I-STEP aims to enhance international entrepreneurial skills and attitude of teachers and students in VET by creating an international dimension to entrepreneurship programmes and strengthening the local and (EU business) network. This offers a solution to EU wide unemployment by enabling young people to create their own employment and become successful entrepreneurs that look beyond country borders. It also addresses the need for VET students to exploit the opportunities the EU market offers. It is proven that internationalisation make people smarter, more creative and more entrepreneurial.I-STEP has two objectives:1: Strengthening the entrepreneurship programmes and enhancing entrepreneurial skills of VET teachers/managers/board by: • Development and implementation of a comprehensive programme creating an international dimension to entrepreneurship;• Sharing knowledge, experiences and practises in the field of (international) entrepreneurship;• Ensuring cooperation between VET, regional business, government and research institutes (quadriple helix network) thus promoting the development of entrepreneurship education, securing integration in actions of local/regional development and increasing labour market relevance.2: Equipping VET students with the necessary mind-set, skills and competences they need to succeed in their future careers by:• Enhancing their international and entrepreneurial skills and competences;• Increasing their labour market relevance by connecting them to the world of work (quadriple helix)• Involving them in transnational activities fostering international and entrepreneurial mind-sets, skills and language competences (CLIL: Content and Language Integrated Learning).No entrepreneurship programmes are in place that have an clear and high quality international dimension. The innovative and pioneering I-STEP project will change this situation by exploring existing entrepreneurship and internationalisation programmes and developing a completely new and inventive programme including: • training material for students• teacher manual on how to internationalise entrepreneurship education• online platform & community • quality label for European Entrepreneurship Schools • format for an annual International Entrepreneurship Schools ConferenceWithin I-STEP, students will actually visit the country they which to export to and cooperate with fellow students from abroad. I-STEP has a strong added value at EU level, as it encourages cooperation of different nationalities, cultures and fields of education. In addition it includes several Multiplier event to involve stakeholders in the process of development. Products will be developed by a strong consortium of partners with experience in entrepreneurship and internationalisation support including 3 VET schools, 2 universities and 3 business representatives. All partners involved governmental institutions, business representatives and research institutes to support the I-STEP project which is formalised by the Letters of Support annexed to this proposal. Partners will develop the materials following a methodology that is grounded in open communication between partners (using free IT tools), commitment to cooperation, well defined and understood roles & responsibilities, clarity of tasks, deadlines, on-going evaluation, involving the target groups (VET) and stakeholders (quadriple helix) in testing, adapting & delivering.The I-STEP project uses a clear, complete and high quality work programme, including the 3 phases: Strategy, Development and Implementation. This is expressed in the construction of the Intellectual Outputs as all Intellectual Outputs contain activities for preparation, research, development, testing, implementation and dissemination.Direct target group is VET schools (teachers, managers, coordinators) and VET students in all fields of education. Indirect target group is stakeholders in business, government, research. Approximately 120 VET teachers/managers/board, 400 students and 170 stakeholders will participate in I-STEP during the lifespan of the project. The project will have an immense impact on all target groups and the participating partner organisations. Not only will all parties involved gain valuable knowledge on international entrepreneurship, strengthen their entrepreneurial competences, improve their international cooperation skills, English language skills(partners from LT and NL)) and digital skills, they will also have broadened & deepened their regional and EU networks. In addition, students will be empowered, gained self-confidence and made the first steps in the creation of their international network.Having on board supporters of great importance in the educational world, we expect a high ‘market’ penetration of the I-STEP programme after the project has finished. The high quality I-STEP products combined with strong dissemination efforts by partners will ensure that schools all ov
In recent years, VET colleges have shown impressive progress in developing entrepreneurship programmes in their schools. The quality of these programmes is increasing. More and more entrepreneurship programmes are involving competence based learning and are aimed at active learning. Furthermore, many of the VET-institutions in Europe are aware of the importance of internationalisation and have developed approaches to incorporate international activities into their training and organisations. Internationalisation is a crucial response to the demands to develop graduates who possess adequate skills, knowledge and attributes to engage and perform in a globalised and intercultural world. Even though many colleges, besides entrepreneurial behaviour, also promote international experiences for their students, the connection between entrepreneurship and internationalisation is rarely made in VET. In short, existing entrepreneurship programmes in VET have no clear and high quality international dimension. The I-STEP project is initiated to address this issue and combines entrepreneurship and internationalisation by giving entrepreneurship students the opportunity to work with foreign students and explore possibilities for internationalisation. Therefore the main objective of the I-STEP project is to enhance international entrepreneurial skills, attitudes and mind-sets of teachers and students in VET by 1) creating an international dimension to the entrepreneurship programmes already in place and 2) strengthening the local and European (industry) network of VET schools. The I-STEP consortium consists of a variety of organisations with experience in entrepreneurship and internationalisation support including 2 VET schools, 2 HE institutes and 3 business representatives. These organisations form a strong consortium as it involves both education and business which allows knowledge, experience and expertise from both perspectives. During the 2 years of the I-STEP project we have undertaken the following activities: Intellectual Outputs In total there have been developed 4 final Intellectual Outputs which are: - I-STEP Teacher Manual that guides VET teachers and trainers to get started with implementing International Entrepreneurship in VET - International Student Entrepreneurs Programme which is a training programme for VET students that highlights all aspects that are important in doing business internationally - International Entrepreneurship Platform & Community where all I-STEP materials can be downloaded for free and includes a communication and file share area for everyone interested in the subject to chat together and set up international cooperation and projects - I-STEP quality label which is an online tool (self-assessment) that helps schools to assess their performance related to international entrepreneurship activities. If a certain score is achieved, the I-STEP quality label certificate will be released. The I-STEP project has used a clear, complete and logical work programme to achieve the final results of the project and can be divided into the following 3 phases: Strategy, Development and Implementation. This is expressed in the approach to the development of the Intellectual Outputs as the phases contain activities for preparation, research, development, alpha testing, implementation, beta testing and dissemination. Learning/Teaching/Training activity – Blended mobility of VET learners (C1) 4 students and 1 accompanying teacher from LT, NL, UK and IE gathered in Birmingham for the I-STEP training week. The students formed mixed groups of different nationalities and under the guidance of the teachers they worked on the development of a new international business idea. Final Multiplier Event in Kaunas and national Multiplier Events KSPMC organised the I-STEP final conference in Kaunas. Besides the final conference in Lithuania, all other partners organised a Multiplier Event by the end of the project to share and disseminate the final results of IO1, IO2, IO3 and IO4 amongst the stakeholders. I-STEP realised a major impact on the planning and development of the educational programmes and curriculum of the partner schools in the project as they have serious plans to (partly) implement the I-STEP materials in their curriculum (or are already doing so!). Mind-sets have been changed and networks expanded of all organisations and individuals that have been involved in the project. This has strongly enhanced the international entrepreneurial skills, attitudes and mind-sets of teachers and students in VET, improving transversal competences such as curiosity, flexibility, adaptability, resilience and teamwork but also competences related to internationalisation such as English language and intercultural cooperation. The I-STEP project serves as a strong and great example and will encourage other schools and organisations in the region to increase internationalisation in entrepreneurship education in VET.