The current situation of the job market in Europe shows that job seekers find it increasingly difficult to find a suitable job. This is true in almost any member state of the EU/Europe. The European WOW (World Of Work) project aims at preparing students for the whole process of finding a job. The groups of students will consist of six students per country per workshop. The number of students who are going to prepare those workshops will range between 20 and 40 at each school. Participating students are at least 15 years old and are about to graduate from school to enter the job market in the near future. Some of them will already have had some contact with the world of work (e.g. work placements, mini jobs). There will be four workshops altogether, three for/with the students and the last one will be a teacher workshop. Each workshop will be prepared at the individual schools. Preparation: students are to find out about the job market in their own country by doing research and contacting local experts (job centres/companies/universities, etc.) and looking especially at new jobs in areas such as IT and renewable energies. At the first workshop students will present their results and compare them in internationally mixed groups. They will create digital brochures/guidelines informing about job opportunities in the different countries, qualifications needed, and types of CV required. Additional information will be aspects about accommodation, insurances needed, opening up a bank account in a foreign country. Students will have visited companies and conducted interviews with experts in the different departments of the companies and present the outcomes in videos and upload them to the newly created WOW website. The second workshop will focus on knowledge and skills about the application process in the different countries. Preparation: analysis of job adverts and study guidelines for the creation of the letters of application/conducting job interviews, paying attention to dress codes, manners etc. During the workshop students compare their findings. Students have a more creative approach conducting job interview role plays. As an approach to peer learning and teaching the students will create instructional videos that give tips on how to apply for a job (letters of application + job interviews). Links to the videos will be uploaded to Twinspace and also be made accessible on the European teachers website and the WOW website. The third workshop will deal with job life in international contexts and it will be two-fold: on the one hand students will deal with first-hand experience of business people, on the other hand they put knowledge about intercultural differences into practice. Preparation: students create questionnaires addressed at business people who work internationally (questions related to private life, language requirements, destinations, daily routines, obstacles) and find out about business etiquette in different European countries. Questionnaires will be used to interview local business people ( and maybe at the airport if time allows) in order to find out what working internationally means/includes. During the workshop students exchange their material (photos of business people, questionnaires, possibly recording etc). Students will be asked to deal with the result in a creative way, e.g. digital photo books, collages, sketches etc. Additionally, participants will visit an national/international company to gain insight into work reality and work life of national and international business people. Employees of the company will be asked to share their experience with the students and if the circumstances allow, mini job shadowing will be arranged. Meeting internationally working business people will raise students' awareness of the significance of intercultural understanding in business contexts. In mixed groups they will exchange and compare what they have found out about business etiquette in different European countries. They will present their results through created videos. The links to those videos will be published on Twinspace etc. and the videos will also be used for lessons in the participating schools. n a final workshop the teachers involved in the project will design lesson plans for three units dealing with the European job market, applications and intercultural awareness in business. The lesson plans will be presented to fellow teachers at each school and made accessible to all staff members. The greatest anticipated impact to be achieved during the project is a better employability of the students and a more direct and realistic insight into what matters in relation to job preparation in schools for the teachers. Long term: closer collaboration between schools, closer contact to local companies, implementation of preparation classes and curricula for the European WOW. Also, we hope to use this project as first step in the process of setting up a network for work placements abroad.
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