We are living in an era of accelerated change as concerns not only technological developments, but also society on the whole. As a consequence, the skills and competences needed for work and life in the 21st century are continuously evolving. It is generally accepted that transversal skills have a profound effect in employability. Unemployment among young people thrives in EU. The 2013 unemployment rate for the ages under 25y.o. in the partners’ countries are: Croatia- 50% , Cyprus-38,9%, France-24,8%, Poland -27,2%, Portugal-37,7%, Spain-55,7%, and at a lower level in Austria 10% . Therefore our countries, our schools, our students, their parents need the project whose aims is to through transversal skills increase the employability of youth. It become obvious what tremendous effect in employability and entrepreneurship an effective training on transversal skills may have. This project was founded after teachers/parents in partner’s schools realised the need for their students/children (it addresses both students -14-18 years old- and teachers in secondary schools) to be better equipped with above mentioned skills. At the international level, the free movement of workers within the EU has meant that borders between countries have been lessened which enables those, with the correct skills to find work in any country around Europe.It is crucial that these skills will be identified and shared amongst our European students as this will increase their chances to obtain work in other EU countries, develop their cultural understanding of other EU countries, provide them with practical experience of business practices in the EU and the transversal skills that this entails, procure the most up to date skills and requirements and provide them with the platform to learn and share their experiences together. To this end each school will pick a local company and will collect some data through a 10 question’s survey. It will form the main information source which students will survey in the creation of the “European Skills4Life Handbook”.Another reason that this work should be carried out at transnational level, is that, teachers will have the opportunity to learn about different approaches and multiple perspectives on transversal skills in the curriculum of each partner country and to collaborate with European colleagues on the introduction of innovative tools in the teaching procedure. Therefore it is clearly necessary that an international collaboration between schools is required to fully research and analyse what are these specific requirements and skills that can then be shared with our students. The comparability of the data collected from the participating schools will provide practical methods and relevant opinions on the issue of employment skills and requirements for European future employees.Transnational cooperation will help them experience the diversity of European culture and the need to maintain unity. The project will be undertaken on a broad labour field with the 7 partner countries providing a relevant array of data from the whole Europe.Moreover, students will have the opportunity to participate in workshops and debates with other students of various countries and to be involved in face to face discussions about the present and the future of EU in context of employability and to visit local companies in their countries.Objectives:- to develop employability through transversal skills acquisition: 1. Learning to learn; 2. Interpersonal, intercultural and social competences and civic competence; 3. Sense of initiative and entrepreneurship; 4. Cultural expressions- to provide students with a summary of the skills needed for them to procure employment within the EU through the “European Skills4Life Handbook”- to maximize learning potential, encouraging self-reflecting and critical thinking on how to use these skills to chart their career path, offering tools learners may personalize and use for self –promotion - to develop awareness of the diversity of the local /national/international labor market and employment opportunities, equipping students with research skills and job searching technique to create innovative tools to support continuous development of learners' transversal skills, increasing the students’ motivation by encouraging collaboration and experience sharing, fostering creativity and peer assessment- to support teachers to practice the ability to work in interdisciplinary and multi-national teams with a direct impact on teaching quality by sharing methods, strategies, ideas-provide practical activities related to international mock interviews, CV and cover letter writing and working in another language.
This partnership involved seven secondary schools in the project entitled “Skills4life”. Partner countries were chosen under the following consideration: each partner country (coming from different part of Europe) represents different state of economy with various rates of unemployment and different level of the attainment of transversal skills as well – by comparing all the things mentioned we can draw the conclusions and „make” equal European employees. By comparing in Europe these different figures we will be able to make a deep analysis of successful strategies and means to form future European workers, ready to enter the job market with equality of conditions. So the extension of this analysis from North to South of Europe, this overview will afford more data for the project and the basis for the planning of activities. It was assessed that the partners represent countries with different economic, social and political realities, in order to obtain, as much as possible, a more comprehensive and global treatment of the subject. For the same reason we have tried to involve in it a variety of school types (vocational, private and general education schools). Our project aimed at stimulating a sense of entrepreneurship and creative mindset among Young people as a key factor in their future life linked to their professional and personal development as well. These goals were achieved in 13 smaller steps: These were as follows: 1. A digital timeline where there will be references on the history of learning and teaching 2. Portfolio - Me and my learning. Identify your skills – all the students gather information about themselves - to emphasize the connection between learning in school and future adult life; to stress the importance of learning how to learn; to identify strategies for learning used by students including: know yourself -learning history and motivation, about giving and receiving feedback, skills they have and skills they need culture, 3. A printed book - Back in time - about each partner’ traditions, what is learned from the ancestors. It can help the students develop the understanding of who they are and what they can become, it develops also intercultural competences 4. A library of movies where a person gets into a foreign country for the first time, and encounters culture shock, trying to adapt to the new culture 5. Card gallery- collection of portrayals of intercultural incidents in caricature style to raise awareness of different perspectives on an incident or misunderstanding among different cultures. 6. Documentary – I can help-charity event, students in each country prepare a charity event which will be trying to solve some local problems, answer some needs of people living around, 7. A video Who is who which will present the most prominent entrepreneurs from Europe. 8. A collection of digital work sheets and evaluation sheets designed with the web2.0 tools which can be used by teachers in the classroom. 9. A vocabulary booklet - Alphabet of entrepreneurship – (digital and printed) of the most common terms connected with entrepreneurship 10. A digital file with the titles, trailers and a short description of movies with great lessons for entrepreneurs, 11. A booklet and ppt presentation -An Unemployment factfile – with data concerning the unemployment rates in each partners’ countries, 12. A guidebook - Preparing for employment – tips about job interview, covering letter, CV, 13. “European Skills for Life Handbook” – it’s a collection of the most important information gathered/learned through 3 years project, made up with the results of the 12 questions survey done to each company when students visited them, 14. Diary of visiting local companies with the data the students found out, the problems and successes, marketing, employment issues aand working conditions. 15. Brochures and posters for the promotion and dissemination of the project. 16. Blog about the project where the activities carried out in each school , photos , as well as the information on the meetings , were constantly updated. Thanks to these activities, their participants were stimulated to develop and to assess of key competencies including basic skills and transversal skills particularly entrepreneurship, languages and digital skills as well as their artistic, creative abilities, communicative, organizational and social skills. ICT skills, research skills were practiced while preparing project products: leaflets, multimedia presentations, films, interviews, DVDs but not only: also to contact other teachers and students. Self-involvement, active European citizenship and European solidarity were the values we shared. Exploring how the countries work , finding the best things despite differences among them helped us promote intercultural dialogue in our schools and local communities and made the pupils realise the importance of mutual understanding within European Union.