CECOA offers two different types of training courses for young people:

• Apprenticeship System;
• Technologic Specialisation.

These types of training courses prepare qualified young future workers, able to give an efficient answer to the labour market demands. Through these courses, CECOA aims at the acquisition and development of knowledge, skills and competences adapted to a suitable performance of professional tasks.

The close relationship between CECOA and companies allows providing, in all initial training courses, a practical application of the acquired competences through on-the-job training periods. It duration depends on the type of training.

Apprenticeship System

• Targeted to young people with 9 years of schooling and less than 25 years old;
• Providing a level 4 qualification (NQF and EQF);
• The training methodology is similar to the German “dual system”, i.e., the training process alternates between theoretical and practical training periods in the classroom and on-the-job training periods in companies/organisations.

Within the Apprenticeship System, CECOA offers vocational opportunities in the following areas:

• Commercial Technician
• Accounting Technician
• Windows Dressing/Visual Merchandising Technician

Technologic Specialisation

• Targeted to young people with secondary education;
• Providing a level 5 qualification (NQF and EQF) associated to a school progression towards Higher Education;
• Allowing to deepen scientific and technological knowledge, skills and competences in a certain field of study;
• Providing a comprehensive range of cognitive and practical skills and comprehensive, specialised, factual and theoretical knowledge within a certain field of study;
• Allowing learners to exercise management and supervision autonomously and independently.

Within this training modality CECOA offers the Technologic Specialization Qualification in “International Trade”.

This qualification was already designed to take into account the “learning outcomes”, recognition, and mobility approaches emphasized by the VET European Cooperation Frameworks (EQF, ECVET). In this sense, this qualification is fully compatible with the “common references” related to the international trade assistant profession set up as part of the COMINTER Leonardo da Vinci project.

Such common references describe units of learning outcomes that form a common"interpretive framework" used to establish coherency between qualifications in each country. They encourage qualification transparency and the recognition of mobility in companies and training centres.

CECOA through this qualification is also part of a network promoting European mobility for learners completing vocational training in the International Trade sector.

For more information regarding these common references and the European network we belong to, please check the following link http://www.netinvet.eu/