The 21st century global society and the difficult economic situation place challenging demands on younger generations who are facing complexity in many sectors of life and are hindred by a lack of practical teaching, with immediate applicability of the acquired knowledge, in schools. Despite the progress in adapting school curricula to the transformations in society, there is still much to do, and a good way to enhance the required improvement is to share practices and experiences between European schools . The project aims at introducing in the school curriculum and improving the practice of entrepreneurship education from an early age as a means to develop basic and transversal competences, as a way to foster a positive, productive attitude towards problems and risks and to motivate students, especially the ones at risk of social exclusion and failure in school. Innovative practices in entrepreneurship education will be introduced and implemented. Teachers will be supported to update their methods of teaching transversal competences via active methods and ICT, and develop practice-oriented/ learner-centred methods,; students will be more active and involved in their learning, they will take more responsibility for themselves, to try to achieve their goals, to be creative, to discover existing opportunities and to cope with the requests of a complex society. This will be achieved by providing a platform of dynamic cooperation, exchanging institutional experiences, sharing the practices with partners ,creating synergies and putting into practice the effective approaches to entrepreneurship education. Six schools from six different countries, teaching students in the age group 10-14, will participate in the project and work together. Some of the participating schools have entrepreneurship education in their school, addressed to older students, while others have no entrepreneurship education at all in their school curriculum, both national and local. Their teachers and headmasters have experience in previous projects and specialise in foreign languages, computer science, students with special needs and inclusion.During the project there will be three short-terms exchanges of groups of pupils from each of the partner schools during which they will take part in activities of entrepreneurship education together with their fellow students from the other partner schools. Furthermore, there will be three transnational meetings for teachers only at the beginning, at the middle and and at the end of the project in order to plan and decide about organisation, evaluation etc., monitoring the projects progress, elaborating further activities, assessment and evaluation, practical organisation of further meetings with students etc., manage dissemination and measures to ensure the sustainability of the project and its results, and also to organise further collaboration.The project management methodology will be agile, aiming at empowering teams, encouraging students' active involvement in their learning and managing change or the risk throughout the project. It helps the development of teams, project monitoring and responsiveness to change, with continued communication as an important aspect during the life of the project.For activities involving students a variety of active methods will be applied: cooperative learning, team-work, problem solving, case study, learning by doing, inquiry and research, learning through experience.The major desired impact of the project is that people will become aware of the importance od entrepreneurship education as a way to motivate the pupils as well as to endow them with those knowledge, skills and attitudes that are necessary in contemporary society and are seen as a key means of returning Europe to growth and promotion of new jobs. One more result of the project will be the creation and offer of materials for entrepreneurship education and competence oriented activities that will be available to a wider, international audience. The potential longer term benefits for teachers will be professional development, for students it will be high quality training, enhanced entrpreneurial awareness and intercultural competence, useful when looking for a job on the European job market or studying abroad.
Background and context; The 21st century global society and the difficult economic situation place challenging demands on younger generations who are facing complexity in many sectors of life and are hindred by a lack of practical teaching, with immediate applicability of the acquired knowledge, in schools. Despite the progress in adapting school curricula to the transformations in society, there is still much to do, and a good way to enhance the required improvement is to share practices and experiences between European schools. Objectives; The project aims at introducing in the school curriculum and improving the practice of entrepreneurship education from an early age as a means to develop basic and transversal competences, as a way to foster a positive, productive attitude towards problems and risks and to motivate students, especially the ones at risk of social exclusion and failure in school. Innovative practices in entrepreneurship education are introduced and implemented. Teachers are supported to update their methods of teaching transversal competences via active methods and ICT, and develop practice-oriented/ learner-centred methods,; students hopefully are more active and involved in their learning, they take more responsibility for themselves, to try to achieve their goals, to be creative, to discover existing opportunities and to cope with the requests of a complex society. This is achieved by providing a platform of dynamic cooperation, exchanging institutional experiences, sharing the practices with partners ,creating synergies and putting into practice the effective approaches to entrepreneurship education. Number and profile of participating organisation; Six schools from six different countries: Finland, Italy, Turkey, Portugal, Lithuania and Romania. The group was found through School Education Gateway. Schools teaching students in the age group 10-14, participated in the project and worked together. Some of the participating schools had entrepreneurship education in their school, addressed to older students, while others had`t no entrepreneurship education at all in their school curriculum, both national and local. Their teachers and headmasters had experience in previous projects and had specialized in foreign languages, computer science, students with special needs and inclusion.During the project there were three short-terms exchanges of groups of pupils from each of the partner schools during which they took part in activities of entrepreneurship education together with their fellow students from the other partner schools. Furthermore, there were three transnational meetings for teachers only at the beginning, at the middle and and at the end of the project in order to plan and decide about organisation, evaluation etc., monitoring the projects progress, elaborating further activities, assessment and evaluation, practical organisation of further meetings with students etc., manage dissemination and measures to ensure the sustainability of the project and its results, and also to organize further collaboration. Description of activities; Finland / Hakkari School was the coordinator of the project. Every school had a coordinator and persons responsible for ensuring the activities. Approximately checking point in every 3 months. Partners checked together to do list in every meeting. In every meeting tasks and schedules were checked.The project management methodology was aimed to empower teams, encourage students' active involvement in their learning and managing change or the risk throughout the project. Management helped teams to develop, to monitor project and to share responsibility. Communication was necessary and important during the whole project. Students had variety of activies using different methods:cooperative learning, team-work, problem solving, case study, learning by doing, inquiry and research, learning through experience. Competetive students as future citizens had to learn more to acquire more skills and qualifications than former generations. This project offered innovative and motivating entrepreneurship education. Project increased: Acquisition of knowledge and skills Development of personal and social skills Growing awareness of cultural diversities Skills relating to business Students’ and their families’ positive attitudes towards different cultures Teacher internationalization Encouraging teachers to develop their education Developing cooperation between project countries Results and impact attained; This project gave tools for improving entrepreneurship education in six European schools. Teachers got possibilities to see different practices in different countries They exchanged teaching methods, compared entrepreneurship education in partner schools and developed their intercultural awerenes Students were able to practice different entrepreneurship related activities. Longer term benefits; websites to see; http://erasmusplusledet.com