Economic and social changes in the European Union bring new opportunities and challenges. Young people need a wider range of skills and competences than ever before to succeed in a globalised economy and in increasingly diverse societies. The skills acquired at school will be essential for getting jobs later in life. Numeracy, science and technology are the very foundations for further learning and a gateway to employment and well-being. Thus, by doing the project Erasmus + entitled ‘Moving forward with key competences’ in cooperation with five participating organisations from Germany, Hungary, Italy, Poland and Turkey we want to increase students’ levels of achievement of basic skills and boost the development of transversal skills needed to ensure our students are able to be entrepreneurial and adapt to the changes in the labour market. Over 150 students and 10 teachers will participate in the project work in each school every year.The project we have prepared is multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary and aims to foster key competences, especially regarding maths and science.We have studied the needs of the schools and students thoroughly. The data we collected proves that there are many students with low basic skills who cannot cope with the schoolwork, show no interest in learning, lose motivation and leave school early. Students’ weak performance in maths and science results in their rejecting following a career in MST when Europe faces a growing demand for qualified human resources in these branches. In addition, female students continue to be under-represented in these subjects. The aim of our project is to improve attitudes to, and attainment in mathematics and science. While working on the project, students will be acquainted with different learning strategies, acquire digital and social competences and develop creativity, initiative and entrepreneurship. During the meetings, they will participate in different workshops on the issues presented in the application form. They will combine knowledge and skills acquired at school with interpersonal and social skills. We want to encourage students to learn through practical activities and experiments, both outdoors and in the classroom. The project will give them an opportunity to learn by direct observations outdoors (on field trips), by carrying out interesting experiments, using mathematical tools to take measurements of objects/structures outdoors, collecting samples to do some research, studying surrounding flora and fauna or examining chemical content of different thingsThe official language of the project is English so teachers and students will improve their language skills. Developing language competence refers not only to communicative skills but also broadening vocabulary in various branches.The project activities, thanks to applying modern tools and teaching approaches will prevent school failures and early school leaving and will help to achieve high-quality educational outcomes. Participating teachers and students will broaden their horizons by getting insight into other cultures, customs and mentality of the partners. The project will produce a number of educational materials, e.g. (a booklet of maths tasks, a compendium of chemical and physical experiments, educational resources for Biology and Geography classes, a set of interdisciplinary project with lesson scripts) which will be implemented into school curricula and used in the consecutive years.The project also answers the needs of students and labour market and meets the requirements that the teaching staff have to face. It helps to achieve high-quality and effective teaching and enhances the professional development of teachers because of exchanges of good practices and innovative teaching approaches. Thanks to the project, some partner schools can introduce innovative solutions to their problems. In the schedule, there are planned short-term joint staff training events, at which such issues as ways of motivating students and working with low-achievers will be raised. Organising short-students exchanges and supervising students’ work on different tasks will teach school coordinators and participating teachers to manage time and human resources. We believe these activities will bring positive and long-term results for teachers, students and schools as organisations.
Our main motivation for starting an Erasmus + project entitled ‘Moving forward with key competences’ in cooperation with schools from Germany, Hungary, Italy, Poland and Turkey was increasing the level of basic and transversal competences in the field of secondary education. The European Union faces rapid economic and social changes for which we must adapt our teaching methods. Many students at our schools lacked basic Maths and science skills as well as language and digital competences, the acquisition of which will be essential for getting jobs later in life. Therefore, by doing the project, we wanted to increase levels of achievement in these competences and, in that way, prepare them for changes in the labour market. Over 150 students and 10 teachers were involved directly in the project work in each school every year. The aim of the project was to improve attitudes of students and attainment levels in Maths and science. We also wanted students to develop their foreign language skills and digital skills, too. The project aimed at enhancing the quality of education by giving our teachers an opportunity to develop, transfer and implement innovative practices at their schools. Different teaching methods, innovative and student – centered approaches were used in teaching and learning. We put more emphasis on synergy between knowledge and practice. All the main activities undertaken in the project involved doing practical things and experiments, solving problems and doing things outdoors. Learning Maths and science included going on field trips, visits to science centers and workshops at university departments. During the project students solved Maths problems on e-learning platform, learnt Physics and Chemistry through experiments, created educational resources for Biology and Geography during field trips, learnt through interdisciplinary projects and programmed apps for Chemistry classes. The project produced a number of educational materials (e.g. a booklet of Maths tasks, a compendium of experiments in Chemistry and Physics, educational resources for Biology and Geography, a set of interdisciplinary projects, a CLIL dictionary), which were implemented into school curricula. There were three short-exchanges of groups of pupils and two short-term joint staff training events. Activities carried out during the project had a positive impact on its participants and participating organisations. Schools got higher attainment levels, introduced innovative teaching methods, developed interdisciplinary approach to teaching and learning and enhanced the quality of education by increasing the number of field trips, experiments and projects included in the school curricula. Teachers improved their professional development due to exchanges of experiences and good practices and increased their motivation to teach. Students acquired knowledge and skills in an interesting way, improved their scores in national exams and developed social and interpersonal skills.