Our project aims at developing the entrepreneurial skills of students by means of the method “learning through making”, as well as raising the level of financial literacy, communication and presentation skills and the abilities to work as part of a team or the so called “soft skills”. This is a project that will encourage the study of professional English language in the sphere of entrepreneurship through creating the textbook “Successful steps in Entrepreneurship” and the use of English as a working language with students from partner countries. We have put entrepreneurship in the centre of our project in order to be in unison with European tendencies. The project will implement its activities and products mainly in 2017 which is announced a European year of entrepreneurship. We want to give our students opportunities for development of entrepreneurial skills and at the same time to face them with social realities which will motivate them for volunteering. We will also try to develop self-consciousness for tolerance to differences, empathy towards the suffering and desire to spread the value of helping each other. That’s why, volunteering is the second important point which will also be present in our project. We believe that if a person is surrounded with models which express desire to help others, the chances of adopting these models are quite high.The main aim of the project, which includes 5 schools from 5 different countries, is to establish the criteria for successful implementation of an entrepreneurial idea on the European market.To achieve the goal of the project, the following activities will be organized: a competition, called “Business incubator” on a given topic in every country; “Entrepreneurial market”- when students meet and they will also be supported by mentors, business representatives and NGOs. The final product will be a handbook “Successful steps in Entrepreneurship”. This handbook will present all mandatory stages that every entrepreneurial idea goes through from its origin to its fulfillment. We are 5 schools from different countries and we have planned to make two training meetings in the middle of each year. At these meetings the participating teachers and students will discuss the criteria and features that every successful entrepreneurial idea should conform to. During these training meetings voluntary initiatives, aiming at solving both a social and ecological issue, will also be organized. The voluntary initiative with eco focus will be “Plant a tree, save the Earth”- cleaning a particular region, collecting waste, planting trees and from the waste collected- making an art product. The voluntary initiative solving a social issue will be called “Dance with me”- a dance lesson in SOS children’s villages/ family-type accommodation centers/ nursing homes.The ideas, participating in “Entrepreneurial market”, will be presented to business representatives, other students and educational institutions, too. Thus, the participants in the project will become part of global education, aimed at performing the goals of sustainable development. These goals will definitely be a priority in the next 15 years. Entrepreneurship and initiative, one of the key competences mentioned in the European Framework of Reference, can solve one of the global problems- youth unemployment. Project activities will be based on what labor market requires and that is flexibility. That is why, students will combine knowledge in ICT, foreign languages, entrepreneurship, business research, geography and even psychology. Good practices and innovation will also be applied in the curriculum. We will cooperate with non-governmental organizations, local formal and informal institutions, similar schools and schools in the region to distribute products and project results. This synergy is shown in the fact that the project unites students with different interests, coming from different socio-economic environments. Our aim is to define common points of interest and create products which will be a symbol of cross-border cooperation through entrepreneurial skills. One of the best activities will be the organization of voluntary initiatives. The best art products will be awarded and long-lasting dissemination will be ensured.We will achieve project sustainability by making films for each stage on CDs. The handbook “Successful steps in Entrepreneurship “ will be presented to each partner country on paper and uploaded online on project’s page.Partners will prepare and publish two issues of magazines. Number of people involved: Mobility of teachers: 96 Mobility of students: 144People, accompanying students: 96 Total number of participants: 336
One of the main problems nowadays is youth unemployment. The main causes are the lack of sufficient financial literacy competences and entrepreneurial skills, poor communication in multicultural teams, deficiency in communication and presentation skills. Developing and improving those skills lead to coping with this global issue when they finish their studies. The second problem we have to deal with in this project is the lack of awareness of the social, economic and ecological issues in our communities. The main goal of the project was to develop entrepreneurship skills to students from the partner schools and to promote communication and presentation skills or the so called ‘soft skills’. This would help the young people to adapt faster to the real working environment, to fulfil better on the labour market and to have the opportunity to develop their own business, both in their home country and in the project partner countries, too. We also wanted to make our students face the social realities motivating them for doing voluntary work. We put efforts in cultivating self-awareness towards different people, empathy towards the ones that suffer and a desire to share the value to help each other. That is why volunteering is the second important aim present in our project. The whole project was based on students aged between 12 and 16. They acted as leaders of the project while their teachers helped, oriented and supervised them. Initially there were five participant schools but at the end of the project only three remained. Vilkyčių pagrindinė mokykla - coordinating school which is located in Vilkyciai, Silute region, Lithuania. It is a lower-secondary school which also has pre-school groups. Education in this school is organized in different stages: pre-school (kindergarten) (1-5 years old), pre-school (6 years old), primary (7-10 years old) and basic education (11-16 years old). Scoala Gimnaziala Tifesti, partner school, is located in Romania, Tifesti, Vrancea county, primary and secondary school. The Istituto Comprensivo Vasto 1 is the other partner school, located in Abruzzi, Italy, with kindergarten, primary and low secondary school. To achieve the goal of the project the following activities were organized: • seminars and training sessions on financial literacy and entrepreneurial skills; • a competition, called “Business incubator”, during which students, working in groups, generated their business ideas and made presentations of them; • a film “Business incubator” which presents the entrepreneurial ideas of students and shows the special features and conditions for developing a business idea in each participant country; • an “Entrepreneurial market”- an international event when students met and presented their entrepreneurial ideas to a jury, consisting of business representatives. • The final product- a handbook “Successful steps in Entrepreneurship”. This handbook presents all mandatory stages that every entrepreneurial idea goes through from its origin to its fulfilment, giving an account of the specific features of partner countries as well. • During the international meetings, voluntary initiatives aiming at solving both social and ecological issues, were organized. During the project we have succeeded in: • improving students’ skills in the sphere of cooperation, team work, social relations, intercultural knowledge; • promoting tolerance, awareness of the social, economic, ecological challenges our society is facing; • improving students’ entrepreneurial, financial and vocational skills; • enhancing both students and teachers’ imagination and creativity; • improving digital competences by developing student’s abilities in the use of ICT; • learning and practicing expressing oneself in public (through presentations, debates…) • promoting cooperation between local institutions, other than schools (animal shelters, centre for the elderly, day centres for children); • improving students’ English communication skills; • teaching students where to look for information needed in the activities of the project; • teaching students how to promote a product, their business idea, their country as a touristic destination. Sustainability is the capacity of the project to continue and use its results beyond the end of the funding period. The project results can then be used and exploited in the longer-term. Not all parts of the project or results may be sustainable and it is important to view dissemination and exploitation as a progression that extends beyond the duration of the project and into the future. Teachers can find the project products on the Internet and use them in their Geography, History, Maths, Economics, English language lessons and for extracurricular activities. Mobility of teachers: 35 Mobility of students: 47