The project G.R.E.E.N. in EUROPE -Green Entrepreneurial Education Network in Europe -is based on two pillars: the professional training of teachers and innovation in the field of education with the introduction of entrepreneurial education from primary school through content that is part of the value and culture of the partner schools: environmental sustainability and active citizenship education. It also includes certifications for the skills acquired during the learning pathway both for teachers and for students. The project is about exchanging the best practices to implement better Green Life Styles in fact it aims to create a network of good practices to deal with those environmental issues that are threatening our own local areas (air, water and soil pollution, garbage disposal, etc), but also with unhealthy behavior (eating junk food, sedentariness, use of chemical cleaning products, etc.).As a first step in the development of the project, the students should acquire knowledge and be inspired by green good practices, already successfully implemented in each partner country. In the second year of the project activities, they should plan how "to import", to replicate, that “green” idea/solution in their own local area (“green” products, technologies, sustainable alternatives etc.). In the end, 6-11year old students should be able to plan a “green” advertising campaign and 12-15 year old students should be able to draw up a simple “green” Business Plan to be submitted to the local organizations and institutions to support and "to sell" the chosen green idea.The project and the study visits as well will be focused on experiential, environmental, and entrepreneurial learning expanding the students’ sense of global citizenship and environmental responsibility and fostering entrepreneurial, technological education.The objectives of the project are in step with the common political priorities and transversal priorities established by the E.C. in the field of education and training (ET 2020) whose essential purpose is supporting the improvement of education systems, mutual learning, exchange of good practices and professional development of teachers as well.All the educational activities expected in our project as:- Providing training for teachers; - Considering and appreciating the best practices of our partners' countries in the field of sustainable lifestyles,- finding a way to ensure the exchange of information on best practices in this field (using English, modern technologies);visiting our partners' countries with surveys and on-site workshops; - mentoring young students to produce business ideas in order to "export" and / or "to import" the healthy /eco-friendly lifestyle which is efficacious and innovative in our partner's country;- steering the students, future citizens of Europe, towards thinking and planning a Green Economy that can be on the basis of future production and consumption systems based on the sustainable use of resources and reduction of negative impacts on the environment, are widely in line not only with the Strategic Objectives set by the E.U. for 2020 but also with the strategic priorities redefined in COM (2015) 408 final del 26/08/2015 for European cooperation in education and training: - Strengthening the development of transversal skills and key competences, in line with the Reference Framework on Key Competences for lifelong learning, in particular digital, entrepreneurship and linguistic competences;- Promoting awareness and education in the environmental field developing skills reflecting growing sectors, such as the green economy;-Acquiring and mainstreaming innovative and active pedagogies such as inter-disciplinary teaching and collaborative methods, to enhance the development of relevant and high-level skills and competences; - Supporting continuing professional development of teachers especially to deal with work based learning, digital competences and innovative pedagogies, including through EU tools such as eTwinning; - Supporting the mobility of students, teachers and the development of strategic partnerships and joint courses by increasing internationalisation of education.Dissemination is a very important phase in the project focused on two main aspects of it:- knowledge and dissemination processes, habits or products belonging to the sphere of Green lifestyles;- education of the students from primary school to the culture of entrepreneurship and business. The outcomes of this transnational cooperation will be widely disseminated among all the relevant stakeholders through events, fairs, exhibitions and all the path and activities will be published on T.E.S. and Junior Achievement sites that collect all the good practices related to teaching entrepreneurial skills and shared with E-twinning community.
The project, as we all now know, was born with the aim of exchanging and disseminating among teachers and students of our countries (Italy, Basque Country (Bermeo and Bilbao), Wales (Gilwern) and Bulgaria (Sofia) belonging to the European Community, "best practices" in the field of Green lifestyle, green economy and sustainable economic development. Initially the project foresaw the participation of the Denmark, but for inner problems the school rejected the cooperation to the partnership. The coordinator Institute distributed the activities and mobilities among the effective members of the partnership in order to start with the project. In these two years we have tried to know, to spread, disseminate initiatives, paths and teaching practices aimed at making our young generations and therefore future citizens of the world acquire the fundamental knowledge and skills to mature a style. of life respectful of the environment, an entrepreneurial style starting from the reading, more than critical, proposing of our territories. Another important objective of our project was the training and self-training of teachers and students on the concepts of sustainability through the exchange of resources or useful documents and resources via the web. Hence the need to acquire and develop certified technological skills through a targeted training path realized in the kick off meeting held in Taranto in November 2016 and concluded in May 2018 at the Coordinator Institute with the issue of suitable certification, the ECDL ONLINE COLLABORATION. This training opportunity has allowed to overcome the physical distances between the various schools and the actors involved, encouraging online collaboration. The training of the students, by the teachers through curricular and additional paths on the concept of sustainability, has allowed to identify and develop the relationships between environment-productive activities and companies in a mainly positive sense, but at the same time also allowed to mature sustainable behavior in in line with the Green Lifestyle. The onsite and online exchange and the dissemination of "good practices" that generate habits, ideas, solutions and entrepreneurial products linked to the principles of healthy living and sustainable economic and social green development, starting from local problems, has been the continuation of the training itinerary of the project. Undoubtedly at the base of these good practices it was essential to develop and implement, in the course of curricular activities, skills such as technology, language (English), advertising, initiative and entrepreneurship through the drafting of simple business plans and the next study of the Business Model Canvas The mobilities have been very useful to the success of the project. The first mobility took place in March 2017. Ten students of the secondary classes of the SSIG lived with the manager of the Coordinator Institute and the accompanying teachers, an extraordinary experience in the Basque Country, host partner country, and in particular in Bermeo / Bilbao where they experienced a significant moment of cultural exchange that allowed them to know and deal with a socio-economic context, that of Bilbao, which thirty years ago presented the same environmental problems of the city of Taranto. The comparison between what was Bilbao and the discovery of eco-sustainable urban renewal allowed the students to discover a "best practice" to be "replicated" in their territory. We have also learned from the Basque friends their sense of strong membership, of corporativism, which supported them in many years in the search of solutions to the various problems. At the beginning of the second year of the project the mobility of primary school pupils took place. In October 2017, 11 students, always accompanied by the Scholastic Director and some teachers took part in the second mobility, this time in Wales to find out what it means to live according to an eco-sustainable lifestyle and get to know an ECOSCHOOL. The host school in Gilwern is Gilwern Primary School, a school where the watchwords are three: "RECYCLE, REUSE, REDUSE". RECYCLE, RE-USE, REDUCE ". Finally, in February 2018, the third mobility took place in Sofia, at the school "137 Angel Kancev", during which the teachers attended an important training course at the "SofiaTech" center organized by the experts of the Junior Achievement. . The training day allowed the mobility participants to know what is at the base of the development of each "business plan", that is the model of development of an entrepreneurial idea also called "Business Model Canvas".