ERASMUS Charter

Very good news for Ozanam High School! Following the application submitted in March 2019, the school was awarded the Erasmus Charter for Higher Education.

This charter will allow the school to set up real European mobility actions, particularly in terms of internships in companies, with the attribution of ECTS. It should also enable us to welcome European students for part of their course.

This Erasmus charter, combined with our membership of various consortiums/networks (MOBinov, Route NN) should enable to offer our students many internship opportunities, and follows on from the various Erasmus+ projects proposed at the high school level.

Read the charter

Our international strategy

The OEC (Ozanam-Epil-Campus) polyvalent group’s is a high school for construction, environment and energy professions. Accredited since 2015, it includes: a general and technological high school: Ozanam, a vocational high school: l’Epil, a higher education sector : CAMPUS with a system of engineering preparatory classes in partnership with the ICAM-ISEN YNCREA engineering grandes écoles des Hauts de France (the first prived associated division of ingineers in France), an apprentice training unit and a continuing education centre: AREP Ozanam-Epil.

OEC group’s strategy is to extend the European Development Plan already in place at Ozanam’s high school to the campus with an International Development Plan in the longer term.

The OEC group is located in Lille, capital of Haut-de-France’s region, France’s fourth largest metropolis. Lille is recognised as an international crossroads with, among others, the Eurometropole Lille-Kortrijk-Tournai. The city is also the headquarters of the MEL, the European Metropolis of Lille. The geographical location of the OEC group and its location in the very heart of Lille gives it a strong international foothold and favours its international development strategy.

Given the desire and need for mobility in the students’ curriculum, obtaining the Higher Education Charter will give the establishment a desired European dimension in its campus development strategy. Beyond the interest of a period of mobility, it is also the importance of openness to European citizenship, languages, training, employability, adaptability and integration into working life that we want to associate with mobility: both incoming and outgoing, at the level of staff and students, in order to help the latter acquire know-how but also know-how- to- be and become European citizens so that they can enter the world of work with confidence.

The school has a European section in English and plans to open these sections to Spanish and German. The school received Certilingua accreditation in 2015 and also offers students the opportunity to take two Cambridge diplomas: the PET (Preleminary English Test) and the Cambridge First Certificate as well as the TOIEC. It is on this ground that we intend to develop the international dimension of higher education.

Since 2011, Erasmus+ projects, partnerships in connection with the Franco-German Youth Office, partnerships with European, Indian and Australian institutions have been developed. In order to develop openness to others, 17 students travelled to Vietnam for the rehabilitation of a dispensary in Bao Thi in October 2016 after 18 months of preparation work.

Within the framework of the partnerships, we welcomed young people and teachers from the partner schools. In conjunction with the International Association of Business and Economics Students, we also welcome an American student for a six-week period. EPIL, the vocational high school is part of the academic consortium PIMEN – Platform for Integration through European Mobility in Nord-Pas de Calais – in conjunction with the DAREIC, (Academic Direction of European and International Relations and Cooperation). This consortium brings together more than 60 institutions. Two projects are underway at EPIL: a solidarity-based mini-company project with a workcamp in Senegal and a Franco-German-Polish project with CEFIR (Centre d’Education et de Formation Interculturel Rencontre) and OFAJ (Franco-German Youth Office). After having set up and developed the Erasmus+ programme for secondary schools, and in order to meet the growing demands of the higher education sector, we are developing this opening at the Campus level.

The establishment has obtained an agreement with the Federation of Cleaning Companies and Associated Services. This agreement has enabled 18 students from BTS MSE (Services of Environmental careers) to go to Valencia in Spain in November 2018 to study the construction of buildings with regard to eco-design and sustainable development. Since 2016, the Campus has set up partnerships with the CEGEPs (Collège d’Enseignement Général et Professionnel) of Matane, Saint-Félicien and Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean in Canada, which offer a one-year post-BTS mobility with the possibility of preparing the DEC; Canadian higher education diploma. We wish to continue along this path, the charter will enable us to do so and to develop opportunities for mobility and partnerships in Europe.

The institution offers 10 short syllabuss in the initial cycle within the campus, which brings together 422 students, all of whom are beneficiaries potentiels of mobility. Our objective is to offer them this opportunity to gain access to a real European dimension. In this way, developing access to mobility for all audiences contributes to the international dimension, European identity, interculturality, the development and recognition of skills, training and employability of our students and staff.

The school has set up a steering team : Frédéric Rousselle, director of European and international relations and development, Sandrine Thilloy, language teacher. They are in charge of organising and implementing European cooperation projects. they have several occasions brought together the pedagogical teams who have set up the ECTS for the various courses offered by the Campus. The administrative services were also involved, in particular those responsible for communication and the creation of the website. A member of the financial services was associated with a secretary to ensure the follow-up and double control of the different funding. The professor in documentation is also involved in the process of opening up to Europe by gathering information but especially with the “Erasmus Corner” which gives greater visibility to Erasmus+ actions. Staff mobility will make it possible to seek out and establish lasting links with partners, higher education institutions and companies in connection with the course offered to students.

We use tools such as “e-twinning”, for finding European establishments to develop exchanges of good practice, partnerships and the Erasmus Agency’s “salto-youth.net” platform for staff training and mobility research

Our website dedicated to higher education: https://groupe-oec.fr/campus/ is a tool enabling us to highlight the attractiveness of these projects. 

Our objectives

The establishment is rooted in the territory. On the strength of its experience with companies and institutional players, we owe it to ourselves to participate in the citizenship of learners. Through our participation in the Programme, we want to focus on :

The promotion of Higher Education because it must ne said that the reception and promotion of Higher Education among our local partners involves the mobility of learners and the promotion of the institution’s international partnerships.

Incoming and outgoing mobility of learners and staff is a real added value in the development of the level of qualification. It also contributes to the valorisation of modern languages. Immersion, through mobility, encourages and contributes to real learning in concrete situations and in fact facilitates language acquisition, raises awareness and opens the way to interculturality.

The importance and necessity of the relationship between the OEC group, training and the world of work. It is obvious that the continuous evolution of the economic and educational worlds requires a more sustained relationship which must move towards a mutualisation of the means to be implemented to strengthen the keys to success. This contributes to a broader vision of the world of work and in fact facilitates employability.

The importance of a European, international identity for the learners and staff of the OEC group. The need for an international outlook and openness in a world where exchanges via communication tools put the notion of distance into perspective.

Thanks to its influence and attractiveness at local and regional level as well as within the RENASUP network, the institution aims to create a synergy with all institutional actors. Welcoming all publics, foreign students and staff, universities and European organisations can only contribute to the European opening, to interculturality and to reinforce the attractiveness of the territory.

Discovery of new pedagogical approaches and methodologies that have resulted in a fresh look at one’s own pedagogy

Impact on the support provided to students to advise them and also to encourage them to undertake mobility, but also on the reception of foreign students and staff, as their mobility has enabled them to better understand and apprehend the needs and specificities of a mobility.

Certain impact on the development of the network of European partners. This professor is now working to make this contact sustainable and to develop mobility of internships and/or studies for students.

Mobility as a tool for social, cultural and professional inclusion. The experiences of mobility have reinforced the conviction to apply for and obtain the Erasmus+ charter to perpetuate and facilitate young people’s desire for mobility, as the strengthening of maturity, European identity and civic commitment among the beneficiaries is significant.