Module 3: Role of guidance in mobility

2.1. For the individual

The benefits of undertaking learning mobility go beyond intercultural awareness and can include  development of personal competences, active citizenship and employability of participants. A policy paper from the European Commission explains:

“Learning mobility, meaning transnational mobility for the purpose of acquiring new knowledge, skills and competences, is one of the fundamental ways in which young people can strengthen their future employability, as well as their intercultural awareness, personal development, creativity and active citizenship. Europeans who are mobile as young learners are more likely to be mobile as workers later in life” (Council of the European Union 2011).

Even though success rates of mobility programmes are often described in terms of numbers of participants involved, this approach does not provide a quality perspective. For quality,  what is important is the nature and extent of what knowledge, skills, values and attitudes individuals bring home, and how these acquisitions contribute to the development of communities, societies and the individuals themselves (European Commission, 2017). Various evaluations and research show that good quality learning mobility can indeed bring about quality outcomes.

Mobility guidance, described in the previous sections, brings quality to the mobility process through the support offered to the individual in the different phases of mobility. Guidance counsellors who are aware of and believe in the added value of mobility for the individual, have the potential to make use of mobility as a tool to strengthen individuals and develop their skills and competences. In the global world of today, it is more important than ever to offer young people good opportunities for developing their ability to see themselves in an international context and to make international comparisons and reflections.
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