During their week in Seville in February/March 2017, these 10 Greek teachers of vocational education visited three centers to talk about absenteeism in professional education. Via many talks and class visits, the teachers familiarized themselves with the Spanish education system and talked about the differences and similarities with the Greek one.

All teachers stated the exchange was very mind-opening and that they were very positive about the experience. Some of their observations:

‘We are more convinced now that the collaboration with the families is very important and we also got a new idea, namely to assign an extra job during the breaks to the students who have many absences.

Another point of importance to keep the students in school is the idea to help them get more in touch with the professionals of their specialty by organising informative events.

We also noticed that by giving more responsibilities to the students and by involving them in extra activities you can make them feel members of the school community and keep them in school.’