What does it involve?
Module B – Overview
With respect to individual funding within the Lehramt.International programme (Module B) scholarships for school internships abroad are awarded in two programme lines. Funding line 1 is aimed at student teachers in all subject combinations and school formats. Funding line 2 is aimed at graduates in teaching-related subjects who are between the first and second state examinations, or have completed a master’s degree but not an internship. The prospective teachers organise these internships themselves and they take place in school facilities abroad – ideally in the subject combination in which the scholarship holders have studied.
More than 6,630 prospective teachers have applied for self-organised school internships abroad since 2019. Over 3,000 student teachers and graduates have benefited from a scholarship to complete a school internship in one of 100 countries.
Forms of internships
The internship can either be a mandatory internship or an optional internship. A qualitative selection process involving experts in the teaching profession from various universities is conducted a number of times a year in both funding lines. The objective of an international teacher training scholarship is to enable prospective teachers to benefit from international experience. This type of scholarship is intended to bolster the participants’ intercultural skills. Being immersed in a foreign culture should enable the beneficiaries to consolidate their intercultural awareness and comprehension of cultural differences. A stay abroad equally provides an ideal opportunity to improve and solidify language skills. The scholarship also gives them an insight into different education systems and teaching methods. Participants have the chance to learn about various pedagogic approaches and teaching modes that they can apply in their future career.
Positive feedback
A programme-based survey of scholarship holders reveals clear impacts on their professionalisation: 94% of respondents stated that they have improved their intercultural skills and 87% felt better prepared for working in multicultural classes after their internship abroad. Initial analysis of these results indicates that the prospective teachers have acquired intercultural, linguistic and practical (career-related) expertise from their stays abroad that were enabled by these DAAD scholarships.
The Lehramt.International funding programme also addresses groups of student teachers who have previously been less likely to study abroad. The results provide a clear profile of the DAAD scholarship holders: 41% of first-time graduates, 50% of mobile first-time students, 36% of prospective primary school teachers.
Spain is the scholarship programme’s top-rated destination country for internships at schools abroad.
A student teacher at the University of Vechta, Sunny, acts as a correspondent for the DAAD campaign ‘studieren weltweit – ERLEBE ES!’ and reports on her internship in the primary school at the German School Santa Cruz de Tenerife, which she was able to complete due to her DAAD full scholarship.
Lehramt.International: quotes by beneficiaries regarding school internship abroad
Please click on the preview image to activate the video. We would like to point out that data will be transmitted to the respective provider after activation. View on YouTube
Facts regarding stays abroad
In the context of its individual funding, the DAAD has significantly expanded and increased its family benefits for German students and doctoral candidates, which were rather restricted prior to 2019. These benefits include the married couple allowance, a child benefit supplement, assistance with childcare costs, travel cost supplements for accompanying spouses/registered partners and children who are with the scholarship holders for at least a month abroad, medical and third party insurance for accompanying partners and children, and accident insurance for partners.
These family benefits mean that the DAAD is offering a comprehensive package that should facilitate a stay abroad with family and children. The DAAD has also established funding measures as part of both its individual and project funding to enable equal access to studies abroad for DAAD scholarship holders with disabilities or chronic diseases.
Since the end of August, I’ve been teaching at the private German International School in Chicago. Learning about a different school system certainly broadened my horizons. the digital equipment here is much better than in Germany, although education is viewed as a form of customer service, which is something I had to get used to at first. The multiplex nature of their primary school teaching makes it difficult to combine with a longer stay abroad. For me at this point – in the period before my state examination in spring – it’s ideal. I came over here with my family: my partner looks after our baby whenever I’m teaching. I wouldn’t have been able to proceed with my internship without this scholarship, which also includes very attractive family benefits like assistance with childcare costs.Jule Drobnitzky