SAAM project starts in Brussels with an advance meeting, before the “kick-off meeting” that will be in April. 

This meeting has been the first occasion to put in contact some of the partners and explain the activities and the key points of the project. 

From the 10th to 13th of February, the leaders of participant entities have learnt about roles, responsibilities and timing of each one of the planned activities. The kick-off meeting with all 
participating entities will be held in April in Nairobi (Kenya).

From the 10th to the 13th of February, in Brussels there was the first reunion of the SAAM project: the first pilot project about the interchange of experience between Europe and Africa in the field of the vocational and educational training. 
The meeting was attended by the project’s coordinator committee, formed by the applicant Centro San Viator and Asociación Mundus. The place chosen for the meeting was the headquarters of the Basque Delegation to the European Union, that want to contribute to the project in this way and hosted us during these sessions in the capital of Europe. 

Representatives of all the European partners, together with the head of the DBTA organization (which coordinates from Kenya most of the African centers participating in this project), have learnt through presentations and discussion groups all the details of the activities that will be carried out in the three years of the project. 
This meeting was also an important moment to define together lines of action, roles and responsibilities of every step, it was also important to discuss jointly what kind of actions will be carried out and how. 

European Commission - through its representative Deidre Lennan (International Cooperation Coordinator of the General Directorate for Education, Youth and Culture) has welcomed and officially launched SAAM. 
The representatives of the European institutions and also the partners have shown their motivation and enthusiasm to carry out this unprecedented pilot project: it is the first step of a new programme of intercontinental cooperation in the field of vocational and educational training (VET) for the next years. 

On the other hand, Camila De Epalza, european policy coordinator at the Basque Delegation in the delegation of Euskadi for the European Union, highlighted the strategic importance of of establishing and strengthening cooperation links between the EU and Africa, in particular in the important theme of growing of people through education. 
Following this path, SAAM will promote exchange of good practices between different countries but with the common goal of providing the best quality in their educational systems, in this case with regard to professional training.

During forty months, SAAM will give the possibility to carry out internships in european companies to more then 300 youngsters. Moreover, 70 european and 135 african professors will visit the schools on the other continent to carry out a job shadowing that will help them to understand the philosophy, culture and customs and also the vocational training system of the host country. At the end of the project, both - european and african professionals - will have improved their knowledge about internationalization, transparency and educational pathways.