A few representative projects

School partnership, Rudolf Steiner School Lausanne
The Rudolf Steiner School in Lausanne has set up a two-year school partnership with the Waldorf School Windhoek in Namibia. The two schools will work on the theme of water: the contrast between Switzerland, water tower of Europe, and Namibia, semi-desert region, could not be greater. By using new communication technologies, the partnership envisages getting all the pupils from both schools to take part in the debates and discussions planned during the project. Two study trips, one to Switzerland and the other to Namibia will help to increase the intercultural exchange and enable concrete projects to be put in place, namely getting a spring working in Namibia and constructing a biotope in Switzerland.

Vocational Education & Training Mobility, Consortium MBA ZH
Organised in the form of a public consortium promoted by the canton of Zurich and bringing together those of Lucerne, Zug and Schaffhausen, this project enables 30 trainee computer scientists to go to Shanghai to discover the exciting and fast-moving world of Chinese start-ups. In this constantly changing major city, the participants will, of course, gain specialist professional skills as well as a whole host of other intercultural and social skills that are extremely sought-after in an increasingly globalised market.

Intensive programme Higher education, Universities of Teacher Education Zürich and Grisons
The project is a three-week intensive programme (IP), in which 20 students from the Zürich and Grisons Universities of Teacher Education take part with partner universities/HEIs from Australia, the USA and Brazil in the field of teacher training. The project aims to supplement the semester offerings in English language and to increase the school children’s motivation to learn a foreign language. It is an internationalisation “at home” practice, in which the Swiss students experience international professional exchange directly in the Swiss classroom. As far as the methodology of the joint practical training/work placement is concerned, the cooperation promises a broad benefit and clear added value for the Swiss education system.

Open Project Fund, HEP (University of Teacher Education) Vaud
The aim of inclusive education is to expand access to compulsory schooling to pupils with special needs. What is Switzerland doing to guarantee greater equality of opportunities and rights for those pupils? The aim of the PEERS project (Student and Teacher Researchers in Social Networks Projects) of the University of Teacher Education of Vaud Canton is to improve inclusive education by strengthening the link between teacher training and needs on the ground. The project provides for research in groups in order to create teaching tools as regards inclusive education, in collaboration with the University of Montréal. 

Open Project Fund, Birkenvale GmbH
Birkenvale, a service company, will cooperate with partners from Switzerland, India and Austria, in a virtual form, with the aim of facilitating and measuring more effectively the potential for young people to be integrated into the labour market. The pilot programme is envisaged in the form of a Virtual Student Hackathon lasting 6 weeks. The groups will present the result of their work to a panel of experts that will be able to assess and evaluate the results of the project. The pilot programme should make it possible to test a virtual form of exchanges and how well it is embedded during learning. So, for example, a project library and platform will be set up to enable schools or associations, depending on their needs, to use this model or even to pursue other Hackathon sessions.

Open Project Fund, Fribourg University
The Department of Educational Sciences of Fribourg University is examining the latest effects of globalisation on education. In the light of new, globally emerging education guidelines, best practices are being recorded and exchanged for the first time by means of this project. In cooperation with the participating partner universities/HEIs from Azerbaijan, Mongolia and Australia, content is being developed, via a digital online laboratory, to build leadership skills for teachers. For the Swiss educational landscape, an important contribution is being made to the subject of international education policy, in terms of the circulation and production of knowledge.

Open Project Fund, ICYE and SGB
ICYE Switzerland has been organising intercultural voluntary work placements abroad since 1960. Now, as from 2019, ICYE will, in cooperation with the Swiss Federation of the Deaf (SGB/FSS) and Swiss Deaf Youth (SDY), be making these well-known voluntary service periods accessible, for the first time, to young people with a hearing impairment. Furthermore, besides the conceptual groundwork, ten grants are being funded for hearing-impaired young people. The project will increase the equal opportunities of young people with special needs, including as regards the demands of the world of work. In two years’ time, voluntary service opportunities should be established among the target group and be self-sustaining.