Kick-off meeting in Prague: Meeting new people, learning new approaches, getting new tasks

On Sunday, the 5th of November, the partners of the ProChil project met for the first time to get to know each other, exchange experience, compare the expectations, widen each other’s horizons, set guidelines for future work on the project outputs and to agree on the next tasks. 

Family and Job as the coordinator and hosting organisation decided that it would be nice to take the partners outside of Prague for a while so after the Sunday social dinner the partners travelled together to Kladno, where they visited a Montessori nursery run by the shared efforts of Family and Job and Montessori mateřská škola a klub Kladno, a partner of the project.

In Kladno partners had the opportunity to learn about the Montessori principles. (Photo gallery on our Facebook page here.) The practical presentation was followed by a presentation by Stepanka Tezka, who explained the current childcare system in the Czech Republic. Download here.

Each of the partners had the chance to present the partner organisations, its activities and aims and also previous experience with Erasmus+ projects. The partners also exchanged information about their expectations from the project. The last part of the meeting was the presentation of the Czech curriculum for the nurse VET qualification curriculum which is the base for the project’s output.

After the meeting the partners took a train to Prague where a guide waited for them to show them the nicest places in Prague.

On Tuesday morning there was time to discuss the formal questions about the project. The partners signed the Partnership Agreements, they received certificates of attendance, they agreed on the dates for the next meeting (Joint Staff Training Event on the 3rd – 9th of March 2018, Antwerp). The team of Family and Job as the coordinator explained the rules given to the financial management of the project by the Erasmus+ programme and by the Czech National Agency. Tasks for each of the partner organisatoins were cleared and repeated.

After the lunch the partners took part in the conference organized by Family and Job. The international discussion panel was focused on different approaches towards childcare services in European countries and also on ways to better reconciliation of work and family life. More about the conference here.

The meeting took place in a friendly but productive atmosphere and we are looking forward to meeting each other again in Antwerp.