Find Your Way Through Art is an art and entrepreneurial project where a core group of thirty or so students in each of the five partner schools from Finland, Germany, Italy, Spain and the Czech Republic will plan and carry out five project events during two years for the general public and invited guests. The students will plan, organize and carry out the project events in collaboration with their European peers firstly by using eTwinning and other suitable apps when working in their home countries, and secondly, performing the events during short-term exchanges in the partner countries. The need for the project arose from the practices of the five partner schools as two of them specialize in art and in the other three arts also play an important role. As many of our students will seek further education and employment in the field of arts, the topic of art was a natural choice, which also offers chances for those students to participate that are less academically oriented. Thus the expertise and profile of each partner school support the project topic. Developing basic and transversal skills using innovative methods is the overall priority, as the aim of the project is for our students to learn not only academic but also practical skills for both their future studies and working life because young people need a wide range of competences to get employed or to start a successful business of their own. Other priorities are promoting entrepreneurship education and social entrepreneurship, and stregthening quality through mobility and cross-border cooperation. This is why the main objectives in our project are to increase the sense of initiative and entrepreneurship, broaden our students´ horizons regarding job opportunities and provide them with tools that they can use later in their working life, eg digital competences and language skills. Other objectives are to promote creativity, multiculturalism, diminish prejudice and to increase knowledge of different art forms. The students will be responsible for carrying out five project events from the planning stage to the actual performing. These events will be a concert in Thiene, an art exhibition in a gallery in Tampere, a fashion show in Jihlava, a theatre performance in Rottweil and a modern art installation in Valladolid. For this they will get advice from entrepreneurs and other professionals, teachers facilitating the process. While working on the various events, they´ll understand what it takes to become an entrepreneur: have an idea and how to put it into practice and how to advertise it, how to find financing, a suitable location and how to deal with taxation, for example, and they will see how different kinds of aspects must be taken into account in working life. The project will be realized by project based learning, integrating different school subjects with hands-on activities both in and outside school and even cross borders. The project combines learning at school with real connections to working life by visits and guests, and it also gives students responsibility as the point is not for the teachers to determine everything but rather instruct and help the students to realize the project in their own way. Furthermore, the use of ICT plays a central role as it wil be needed in communicating, planning and carrying out project events, and in the evaluation, dissemination and documentation of the project. eTwinning will be used throughout the project, which will also have a website for the general public. Most results in the project are intangible ones. While working on the project, the students will learn entrepreneurial skills: to take initiative and responsibility, improve both time management and leadership skills, develop planning and organizational skills, negotiate and compromise. Their language skills and digital competences will improve. As they also need to produce the content to the events in addition to just organizing them, they´ll learn to use their imagination and creativity in more varied ways. The project might help students in finding their future careers as they will see how different kinds of aspects must be taken into account in working life, and what other skills are needed in addition to formal qualifications. In addition to the positive impact on the students and their skills, the project will also benefit the teachers and organizations. Beside improved ICT and language skills, good practices and developed teaching will cause changes in school curricula and create more positive organization profiles. Cooperation within the partnership will continue as new projects, and the organizations will keep up and develop the network gained through the project, and use the contacts also in the future. We believe that our project will give our students an insight into working in a multi-cultural environment and motivate them to pursue their goals. Our students will recognize the fact that they can succeed as equal members in the EU.
Find Your Way Through Art was an art and entrepreneurial project where a core group of thirty students in each of the five partner schools from Finland, Germany, Italy, Spain and the Czech Republic planned and carried out five project events during two years for the general public and invited guests. The students planned, organized and carried out the project events in collaboration with their European peers firstly by using eTwinning and other suitable apps when working in their home countries, and secondly, performing the events during short-term exchanges in the partner countries. The need for the project arose from the practices of the five partner schools as two of them specialize in art and in the other three arts also play an important role. As many of our students will seek further education and employment in the field of arts, the topic of art was a natural choice, which also offered chances for those students to participate that were less academically oriented. Thus the expertise and profile of each partner school supported the project topic. Developing basic and transversal skills using innovative methods was the overall priority, as the aim of the project was for our students to learn not only academic but also practical skills for both their future studies and working life because young people need a wide range of competences to get employed or to start a successful business of their own. Other priorities were promoting entrepreneurship education and social entrepreneurship, and stregthening quality through mobility and cross-border cooperation. This was why the main objectives in our project were to increase the sense of initiative and entrepreneurship, broaden our students´ horizons regarding job opportunities and provide them with tools that they can use later in their working life, eg digital competences and language skills. Other objectives were to promote creativity, multiculturalism, diminish prejudice and to increase knowledge of different art forms. The students were responsible for carrying out five project events from the planning stage to the actual performing. These events were a concert at the town theatre Thiene, an art exhibition in the gallery Luomus in Tampere, a fashion show at the DIOD theatre in Jihlava, a theatre performance in Rottweil and a modern art installation in Valladolid. For this they got advice from entrepreneurs and other professionals, teachers facilitating the process. While working on the various events, they understood what it takes to become an entrepreneur: have an idea and how to put it into practice and how to advertise it, how to find financing, a suitable location and how to deal with taxation, for example, and they saw how different kinds of aspects must be taken into account in working life. The project was realized by project based learning, integrating different school subjects with hands-on activities both in and outside school and even cross borders. The project combined learning at school with real connections to working life by visits and guests, and it also gave students responsibility as the point was not for the teachers to determine everything but rather instruct and help the students to realize the project in their own way. Furthermore, the use of ICT played a central role as it was needed in communicating, planning and carrying out project events, and in the evaluation, dissemination and documentation of the project. eTwinning was used throughout the project, which also has a website for the general public. Most results in the project were intangible ones. While working on the project, the students learned entrepreneurial skills: to take initiative and responsibility, improve both time management and leadership skills, develop planning and organizational skills, negotiate and compromise. Their language skills and digital competences improved. As they also needed to produce the content to the events in addition to just organizing them, they learned to use their imagination and creativity in more varied ways. The project might help students in finding their future careers as they saw how different kinds of aspects must be taken into account in working life, and what other skills are needed in addition to formal qualifications. In addition to the positive impact on the students and their skills, the project also benefitted the teachers and organizations. Beside improved ICT and language skills, good practices and developed teaching have caused changes in school curricula and created more positive organization profiles. Cooperation within the partnership will continue as new projects, and the organizations will keep up and develop the network gained through the project, and use the contacts also in the future. Our project gave our students an insight into working in a multi-cultural environment and motivated them to pursue their goals. Our students recognized the fact that they can succeed as equal members in the EU.