On Tuesday 15 March 2022 the foreign language correspondence course started a trip to our partner school ROC Twente in Hengelo. There we participated in an exchange project with Dutch students studying management assistance and law. The topic of the project was a comparison of our lives in the European Union.

The basis of this comparison was the R.O.L.E project (Regarding Our Lives in Europe). It was the first time in two years that a visit like this could take place since there was a break caused by COVID restrictions in 2020 and 2021.

After a 30 minutes bus ride we arrived at the ROC van Twente and were very impressed by the school building and experienced a warm welcome by Dutch teachers and students. The school that once was a huge factory even had a supermarket and a restaurant.

After 30 minutes of ice-breaking games, we were divided into groups of two Germans and two Dutch students. First the Dutch students showed us around the school. We noticed that even the Dutch students got lost quickly, because each professional field has its own department in the building.

Then we started to work on the R.O.L.E project in groups. The focus was on a comparison of the school system, opportunities after school, the way we spend our leisure time and financial support by the government.

We were able to find differences in the school system between Germany and the Netherlands where there is no such thing as a dual system, we know from vocational schools in Germany.

Moreover, each student in the Netherlands receives regular payments from the government for visiting a school. But in case you fail to receive a degree, you have to pay all the money back. 

Of course, we also got into conversation with the Dutch students about the current situation in Europe which showed that we share the same hopes and fears regarding the overall situation and the war in Ukraine.

After discussing all the topics, we finally created a poster with results to be presented in class which brought lots of parallels but also some differences to light. For lunchtime our partners had prepared sandwiches and fresh orange juice. All in all, we can say that we had a great day in Hengelo and that the communication in English was very good.

Merle Schreijer und Sophie Mört (AHR13F)