Σχολική χρονιά - School Year
Organization Operational Details-EPAL KATO ACHAIAS-2026
WHO WE ARE
This is our European story…
We make the difference
For 18 years, 1st Epagelmatiko Lykeio of Kato Achaia (Vocational Lyceum of Kato Achaia or in acronyms EPAL Kato Achaia) has been activating in designing and implementing innovative international projects for its students and its educational staff. We have successfully implemented many plans in the framework of LLP (Livelong Learning Programs), Mobilities IVT-VETPRO, Comenius, and Erasmus+ of different Key Actions (VET mobilities KA102 or KA116, strategic partnerships KA202, staff mobilities).
During this long-term period, we have involved more than 350 students and 90 teachers in innovative mobilities, obtaining good practices that has been highly associated with our curricula. Additionally, we once had acted as a hosting organization for partners from Austria, Netherlands, Latvia, Norway and France, who had sent students to Greece for practicing, for a certain training period. Moreover, we have organized both short-time seminars and long-term internships in local enterprises and institutions. In order to fulfill our educational and professional needs, we have established a wide network of companies and institutions, where we can arrange short or long placements, depending on our students’ specific needs. The network of local institutions, forms a Local Community of Practice (LCoP) that we use either for our students or for the hosted ones.
During all these 16 years, we have achieved highly successful international projects, some of which, have received awards by the Greek National Agency (IKY) and have been published in Best Practices Guides that have been occasionally issued by the Greek National Agency. The project titled “Professional Skills Development in Europe” (2013-1-GR-LEΟ01-14816) has been published and listed in the Best Practice Guide which has been co-issued by the Greek and Cypriot National Agencies, and regarded as the best IVT Mobility Project for the total period of LLP Program 2007-2013.
Another example is the TOI project titled INPACT that was funded by the EU from 2008-2010. It produced the infrastracture for the organization of three – week seminars to the countries of all seven partner involved upon topics relevant to the studens’ fields of study. Although funding has finished since 2010, the structure and good practices are still tangible. We have implemented three mobilities, participating in cousres to Netherlands, Norway and Denmark. The one in Netherlands has received an award for promotion of new methodology in VET and was listed in the Best Practices Guide issued by the Greek National Agency in 2011.
According to the Lifelong Learning Program 2007-2013, we have completed at least 3 VET mobility projects with learning outcomes of high quality. Since 3013, we have crated a “batch of projects” called “Competences and Skills Development Perspective” under which we have been implementing VET projects, especially with 4 -weeks – mobilities with students’ placements in companies.
As a result of this backgound we have established our policy plan for 2016-2021. This strategy has been evaluated by the Greek NA and brought about a steady 6-years -funding with the award of the VET Mobillity Charter ( 2016_1_EL01_KA109_023775).
Under this policy plan, we have continued the “Competences Development Perspective” groups of projects by implementing numerous VET placements and projects (KA116) in many parts of Europe (Portugal, Spain, Germany, Cyprus) with short term placements (28 days) and two long term placepents (90 days – Erasmus Pro). Moreover we expand our interantionalisation by projects and good practices in terms of staff education and strategic partnerships in Erasums+ KA202 plans.
Our highly qualified extroversial policy and our detaily organised stategy plan for 2021-27, has been evaluated by our Naional Agency. We are now holders of the Erasmus+ VET accreditation (2020-1-EL01-KA120-VET-094756), in which, EPAL Kato Achaia was has been classified as first school in Greece (toherther with two vocational schools) with an assessment scale of 100/100. In this way, we have established steady funding for the timeline of 2021-27.
1st Epagelmatiko Lykeio Kato Achaias is the first organization in Greece which introduced the ECVET system (European Credit for Vocational Education and Training) to the mobility projects. ECVET is credit system for the students – particpants, based on units, subunits and learning outcomes designed and their qualifications assessed and validated by sending and host organizations, as well as, by companies in placements. ECVET allows learners to accumulate, transfer and use their learning in units as these units are achieved by their qualifications during the mobillity and written in their Transcript of Records.
Additionally, we supply our students with Europass Mobilty Certificate, and we help them to create their
Europass CV that can be officially used for job, education or training opportunities.
Concerning the field of School Education (SCH), the school, in addition to the previous Comenius, has implemented a very successful Erasmus project KA229 entitled “Traditional crafts and artisans (https://crafts-erasmus2020.webnode.com) in collaboration with 5 schools [ Johannesskolan, (Malmo, Sweden), ICS Cruillas (Palermo, Italy), Regional Lyceum and Lyceum of Lefkara, (Ano Lefkara, Cyprus) and Agrupamento de Escolas D. Dinis (Santo Tirso, Portugal) ]. From 9 to 14 May 2022, EPAL Kato Achaia was a host school for the groups of the partner schools (23 students, 8 teachers) organizing learning activities in a traditional fishing village of the area (Alykes Achaia), in collaboration with the Cultural Association. In the end of the mobility, our school has received very good review for the perfect planning of the 5-days program and the warm hospitality to the partners. Since then, we have hosted groups from Italy (Accreditamento n Istituto Omnicomprensivo Cerreto di Spoleto-Sellano ) and Croatia (Poljoprivredno šumarska škola Vinkovci), developing thus our experience as a high quality host school.
All in all, EPAL Kato Achaia have gained a longlife and valuable experience in design, organization, implementation and evaluation of high-quality projects.The key is that we focus on the specific needs of our participants under a close validation of their knowledge, skills and competences. The main target is to give them opportunities with reliable choices in order to help them build a strong and flexible occupational profile. We evaluate out students mainly by PBL (project-based Learning) teaching procedures that are assosiated with the objectives of their curriculum. This evaluation is one the main criteria in taking part in an Erasmus mobility.
Under our new Strategy plan (2021-2027), we aim in long-term mobilities in order to increase our students’ opportunities by their entrance to the European labor market. Additionally, our last target is to enhance our staff education under well structed courses, in order to increase our teachers’ qualifications and to enhance their educational profile by involving them into a European family.
To achieve all the above tagets, we continually looking for high organized, reliable, flexible and trustworthy host organizations, that acquire a wide range of placements and fulfill our targets and our expectations.
The last achievent of EPAL Kato Achaia is the second Acreditation at School sector (2023-1-EL01-KA120-SCH-000187185) in the range of 15th of 50 accreditated schools in Greece.
This award, enables EPAL Kato Achaia as the first puplic school in Greece that is accreditated in both vocational (VET) and school (SCH) fields of accreditation untill 2027.
