Youth unemployment is high across the EU, particularly in two of our partner schools; Italy and Greece. This project will help equip students and staff with six essential skills to help address deficiencies in the taught curriculum: Employability, Linguistic, ICT, Presentation, Literacy and Numeracy skills. A main objective is to ensure that skills for the labour market are developed and that the curriculum in each partner school is meeting the skills and knowledge demands of the local, national and European economy. Participants will evaluate and explore the effectiveness of their schools in meeting labour market demands and will establish partnerships with social enterprises, local businesses and economic development agencies to help match the curriculum with labour market skills needs, a key objective from the Bruges Communique. There are three Objectives: 1. boosting employability skills and school-business links 2. using innovative e-learning to raise attainment and 3. developing a stronger sense of European identity. These three objectives will cover six key skills: Employability, ICT, Linguistic, Presentation, Numeracy and Literacy. It is expected that up to 40 people will participate in each of the six schools, so 240 in total. There will be a balance between staff and students. Student profile are ages 15-18. We will target those students that are socially and economically deprived. We will also target students geographically isolated. We will also target students with special educational and physical needs. Staff will be teaching and non teaching members of the school. We will have ICT specialist teachers and technicians also. We will ensure that there are staff included that have experience of transnational projects and mobilities as well as opening up to staff with no ICT background or transnational experience. We plan to carryout some ambitious activities centered around the use and promotion of ICT and digital resources in learning and teaching, developing key skills and strengthening participants sense of European identity. Staff will produce innovative and digital resources, schemes of work and lesson plans that will be shared as OER. They will focus on literacy, numeracy, ICT, presentation, linguistic and employability skills. Students will undertake a comparative study on Careers education, guidance and preparation for working life. Students will asses the impact of high youth unemployment and make suggestions on how to reduce this. Students will also work on a collaborative European Citizenship project where they will research the development of EU integration in their region, design a scheme of work on learning and teaching about the EU and design and carryout their own pressure group campaign as active EU citizens. Students and staff will also create their own video blogs on social media charting their progress in learning a new language. We will hold two multilateral events: a digital teaching fair to share best practice in the use of eLearning and ICT in education. We will also hold a Conference at the European Parliament on our project objectives and outcomes. Our project is designed to embrace digital technology and to ensure that ICT is at the heart of our project from initial virtual communication in writing this application form, sharing project ideas, communication during planning and implementation and the use of the Internet to evaluate and disseminate activities and outcomes. We will use IT to its fullest potential in disseminating and permanently sharing our resources. All materials from the various planned activities will be saved as PDFs to enable them to be uploaded as iBooks, Staff Hand Books, Apps and printable resources to download from websites. We will have links to our iDeal website, e-twinning portal and the Erasmus platform. Our lesson plans, resources, research, Apps and other materials raise standards across the national curriculum. Part of our dissemination targeting is national education departments who could promote and endorse our project resources and digital materials as good practice for all schools. The key skills and the entrepreneurial spirit developed will help reduce youth unemployment and contribute to economic growth. Students and staff will become more empowered and active European Citizens. Our conference and eLearning fair will share the very best of the digital practices and project outcomes delivered. The project will create and develop longterm relationships with the partner schools beyond Erasmus. We will work together in sharing resources, in organising work experience and teacher placement schemes. Our website will be indefinitely maintained as an OER platform. We will also see standards of teaching rise in meeting the demands of the labour market and in embracing new digital pedagogy. Students will become more motivated and active and attainment will rise.
Youth unemployment is high across the EU, particularly in Italy and Greece for example. More than ever, young Europeans need an education that equips them with employability skills and helps develop their sense of entrepreneurship. The Euro and economic crisis and recent events in Ukraine had challenged the sense of European identity. In many countries extremists and anti EU parties were gaining popularity (e.g. Golden Dawn in Greece, UKIP and FN in France). This project addressed a need in developing a strong sense of European identity and empowering students and staff to become active citizens, a key need outlined in the Treaty of Lisbon. This proved to be all the more relevant as Brexit happened while the Project was being undertaken. As teachers, we realised that the current generation of young Europeans are a digital generation and learning and teaching strategies must adapt to cater for a changing learning style. Too many students feel disconnected from learning as traditional teaching practices are not effective in challenging and engaging the digital student in the learning process. As a result, student attainment could be higher as some disaffected students drop out of education. This project helped equip students and staff with essential skills to help address deficiencies in the taught curriculum: Employability, Linguistic, ICT, Presentation and Literacy skills. Three key objectives were decided: 1. boosting employability skills and school-business links, 2. using innovative e-learning to raise attainment and 3. developing a stronger sense of European identity. The project activities covered key skills: Employability, ICT, Linguistic, Presentation and Literacy. The project addressed the following Commission educational policy priorities outlined in the Work Programme: developing transversal digital, linguistic and entrepreneurship skills, innovation in student-centred pedagogy, enhancing ICT in learning and teaching, developing links between education and employment, improving student attainment and teacher training and professional development. Between 40 and 50 people participated in each of the six partner schools. The students were aged between 15 and 18. We gave preference to students that were socially and economically deprived and/or geographically isolated. We also included students with special educational and physical needs. Staff included teachers, technicians and managers. ICT specialist teachers and technicians brought expertise, support and training and improved all participants’ digital and ICT skills. We carried out some ambitious activities centered around the use and promotion of ICT and digital resources in learning and teaching, developing key skills and strengthening participants sense of European identity. Staff produced innovative and digital resources that were shared as OER through our website (http://idealproject14.wixsite.com/ideal). These resources included various skills such as literacy, ICT, presentation, linguistic and employability skills. Students also undertook an oral history video project, a comparative study on school systems including preparation for working life. Students also worked on a collaborative European Citizenship project where they researched the development of EU integration in their region, designed a scheme of work on learning and teaching about the EU and designed and carried out their own pressure group campaign as active EU citizens. Some students and staff also created their own video blog on social media about learning a new language. One of the final tasks was the setting up of mini enterprises among the students of the six partner schools. We held two multilateral events: a digital teaching fair to share best practice in the use of eLearning and ICT in education. We also held a Conference at the European Parliament on our project objectives and outcomes. Other important aspects of our project included work placements for the students during the short-term mobilities, job-shadowing and job sharing for the teachers during these short term mobilities and – last but not least – long term mobilities for both teachers and students. Our lesson plans, resources, research, apps and other materials helped raise standards across the schools. We shared our research and evaluation findings with 8 MEPs during our conference in the European Parliament and encouraged them to promote and endorse our project resources and digital materials as good practice. In the long term, our students will hugely benefit from having taken part in the project as they have developed key skills and an entrepreneurial spirit. Students and staff have become more empowered and active European Citizens. Our conference and eLearning fair shared the very best of the digital practices and our project outcomes were delivered. Moreover, the project created and developed personal relationships with the partner schools and among staff and students beyond Erasmus+.