One of the two pilot projects in Europe has as a Spanish leader and coordinator. Asociación Mundus will be the coordinator of the largest project to date to work in Vocational Education and Training (VET) between Europe and Africa. The final results were published on January 13rd by the European Commission, who directly funds this pilot project (EAC/S34/2018).

SAAM project (Supporting Alliance for African Mobility) led by the Spanish VET training centre San Viator (Bizkaia) and coordinated by the Spanish Organization for international mobility, Asociación Mundus, was one of the two unique projects awarded and has been funded with €4 million. 

SAAM (Afrikaans word meaning TOGETHER) is a partnership coordinating 32 VET organizations across 8 EU Member States (Belgium, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Malta, Portugal and Spain) and 17 African countries (Angola, Benin, Cabo Verde, Eritrea, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Kenya, Liberia, Malawi, Nigeria, Senegal, Sudan, Tunisia, Chad, Mali, Burkina Fasso and Gabon). This outstanding partnership gathers a huge network of VET providers, NGOs and European “umbrella” organizations in the sector of VET and Youth.

SAAM aims to contribute to the improvement and modernization of Vocational Training in 17 African countries, as well as to strengthen the relationship between VET and the labour market. To achieve this goal, SAAM will generate mobility of VET professionals and students from various technical areas. This alliance aims to promote the exchange of ideas and techniques between regions, improve the skills of teachers and students, improve the standards of both the quality of management and training and finally improve the curriculum pathway of the VET centres.

SAAM will promote that, over 40 months, more than 300 young Africans will do internships in European companies. In the same way, 70 European teachers and 135 African teachers will visit the centres of their counterparts in the other continent to perform a “job shadowing” that will allow them, among other things, to understand the philosophy, culture and customs as well as the professional training system of the host country. By the end of the project, both European and African professionals will have improved their knowledge about internationalization, transparency tools and educational itineraries

SAAM activities have already started in January 2020.