From June 27 to June 30, the SAAM Steering Committee, the Work Package leaders and the SAAM Management Team met together in Luanda (Angola). The purpose of the meeting was to analyze how the first two years of the project have been, presenting everything that has been achieved despite the challenges of the pandemic, and to plan all the activities that remain to be done until 2024.

A little recap of all the SAAM work…

To begin those 4 days of work, the SAAM team briefly explained the current stage of the project. So far, 104 mobilities have been carried out. These experiences correspond to those of the first flow of staff mobilities (both from Europe to Africa and from Africa to Europe) and the expert mobilities (the SAAM Team visiting the partners in Africa).

In addition to this hundred mobilities, the SAAM project has also managed to gather the partners together in person several times. Once in 2021 for the International Meeting in Nairobi and a second time in 2022 for the SAAM Seminar in Brussels.

What is coming next?

The main topic of the meeting in Luanda was the upcoming student mobility. The first flow of African students traveling to Europe for a one-month stay in the European partners’ VET centers is about to start and the working sessions in Luanda were useful to produce guidelines and recommendations regarding logistics, intercultural preparation or communication.

During 2022 and 2023, the second flow of mobilities from Europe to Africa is also going to take place. This time, the professionals who live the experience will be VET technicians from the partner centers and they could also be accompanied by mobility experts of the SAAM Team.

At the beginning of 2023, the second flow of the mobilities of the African staff to Europe will be done. There will be 2 different types of mobilities for the African staff: those who will attend the next SAAM Seminar and the technicians who will live an experience in a European partner VET school.

Discovering Luanda and Dom Bosco Angola (SAAM partner)

The host of the meeting was Dom Bosco Angola, the SAAM partner in the country. The participants of the meeting had the opportunity to discover some of the Don Bosco facilities in the capital, Luanda, and to know the work and the mission of the entity.

The meeting venue was located in the Don Bosco School of Lixeira (Luanda). This school was built in the early 2000s, it has around 6.000 students and covers all the different educational stages (from primary to secondary education).

The Steering Committee and the leaders of the Work Packages visited the Provincial House and the “Sao Paulo” Salesian Community. The Provincial Planning and Development Office (PDO) supported all the meeting. During the working sessions, the partners also had some time to visit and meet the staff and the students of the Don Bosco VET School in Luanda, the center involved in the SAAM project.

The Don Bosco VET school in Luanda is involved in various other projects to promote the skills of their students, Vocational Training and sustainability

Meetings with institutional representatives

At an institutional level, the partners had the opportunity to meet Ms. Alba Valle Basanta, the EU Delegation, and Mr. Juan Payá, Spanish Consul in Angola. They had time to discuss the opportunities and challenges of the project and the partners presented to the institutions the next steps.

After this meeting and the hard work of all the partners, SAAM is ready to kick-off the student mobility! Stay tuned!

Thanks to the hosting organization in Luanda (Dom Bosco Angola) for making everything easy!

Article on the SAAM website: https://saam.global/saam-project-partner-meeting-in-angola-evaluating-the-first-two-years-of-the-project-and-planning-the-upcoming-activities/