Wednesday 12 August 2015

Introduction

Students in vocational training experience many advantages for their professional development during and after international work experiences in Europe. The majority of participants feel that it has increased their confidence in general and to work internationally, fostered their mobility and enhanced their CVs & therefore their employability.

It opened up a whole new world of possibilities and opportunities which many participants have not even considered before going on an international placement.

International Field Study Work in groups create a platform to interact in another language, link up with experienced professionals in their vocational area of work in order to learn from them, explore the subject in depth and engage with the community through meetings & surveys in order to capture their perception about the subject matter in the host country. This option in comparison to the classical placement is in particular useful for complex and very regulated professions for which the average 4 weeks period abroad is not sufficient to provide a meaningful placement experience.

Currently Embrace hosts 13 apprentices (4 weeks program) from the German Pension Institute, Deutsche Rentenversicherung Bund in Berlin in cooperation with our coordinating partner organisation in Berlin which receives funding from the EU for mobility projects. The group visited the East Lancashire Chamber of Industry and Commerce which was a great success. For more information please visit: www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk.

During their time in the UK the students will also explore the local history as well as the impact of the elections have or will have on their area of work. We will keep you posted.

Monday 10 August 2015

Queen Street Mill Textile Museum

On the 7th of august all of us went to the Queen Street Mill Textile Museum - the last and only surviving 19th century steam-powered weaving mill in the world. At first we met Roger Frost, a local historian. He prepared a PowerPoint presentation for us about the industrialization and the development of the town. Afterwards we had the possibility to discover the museum. In the 19th century Burnley became one of the most important weaving towns in the world and Queen Street Mill is unique as it survives today with a lot of its original machinery. The mill remains largely unchanged. We could see the boiler house, engine house and weaving shed much as they would have been 100 years ago. In the end we could see the magnificent steam engine "Peace", driving over 300 looms in the weaving shed. We discovered the story of cotton cloth production, watched the weavers turn cotton into cloth and made experience about local and social history in Burnley.


The sights, sounds and smells of Queen Street Mill brought the textile industry vividly to life and we got a very good feeling for the town once dominated by the textile industry. It was a very interesting and revealing day for all of us.

Friday 7 August 2015

Burnley College and the appointment by Julie Cooper

On Wednesday, 5th of August we went to the Burnley College. Paul Ragnall, the governor, told us something about the different insurances of unemployment, health, accidents and pensions. He also asked some questions about the pension scheme in Germany, so we could find out some similarities and differences. After that we had lunch together. The Burnley College looks very comfortable and all people there were very friendly. So we spent some very interesting and funny hours together.


On Monday, 10th of August at 11 o´clock the political group of Charly, Janine, Jenny, Melanie and Saskia went to the Burnley College again to interview the governor, Paul Ragnall and a volunteer, a student, about the election in Great Britain on 7th May 2015. The interview and a short small talk took only a half hour. They received us very heartily.

Julie Cooper also received us so heartily on the next day. Our appointment with her was on Tuesday, 11th of August at 2 o´clock. We asked her a few questions about her political career and also about the election. We have done this interview in her office in the Victoria Street and got good and detailed answers from her for our presentation.



Thursday 30 July 2015

Pension Schemes in the UK

One of our first Meeting, was the Interview with Dave Boothman. He is an independent financial adviser with over 20 years experience.


He gave us a lot information about the pension age, basic state pension, second state pension and other things. He imparted the first impressions about these topics. So it was very important and interesting for us. He told us that in earlier times the life expectation was about 68 years. And in this time, the pension age was adjusted to 65 years. But now the life expectation increase to the age of 80 years. There was no adaptation. In order to that, he introduce the problem of the government to disburse the pensions for more decades. To solve that problem, the government had to realise an incremental rise of the pension age. Dave Boothman predict the new pension age will be 70 years in 2028.

Furthermore, he explained that the government uses taxes to sell the pension. So, if you pay taxes for 30 years you will have the security to get a pension. The weekly payout from the basic state pension is £115. Boothman mentioned the possibility to save money to get the pension earlier. If you don't work for 35 years, there will be a reduction of your pension.

Boothman complains, that the pension is only enough to eat, live and for clothes. But travelling and holidays are not included. Nowadays, the younger people have no worries and thoughts about their own pension age. So at the end of the interview, he appealed to take care about our future, to be more responsible.

All in all, we enjoyed this interview. Mr. Boothman was perfect for a first conversation, because he spoke very slowly and clearly. In addition, he took up all of our questions and answers them in detail.


#Melanie Kretzschmar and Charly Scholze

Tuesday 28 July 2015

Private pension schemes in the UK

On Friday, 24th July 2015 we had an appointment by Camargue House LLP in Bolton. That's an organisation of Lifetime Financial Planning. We visited them with six people: Saskia Vogel, Ella Schweizer, Sandra Meier, Charly Scholze, Janine Oosterlaak and Jenny Mahn. The operations manager Calum was also with us.

We had the Interview with the employee Howard Spargo about the private pension scheme in the UK. He spoke very clearly and slowly, so we could understand the presentation very well. Mr. Spargo visualized the facts about the pension scheme on a flipchart and used a lot of sketches.

Jenny said: “It was very interesting, because there were a lot of new facts about the private pension scheme. Mr Spargo showed us a lot of examples about the taxes of the pensions and about the lifetime allowance.”

Janine added : “Mr. Spargo had a good pronunciation so that we could follow him even better. Furthermore he asked regularly if we had any questions. He also enquired if we understood everything.”

History of Burnley – A town in change

Four of us dealt with the topic of the history of Burnley. Burnley is a town in the north-east of Lancashire. There we visited some interesting people and sights, to get a better view about the town.


Our first interview began in the old library of Burnley with Ken Spencer, who was a local history teacher. He answered all of our questions. Melina mentioned: "Ken is a friendly man. He is very sympathetic and he gives us a lot of information about Burnley." Sabrina added: "This first interview is really interesting. It was nice to talk to Ken and learn more about the history of Burnley."

Secondly we visited another Ken, who is a owner of the Woodman Pub. He knows everything about Burnley's history. The Pub is 20 minutes from the Embrace House. The second interview was informative as well. Katja said: "He give us a special view about his knowledge and his childhood in Burnley."


The day after we walked to Townely Hall, a very historical place in Burnley. It was amusing, because we had a third interview to a man who´s first name is Ken. He knows everything about the Townely Hall, which is a quite nice place to visit. Katharina explained: "Ken Derwan give us short and precise answers which helped us a lot. Furthermore we were guided through the Townely Hall."


In addition we will visit two more museums in Burnley to learn more about the history of cotton in Burnley due to the industrialization.