1. COMENIUS BILATERAL PARTNERSHIP “EUROPE: SO FAR, SO NEAR”

2. Our school FORAVE – Escola Profissional e Tecnológica do Vale do Ave In this presentation we are going to talk about our school and its courses.

3. FORAVE is a private vocational school situated in a small city called Lousado, in the North of Portugal.

4. Portuguese educational system –Elementary school – 4 years –Preparatory school – 2 years –Lower Secondary school – 3 years –Upper Secondary school – 3 years –University

5. Our school and its courses Established in 1990, FORAVE has level III courses (equivalent to upper secondary school) and level II courses (equivalent to lower secondary school) and its main aim is the preparation of qualified youngsters for active life.

6. Level III courses At this moment there are four different level III courses at our school, a Technical Course in Management, a Technical Course in Industrial Maintenance, a Technical Course in Electronics, Automation and Control and a Technical Course in Food Quality Control.

7. Level II courses The Level II courses are related with Electronics, Electricity and Social Services. The main aim of these courses is to help students with problems (with family, school, etc) to have a professional certificate which allows them to find a job.

8. FORAVE and longlife learning There are also EFA courses and a CNO center, included in the longlife learning national education plan, through which adult students have voluntarily returned to school and are trying to improve or acquire skills and school certificates.

9. FORAVE also has some training courses for people who already have a job and still want to develop their professional skills.

10. FORAVE and the local community Our school is also an active partner of the enterprises, the community and the local associations and it's strongly supported by the international company Continental Tires AG.

11. School subjects We have vocational subjects like Economics, Law, Cooking, Decoration, Health Care, Electronics, Mechanics and many more….

12. But we also have subjects like Mother Tongue, English, Maths, ICT, Civics and Physical Education.

13. Extra-curricular activities We have many extra-curricular activities like Freshmen Reception, Halloween, Christmas Dinner, Valentine’s Day,Carnival, Easter, and field trips.

14. European Projects This year, FORAVE is involved in several European projects. With partners from Romania, Turkey, Italy, Bulgaria, Norway and Hungary we’re going to develop the Multilateral Project “What we are, what we hope we will be”. “Europe: so far, so near” is a Bilateral Project which will be coordinated by our school and will have a partner from Poland. Our students will also participate in a Youth in action project with schools from Spain, Italy and Hungary. Finally, the EFA courses are working with schools and associations from Italy, Spain, Finland and Ireland on a Grundtvig Project.

15. Some of the students involved in the project

16. Presentation made by: Ana Sousa Adriana Miranda Tânia Miranda Sílvia Santos Lucília Vieira Joana Pereira Joaquim Carvalho

17. Emails: Ana_-sousa@hotmail.com adriana5@live.com.pt Tanica_miranda@hotmail.com Patricia.vieira_20@hotmail.com Joanna_pereira@hotmail.com j_a_m_carvalho@hotmail.com Silvia_4769@hotmail.com