Moroccan-German Exchange of Two Vocational Schools

From May 7th to May 21st, a group of German apprentices from the vocational school BS1 in Kempten were visiting their partner school in Kénitra, Morocco, accompanied by their teachers Marcus Marcher, Jürgen Schmidt and Christoph Münstermann. This has been a pilot project of collaboration between vocational schools in North Africa and Germany.

The apprentices from Kempten have made some unique experience during their two-weeks visit of the vocational school in Morocco. They had the chance to get involved with the life and the culture there. Together with their Moroccan fellow apprentices, they have worked on planning and implementing a solar-driven sign which permanently highlights the partnership of the two schools and makes it public. 

Not only did this exercise require a collective phase of planning before the trip but also a lot of technical and practical knowhow at site in order to steadily find solutions for occuring problems  regarding the fields of Metal – and Electrial Engineering. Besides the technical project work, the group also had the opportunity to get to know the people and culture of Morocco. A cooking course, working on a farm, a soccer game at the beach as well as two trips to Rabat and Fès made the exchange program complete. Despite some language barriers, intense friendships developed. The German-Moroccan bfz/bbw employee Abdelali Lakhar, who is a long-term expert for the project, has been an important help regarding cultural misunderstandings and language issues. On May 19, the sign has been inaugurated. Next to the pupils and their teachers, ambassadors of the Chamber of Industry and Commerce Rabat-Salé-Kénitra have been present.

It was the first time that such an exchange between the CPT and a German partner school took place. The project has been inspired and supported by bfz international which executes the partner project OFE with multiple vocational schools in Morocco since 2017. ENSA program supported the pupils and teachers in regard of preparation for the trip and travel expenses. ENSA program and the vocational training partnership project are funded by Federal Ministry of Economic Collaboration.