The internship at VIVES University in Bruges, which took place at the end of April, was filled with interesting and valuable professional experiences. During the visit, participants explored the university’s Game Lab, where education students have access to more than 270,000 games to create, model, and test various educational activities. We also visited the newly equipped preschool education space modeling lab, which allows future teachers to practically analyze and create environments conducive to children’s education.
A particularly valuable experience was the visit to a school in Bruges, where some children are educated using the principles of bilingual education. This is still a relatively new practice in Lithuania, so it was useful to learn about the specifics of organizing such education, daily activities, and teachers’ experiences.
During the internship, Faculty Dean Vaiva Juškienė and Head of the Competence Development Center Rima Aleknavičiūtė-Stasiulė also visited the European School in Brussels II, where they observed preschool and elementary education activities and lessons not only in the Lithuanian section but also in the Finnish section. During the visit, opportunities for cooperation were discussed with representatives of the educational institution regarding the acceptance of students from the VIKO Faculty of Education for internships. We sincerely thank the teachers of the European School of Brussels II for their warm welcome, shared experience, and cooperation: Sonata Vilain, Diana Miklaševičiūtė, Iina Nurmela, Monika Jatulienė, and Ramunė Skruodienė.
During the internship, we also participated in the final “Kick-On” EU conference of the international TASC project, held at the VIVES campus in Bruges. The conference emphasized the importance of teacher academy projects and the improvement of teacher training. Presentations were given by Ljubica Petrovic Baronica from the European Commission, Dirk Kerckhoven from Catholic Education in Flanders, and Daniel Cosmin Andronache from the TASC consortium, who presented the project’s impact studies, policy recommendations, and guidelines.
The conference also featured a screening of the TASC “Kick-On” promotional video, which can be found on the official project website at eutasc.eu. Participants had the opportunity to take part in as many as 20 different workshops focused on sustainable communication, teacher empowerment, strengthening teacher training, and disseminating project results.
The internship provided an opportunity not only to familiarize oneself with innovative teacher training practices in Belgium but also to establish and strengthen international connections, which are important for VIKO students’ professional preparation and future internship opportunities.
