It is recognised that entrepreneurship is a major driver of innovation, competitiveness and growth. Europe needs a more entrepreneurial culture. However, learning how to run a business is only one aspect of it. Entrepreneurship should be understood in its broader meaning. Entrepreneurial skills and attitudes provide benefits to society even beyond their application to business activity. They are also a vehicle for personal development. In fact, learning about entrepreneurship will include developing personal qualities such as creativity, taking initiative, responsibility, which will prove generally useful in life. General Objectives: By improving basic cross-curricular skills , broadening the potential of ICT and effective communicative use of English, we want to promote a work based learning and highlight that entrepreneurship is the key to fight the gap between formal, informal and non formal learning, looking for closer connections between school and work. Context/Background: Starting point is the idea to identify and fulfil the customers' needs, coping with new marketing trends, following the demand for niche items, organic local produce, quality guaranteed products, experience based purchases. An added value is represented by KA1 on staff mobility, already running between Italian and Dutch schools, having the "Development of entrepreneurship in young students" as the shared goal. The teachers involved are already in touch with the learning environments of respective schools and can have already focused on the needs of students with reference to the specific economic and social surroundings. Description of activities/Participants: Talented marketing choices? Let's put them to the trial. Students (males and females equally represented) will do it with the startup of the Mini Enterprises. They will learn about the procedures for establishing businesses, study how to develop a business plan, look for funding and finally they will organize the Market Days Studying online marketing strategies, building entrepreneurial virtual scenarios will be just the first part of a process resulting in the actual organization of real International Markets, creating customized packets, getting in touch with the "real" customers from abroad. Inclusion will be granted for disadvantaged students, either of socio-economic origin or of minority ethnicity, or really from disabled categories. Methodology: A work based learning being the starting point, all the ICT tools, from learning platforms, to social networks, to interactive websites will be exploited.The role of teachers in our project is that of facilitators. They will not impose their ideas on students, but rather give them support and advice.The teacher is therefore a tutor who intervenes only to a minimum degree in the decision-making process of the group. This type of methodology is about learning through direct experience: pupils are likely to make mistakes, and to see the consequences of their mistakes. Results/Impact: On students and teachers The main goal so is to empower the business initiative of secondary school students in general and girls in particular, with ICT skills and entrepreneurial values to help them to be able to create future opportunities for innovation and quality ICT related employments We hope to achieve a stronger motivation and therefore increase the success and decrease the early school abandonment of our students, especially of the socially at risk and of the disadvantaged ones.Induce attainment and raise ambitions in young people, make them realize what tools will be essential in their working life will be the goal of teachers and staff on a more general level. Sharing good practices with a special focus on entrepreneurial attitudes bent and integrated with more structured teaching activities will be what the teachers will enhance and trial all along the project development. On local and online communities: We will elaborate a multi-dimensional dissemination approach with different communication tools adapted to the different target groups in order to attract interest and necessary feedback/involvement from them. We will involve our PR- departments to make sure that the dissemination activities are well implemented and developed towards the different target groups. We will research on the impact that participation to this project will have on students’ life development. This would include not only skills acquired, but also career choices, college courses taken and number of business start-ups created by the students . We are convinced that more evidence of the impact of these programmes would help to get entrepreneurship education on to the agenda of policy makers and educational authorities.
Context/Background: Starting point is the idea to identify and fulfill the customers' needs, coping with new marketing trends, following the demand for niche items, organic local produce, quality guaranteed products, experience based purchases. An added value is represented by KA1 on staff mobility, already done between Italian and Dutch schools, having the "Development of entrepreneurship in young students" as the shared goal. The teachers involved were already in touch with the learning environments of respective schools. General Objectives: It is recognised that entrepreneurship is a major driver of innovation, competitiveness and growth. By improving basic cross-curricular skills , broadening the potential of ICT and effective communicative use of English, we wanted to promote a work based learning and highlight that entrepreneurship is the key to fight the gap between formal, informal and non formal learning, looking for closer connections between school and work. Number and profile of participating organisations: The two secondary schools involved had had a quite consolidated story of cooperation with a Comenius and a KA1 staff mobility before starting this KA2. They share the context of vocational courses in the Agrarian field, but in Italy also the Tourist and Marketing courses could be involved.Overall we can say that both partners schools' staff has gained good experience in the management of students' learning out of the school environment, and is achieving a new perspective, including international open-mindedness , attracting foreign interest and promoting activities abroad. Inclusion has been granted for disadvantaged students, either of socio-economic origin or of minority ethnicity, or of disabled categories, both light learning impairment (dyslexia and dysgraphia) and more demanding ADHD or ASD.. JA and its program YES supplied the canvas for all the steps in the startup and management of the mini companies. The links with the farming and manufacturing economic sectors both in Italy and the Netherlands were strong and helped organizing visits and experiences. The links with University organizations and upper secondary institutions in both countries gave the chance to design challenging activities which took place in the form of short seminars and workshops and gave the students a perspective in their future choices. Description of undertaken main Activities: They started with learning about the procedures for establishing business. Students (males and females equally represented) did it with the startup of the Mini Enterprises. They studied how to develop a business plan, look for funding and finally organize the Market Days . The same steps took place every year with an increasing cooperation and interaction between the partner schools. Studying online marketing strategies, building entrepreneurial virtual scenarios in fact has been just the first part of a process resulting in the actual organization of real International Markets, creating customized packets, getting in touch with the "real" customers from abroad. Every year 2 International Market Days were organized, one in Italy and one in the Netherlands. The main planned activity was to start up mini enterprises and develop skills and competences towards entrepreneurship. In the first year students have tried to develop a product from a niche market or adapt an existing product. Overall the students activities have included: A) Language content based (CLIL ) lessons delivered to the different nationality blended group of students, both at a distance (Skype) and during the visits at each other's school; B) Joint activities to share formal and informal teaching/learning sessions, where English was necessarily the lingua franca for contents and case studies, as well as the communication language in all context visited outside schools. In the second year managing handmade products created and assembled by students using either new or recycled materials. In the third year the group of students made up integrated mini companies and could get in touch quite early (November) with the mini companies from both countries. This allowed the companies' managers to meet and share ideas as for what online marketing tools to be used and promotional actions to be taken. Results and impact attained: Europe needs a more entrepreneurial culture. However, learning how to run a business is only one aspect of it. Entrepreneurship should be understood in its broader meaning. Entrepreneurial skills and attitudes provide benefits to society even beyond their application to business activity. They are also a vehicle for personal development. In fact, learning about entrepreneurship has included developing personal qualities such as creativity, taking initiative, responsibility, all soft skills that will be generally useful in life.