A new beginning for ENAC: 3-H Project (Head, Heart, Hand)

ENAC was one of 65 organisations to obtain approval for a new European project entitled 3-H Project (Head, Heart, Hand).

The main aim of the project will be to tackle the problem of the high number of young people in vocational education and training who are demotivated or unhappy at school, a problem that has been exacerbated by the pandemic.

Tools, methodologies and, above all, an improvement in teachers’ skills in motivating and promoting “well-being at school” are needed, which is essential for managing and preventing early dropout.

Starting from these premises, the 3-H project focuses on socio-emotional aspects, i.e. the development of practices to promote MOTIVATION and WELL-BEING OF STUDENTS AT SCHOOL.

Specifically, the project will focus on:

Developing knowledge and methodologies to enable teachers to work on socio-emotional aspects

Outlining a strong model of reception, dedicated to the first months of students’ entry into vocational education and training courses

Developing/adopting good practices that promote students’ well-being at school (from reception onwards) and motivate students

Developing meaningful project-based learning experiences jointly between teachers and pilot class groups from various European VET centres, so that students and teachers have new opportunities to connect with each other, develop socio-emotional skills and learn content in an authentic and contextualised way.

Keep following us on our page facebook and instagram to stay up to date on the project’s development!

An international November for the CMC in Trento

November was marked by internationalisation for the CMC in Trento. Two major international projects were carried out, designed and developed with the support of ENAC.

Erasmus+ call for proposals in collaboration with Medien College Berlin

The first mobility programmes abroad for 2022 are also beginning to take shape! This time, six students from CMC Trento have been selected to take part in the ENAC+ 2 programme. The mobility experience will take place in Berlin at Medien College Berlin, from the end of January to the end of March 2022, coinciding with the curricular internship period for fourth-year students.

‘I decided to apply because I think it’s a great opportunity to step out of my comfort zone, improve my English and grow professionally as well as personally,’ says Yasna Pederzolli, one of the students who applied.

Arianna Mattar adds, ‘I decided to apply for the two-month internship in Berlin because I think it’s a great opportunity to grow mentally and, above all, professionally, and to understand what I want to do now and in the future.’

Virtual mobility with Koning Willem I College

From 15 to 19 November 2021, the first part of “So far but yet so close” took place. This virtual mobility project, in collaboration with Koning Willem I College, involved 16 Dutch students from class 2B and a selection of 16 students from classes 4A and 4B at CMC.

During this week of virtual mobility, the students were tasked with working remotely as a team to agree on all stages of garment production. The assignment involved creating a complete denim and leather outfit inspired by Italian and Dutch designers.

‘I enjoyed this experience. I learned a lot from this collaboration and improved my teamwork skills. I think this experience was useful and interesting.’

‘It was an intense week, full of new experiences, satisfaction, hard work and knowledge. From this virtual exchange, I discovered how to collaborate better with other people and also how to work faster. I hope to have the opportunity to repeat it.’

These are some of the comments made by the students at the end of the week.
All the garments created were sent to the Netherlands for a photo shoot. In the coming months, they will be presented at an official fashion show in Trento.

CS-21 project from Ghent to Madrid, two years later

‘Teacher, we’re going out with the Spanish students, see you later at the hotel.’ That’s how the first day of the CS-21 project training week in Madrid ended. And we have to say, it couldn’t have ended better! After just one day, our students had made new friends and were chatting away in a mixture of English, Spanish and Italian.

After almost two years of hiatus, the Creative Skills 21 – Improving teaching and learning of 21st century skills for the creative industry project has resumed. The project sees students and teachers from eight European countries working together for two weeks to design and implement a creative project aimed at developing some of what are defined as 21st century skills. In this case, for the first of the two weeks, Communication and Cooperation were chosen, and both the students and the participating teachers had several opportunities for reflection and development.

During the week, they had the opportunity to participate in workshops on Design Thinking and Storytelling and put what they had learned into practice in group work. Teachers also attended another seminar on developing communication skills through cooperative learning.

At the same time, they took part in conferences on the theme of inequality, divided into three areas: economic, educational and gender. This was, in fact, the theme on which the groups had to work to design their projects to be carried out during the second week, which will be held in February in St. Gallen, Switzerland.

Two girls and two boys from the CFP Canossa in Magenta participated on behalf of ENAC, accompanied by their graphics teacher. It was a very intense week for them, as they found themselves competing with students who were often older than them and had much more advanced language skills. Nevertheless, none of them ever backed down and, on the contrary, they all gave their best, despite the fatigue and difficulties, improving their language skills day by day, but above all gaining self-confidence and developing a great deal of resilience.

As mentioned, the project will continue with a second week in Switzerland for the implementation of the projects and then with two more weeks involving students and teachers from the SFP in Verona, travelling to Finland and Portugal.

Tuva tells us about her experience in Italy

Tuva is a Norwegian girl who decided to spend a year abroad, attending 4C at the humanities high school – theatre and cinema at the Canossian Institute ‘Madonna del Grappa’ in Treviso. Here’s what she told us:

“I remember very well when I decided to spend a school year abroad: it was March, dark and very cold, as always during winter in Norway. In addition, lessons were online at that time because of the pandemic. I was a bit tired of everything and wanted to do something fun and new. I said to myself: why not spend a year abroad? The idea was tempting but at the same time it scared me tremendously; but then I decided to take the plunge and left. Now I live just outside Treviso with a family of four: my “parents” and my two “sisters”, who are 17 and 19 years old. I get on really well with them. My sister Beatrice and I go to school together. This has been a great source of reassurance for me because I always have at least one person I can talk to easily.

In any case, my classmates were very welcoming and I never felt excluded. This opportunity to change schools and meet new people will never happen again: this is one of the reasons why I highly recommend spending a year abroad.

However, the experience with another school system has its pros and cons. It is no secret that Italian school is more difficult, but I would say that it is also much more interesting than school in Norway. Here in Italy, more effort is required, but this means that in my final year of school in Norway, with the final exams, I will be better prepared to study.

It’s true that a year abroad isn’t all easy. There are big changes and lots of rules that you just have to accept, even if it’s difficult. I really recommend all students to spend a school year abroad because you experience very strong emotions and unique experiences.

A new project… extraordinary

The new Erasmus+ project in the creative sector officially started on 1 March. With the partnership already tested in the previous CS-21 project, a new project was presented as part of the extraordinary call for funding for strategic partnerships in response to the impact of Covid-19 on digital education and creativity.

The project is led by the Grafisch Lyceum in Rotterdam, which, for 18 months, will spearhead this exchange of good practices with the aim of advancing and strengthening the capacity of teachers in vocational education and training centres to develop and deliver effective, high-quality and inclusive digital education within the creative sector.

The current crisis linked to the COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the need for modernisation and digital transformation of education and training across Europe. While many institutions have adequate resources and considerable knowledge and experience in providing students with effective online teaching, others, unfortunately, do not.

During this global crisis, educators have had to adapt and learn very quickly – in “real time” – how to plan and deliver an engaging and inclusive “remote” curriculum, while helping their students adapt to the enormous change in the way they acquire new knowledge and skills.

In practical terms, the project will support teachers in acquiring and developing these skills/knowledge through the organisation of training weeks – one of which will be organised by ENAC – in which they will use accessible online teaching tools and share ideas, digital resources, experiences and good practices. Experts will be on hand during the training events to hold masterclasses and share innovative practices.

In addition, the project will seek to develop the digital pedagogical skills of participating teachers so that they can train other colleagues in their organisations throughout the duration of the project – and beyond. The aim of the project is for the participants’ learning to benefit as many teachers as possible, enabling them to provide high-quality online distance/blended learning to their students.

The ESW Project at the EfVET 2020 Roundtables

At its annual conference, EfVET – the European network for vocational education and training, of which ENAC has been a member since 2018 – offers its members the opportunity to disseminate the results of their projects in order to promote best practices.

During the Roundtables, partners from various European projects have the opportunity to provide more in-depth information to all interested parties and discuss future opportunities for cooperation. During this event, ENAC and the Catholic University will present the main results of the project, specifically:

the first Intellectual Output, which consists of a report on UTCs (University Technical Colleges) and how to transfer the model to other contexts

the second Intellectual Output – Methodological framework and common tools for the development of a new curriculum

To participate, send an email to enac@enac.org indicating:

email address to which the link to participate should be sent
first name
surname
organisation

J2E Project. Experience in the Netherlands

J2E.Experience in the Netherlands

We asked some trainers who participated in Erasmus+ mobility projects last year to evaluate the impact that this experience has had on their training activities over time.
Below is the testimony of Vera Bottazzi, language trainer at ENAC Lombardia – C.F.P. Canossa in Bagnolo Mella, who visited Friesland College in the Netherlands last year.

“During the three days of visits as part of the J2E project promoted by ENAC, I noticed that the training structure in the Netherlands is very different from ours.
There are more unstructured activities, which I hope will also come to Italy, as I believe they are good for both professional skills and soft skills. In fact, it was the focus on the latter that struck me most during the study visit.

What have I learnt and what do I use? Definitely explaining the objective!

Each lesson, each period is dedicated to a concept, an activity that is always visible (on the blackboard, on the interactive whiteboard), which helps students understand the reason behind the exercises. In addition, the experience has helped me rethink teaching spaces. In a classroom in Bagnolo (first pastry shop), we created a different classroom setting:

The desks are arranged in groups of four, which greatly helps both students who are struggling and those who are more skilled, as they can help others.
The teacher’s desk is not near the blackboard but on the other side of the room, which helps the teacher to avoid “sitting down”. They have to get up to stand in the middle of the room (which attracts more attention) and to write on the blackboard. This situation met with a lot of resistance, but gradually seems to have been accepted.
The presentation of group work or various individual tasks takes place in the centre of the classroom. I have set up a lectern so that students can overcome their shyness and clearly share what they are doing with others. It wasn’t easy, but now the students have no problem with it.

Going beyond simple lectures…

In the fourth year classes, I gave them independent assignments to be completed over time, which they could then discuss in class (as I had seen during lessons at the Dutch school). This gave each student greater autonomy and responsibility. Of course, some took advantage of this to do less than was asked of them, but I think this is normal; the habit of lecture-style teaching does not help students to work towards results.

My confidence in the students’ soft skills has increased. I believe that in the past I sometimes took their place, but the Dutch experience made me realise that giving them more autonomy, listening to their opinions on the progress of the course and reviewing the situation as a group every month helps them to be more responsible towards their studies.

I hope that soft skills and professional skills will be considered complementary. In the future world of work, there should be no division between what you do and how you do it. I believe this will be the rule for success, and the same should apply to vocational training centres.”

Know more about J2E

Erasmus Days 2025

Live Broadcast Canossa Erasmus III ed.

Again this year, Canossa Erasmus will participate in #Erasmusdays with a live marathon involving Canossian schools and vocational training centres that have taken part in #Erasmus+ mobility programmes. Students, teachers and staff will tell us about their experiences!

There will also be a second live broadcast with our European partners, with whom we collaborate every day to carry out our projects.

We will talk about group mobility, long and short mobility, internships, job shadowing, incoming activities, training courses and much more.

Watch here our broadcast on our YouTube channel!

What are #erasmusdays?

The EUAMI project workshop

The EUAMI project workshop: One Africa – many Africas by Anna Pozzi

Anna Pozzi, is a journalist and writer specialising in Africa. She is editor of the monthly magazine «Mondo e missione» and contributes to various publications, for which she has produced numerous reports from countries in Africa and the Middle East. She was invited by Canossa Campus to hold a new workshop as part of the European EUAMI project. This gave Canossa Campus students the opportunity to learn more about the African continent and make new discoveries.

The meeting was a journey through the complexity of Africa, a continent often reduced to stereotypes, but which reveals extraordinary cultural, geographical and demographic diversity. Anna Pozzi emphasised how the borders drawn by Europeans during colonialism have contributed to generating long-lasting conflicts, such as the one in Sudan. She went on to compare African population growth with that of India and China and demonstrated the need for a careful reading of the dynamics that shape the continent’s future.

The journalist also focused on North Africa, highlighting the challenges posed by conflict, terrorism and climate change, which have forced millions of people to migrate. She then analysed Africa’s rapid urbanisation: more than half of the population now lives in cities, where the pandemic has exacerbated social inequalities.

A significant example was that of the Kivu region, rich in minerals but devastated by instability and exploitation. He recounted the story of Denis Mukwege (Nobel Peace Prize winner) founder of the hospital Panzi Hospital and Foundation a Bukavu, capital of the province of South Kivu, in the Democratic Republic of Congo, for women victims of violence, linking local difficulties to the consumption choices of Western countries.

The journalist also cited Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country, as an example of extreme contrasts: wealth and poverty, tradition and modernity. She concluded her remarks with an invitation to consider the impact of European policies and consumption on African humanitarian crises.

Anna Pozzi’s speech left a deep impression, stimulating greater awareness of a continent that is often misunderstood and of the responsibility to look at Africa with new eyes.

Get to know EUAMI!

Vet2sustain project meeting Verona

Vet2sustain project meeting a Verona

The VET2Sustain project team met in Verona on 12–13 March 2025 for a productive and collaborative meeting, working efficiently towards the project’s objectives.

The first working session was led by Sirje Hassinen and Oona Haapakorpi from Omnia, who provided an overview of the current status of the project. They reviewed the project objectives and commitments outlined in the project application. To align everyone’s understanding, they also introduced the working methods, key actions and target groups.

Later, Katarina Sandbacka presented the development of a long-term strategic action plan focused on promoting sustainable, inclusive and digital vocational education and training (VET). The main outcomes of the plan include establishing a partnership agreement for future cooperation, creating a shared strategy and action plan for the network, and organising a recurring annual event. In addition, short- and long-term action plans will be developed for VET organisations at regional, national and EU level, ensuring a well-coordinated and forward-looking approach across Europe. Virpi Kaasinen then provided an update on efforts to create and strengthen cooperation models for vocational education and training in Europe, with a particular focus on exploring networking opportunities. Key actions under development include the creation of an online platform for collaboration, participation in joint annual events for projects funded under the same theme, and the promotion of opportunities for internationalisation activities at national level.

During the meeting, the calendar of upcoming activities was shared, and discussions were held on how to organise joint meetings with national government and qualification awarding bodies and review the current progress report. A feedback session allowed participants to discuss the report, provide input and suggest improvements. The session also focused on assessing the next steps.
The team also worked on collecting examples of how AI and XR technologies are currently being used in vocational education at partner institutions.

At the start of the second day of the meeting, there was a presentation on the use of Thinglink in education. Samiedu showed examples of how Thinglink can be used. Henri Pennanen from ThingLink guided all participants in the meeting through the use of the platform’s tools.

Finally, Wednesday’s communication and dissemination session focused on guiding partners in reporting on their communication and dissemination activities. Mira Torvinen-Määttä clarified the distinction between these two concepts, explaining that communication involves spreading awareness of the project, while dissemination ensures that the right people receive and use the results.

This meeting laid a solid foundation for the next steps of the project, strengthening collaboration and shared commitment to achieving its ambitious goals.

VET2Sustain Project