasmus+ Move Your Mind project which made it possible to get in touch with the two institutions visited in the Netherlands. The programme included a first day in Zwolle, where the participants were able to learn and experience how the ludodidactic approach used by Floreshuys Kunsteducatie Nederland to develop awareness-raising and adult education activities based on an “Escape Van”, which is set up to organise topic-specific escape rooms. After the visit to Zwolle, the Swiss delegation travelled to the HKU University in Utrecht where Evert Hoogendoorn and Willem-Jan Renger (who developed the ludodidactic approach) organised an intensive one-and-a-half-day workshop to explore the topic of ludodidactic and its possible application for the development and design of training activities with adults.
Challenging and educational
The agenda for these three days was intense and required flexibility and a good ability to adapt to situations and transfers. The meetings with Dutch colleagues were interesting and enriching, and the opportunity to visit two different realities was one of the highlights of the three days spent in the Netherlands. The opportunity to experience a practical example in Zwolle made it possible to appreciate and deepen even more the theoretical aspects related to ludodidactics that were discussed in the second part of the trip in Utrecht.
Furthermore, Kunsteducatie Nederland’s Escape Van, which at the time of our visit was set up for an awareness-raising activity on human trafficking, aroused enthusiasm and great interest, and provided hints for a possible transfer of this type of activity into adult education, in particular in the domain of basic skills promotion.
After the visit, what had been lived and experienced was presented on different occasions to teachers, trainers and interested parties, arousing great interest in ludodidactics. The experience of the Escape Van was also put to good use and the vocational training department of the Canton of Ticino already adapted a van for this purpose, proposing several awareness-raising activities on the topic of basic skills during public events.
Interested yourself?
The SVEB offers its network the opportunity to realise such mobility projects in the context of a pool project. Would you like to undertake a similar trip in the context of your work? Would you like to enable your colleagues in your educational institution to undertake a further education trip? Then contact Marianne Müller, research assistant at SVEB.