Our podcast journey
Second Summer School: Interview with teacher
Our podcast journey through Europe continues in Spain, where Mikel Garai Head of International Affairs at San Viator Sopuerta, share his personal European experience.
Mikel’s advice to teachers
Be vocational, relational and hands-on. Don’t open with treaty articles, voting percentages or procedures. Start with what directly affects students: their trade, their future career and where they want to travel.
Let students teach each other. Learning happens naturally when they are trusted to solve practical challenges together.
Mikel remembers two reactions when the pilot of Euclass Alliance began. The first was excitement, at the idea of bridging the gap between vocational students and European affairs. The second was hesitation: there were few European precedents in VET, and he wondered how students would react to an EU they barely knew and didn’t find interesting.
The doubts did not last. Once the activities started, students showed real curiosity about European countries, cultures and how the Union is governed. The pilot targeted Basic VET students, who often come from vulnerable academic and personal backgrounds. Far from being unmanageable, Mikel says, these learners simply need practical, hands-on methods to show what they can do.
An EU that feels out of reach. To show students that they can take part in the Union, the school invited young experts from Equipo Europa, a youth association in the Basque Country, who presented the European institutions in a dynamic and interactive way.
The language barrier. Most students were at A1/A2 English. Teachers used real-time translation and visual aids in Spanish, Basque and English, such as photos, travel cards and maps, to keep everyone on board.
Listen now to the full episode to discover more!
Instead of a lecture on EU governance, the school designed team escape rooms of one to one and a half hours, in two versions: “Mission Brussels” and “Mission Strasbourg”.
Students who had already travelled to Brussels led the teams, using their own anecdotes, street maps of the European quarter and photos of the Parliament, Commission and Council to help classmates recognise the institutions.
Teams matched functions to the right EU institutions, spotted false details on mock boarding passes and travel documents (about roaming rights or the European Health Insurance Card), and decoded messages in English using cipher alphabets, collecting the pieces of a final puzzle along the way. "Ambassador hint cards”. A stuck team could earn a hint by doing a short physical task, such as five squats, or by answering a geography question, such as naming EU capitals. The trick kept energy high.
Everyone takes part. One teacher noted that every student participated actively, whatever their English level or school background.
The format adapts to any specialisation, from automotive and electricity to catering and administration. Because other project partners showed interest, the team is preparing a standardised English version that any school can use, without students needing to have visited Brussels first.
Mikel valued bringing classroom teachers and project managers together. Whether in Spain or Finland, schools share common ways of getting students to interact, while cultural differences open new opportunities for exchange. He also highlighted a conversation with Dutch MEP Brigitte van den Berg about EU institutional internships for VET students, a long-standing request from vocational educators.