28 vocational training teachers from Brazil have arrived for an academic visit to the Faculty of Humanities and Education Sciences of Mondragon University

This March, for four weeks, 28 Vocational Training teachers who are participating in the Conexão Mundo program will visit Mondragon University. Thanks to the Conexão Mundo training program, 60 Vocational Training teachers from the state of Paraiba in Brazil are receiving specific training during the current 2022-2023 academic year. The Conexão Mundo training program brings together teachers from three fields: marketing and communication, environment and energy, and cooperative education. Teachers from two of these programs – marketing and communication; and environment, sustainability and energy – are participating in this visit. Under the coordination of the Faculty of Humanities and Education Sciences, two other faculties from Mondragon University are also participating in the program: the Faculty of Business Studies and the Mondragon Higher Polytechnic School.

A one-month stay in the Basque Country

Conexão Mundo is a training program offered online, but in order to complete the program, the participants have the opportunity to visit the Basque Country for one month. They will take advantage of their stay to learn, make progress on their end-of-degree projects, and enjoy first-hand experiences of interest related to the knowledge areas of their respective courses. Therefore, throughout the month, they will make various visits, both as a single large group and in small groups. For example, they will have the opportunity to become familiar with Tknika and the MONDRAGON group. Teachers in the marketing and communication course will also visit Laboral Kutxa and the Goiena communication group, while those in the environment, sustainability and energy course will visit the Fraisoro Vocational Training Center, the Urkulu reservoir in Aretxabaleta, and Mondragon’s Epele treatment plant.

Welcome to the Eskoriatza campus

The official welcome to the Eskoriatza campus was held on March 6. At the event, Faculty of Humanities and Education Sciences Dean Nagore Ipiña welcomed the 28 visitors, provided information about their stay, and described the educational model of the Faculty. According to Ipiña, “it has been very rewarding to share educational experiences, learn from each other, and also see the good reception that our educational model has had among foreign professionals as well.” Participant Arthur Romário highlighted the “warm welcome” and the “good impression received” and stated that the visit will serve to “create closer relationships”; Romário also added that it has been “very gratifying” to meet the online teachers face to face.

Three expert certifications

This is the second year of the Conexão Mundo program. The following are the three courses that we are offering this academic year:

1. Expert certification in pedagogical training for Vocational Training teachers in marketing and communication. The participants in this training program will learn the theoretical and practical foundations of educational innovation and will work on specific didactic-methodological strategies that can be applied in Vocational Training in the areas of marketing and communication. This course was developed in collaboration with the Faculty of Business Studies.
2. Expert certification in pedagogical training for Vocational Training teachers in environment, sustainability and energy. The participants in this training program will also learn the theoretical and practical foundations of educational innovation, as well as specific didactic practices and methodologies that can be applied in Vocational Training in the areas of the environment, sustainability and energy. This course was developed with the invaluable collaboration of the Mondragon Higher Polytechnic School.
3. Expert certification in cooperative education. This program offers participants the opportunity to become familiar with, reflect on and implement some of the keys that characterize cooperative learning as we know it, based on an analysis of specific cooperative experiences and through an action research process that will be developed for and out of the professional practice of the participants.