The World Awaits

Students at the Isle of Wight College have the opportunity to travel abroad with transport, food and accommodation costs completely covered. We work with a range of partners across the world to give students the chance to experience different cultures and make new contacts overseas. These trips are often life-changing for our students, broadening their horizons, preparing them for independent living and building their skills for employment or further study. We have recently been successful in securing further funding from the UK government’s Turing Scheme and are now planning trips across the globe for the 2023-24 academic year.

Head Higher Project

In spring 2022-23, our Turing-funded ‘Head Higher’ project enabled two groups of College students to work with overseas partners to explore mental health issues in preparation for entering the workplace. During their two-week stay, they broke down barriers to employment by collaborating with students from the host country to create a Mental Health toolkit for young people entering employment. Our Travel and Tourism students spent a fortnight in Finland where partner college Forssan Ammatti Instituutti also organised a programme of activities relevant to their chosen career including a day cruise to the Åland Islands and a husky ride. Our Business and Hospitality students travelled to the Lycée Condorcet secondary school in Belfort, France where they sampled regional foods, visited local enterprises and traveled to Strasbourg for a tour of the European Parliament.

Sea of Change Project

Throughout the 2022-23 academic year students from several curriculum areas completed two-week work placements overseas with all travel costs and expenses funded by the Erasmus+ programme. Our Childcare students returned to Norway, where they gained work experience in a local kindergarten and developed their skills with forest school lessons. Sports students also visited Norway, travelling to Lillehammer to participate in a programme of indoor and outdoor lessons at Gausdal Videregaende Skole which included both alpine and cross-country skiing. Students cooked together each night and built their confidence through trying activities outside of their usual comfort zones including gymnastics lessons. The academic year closed with a two-week work placement in Lebrija, Spain for Painting and Decorating students, who also participated in cultural visits to nearby cities Sevilla and Cadiz.

Previous Projects

Previous projects have included our Erasmus+ funded TIES project, in which students traveled to Italy to develop their understanding of cultural heritage and the environment, and the Turing-funded Mind Over Matter project, where students visited Estonia and Norway to explore ways to boost well-being and promote mental health. Other past travel destinations for College international trips have included Malta and Greece.