We have noticed that many of our students lack motivation because they do not connect what they learn at school to what they need to know to become citizens and future workers . So we have decided to develop their sense of initiative, autonomy, team spirit in making them build their own tourism company. In each of the six partner schools, there will be an Entrepreneurship club composed of teachers and between 20 to 25 students. Our target groups are students from various background. We aim at improving their skills in English, tackling early school leaving by making students collaborate internally as well as with external stakeholders and find new motivations at school. This project aims at improving transition between different stages of education, in order to support each pupil and make them master their own orientation project. We aim at making them realise the need for qualified staff, and develop their own qualification. First the students will have to investigate on their country's tourist attractions through a specific theme, they will also have to meet people working in the tourist industry and local councils and organize interviews, collect information on existing companies. They will have to develop skills in their school first language and in English, as well as in ICT as they will do research on internet, upload their interviews on the schoolwebsite and twinspace. We will also contribute to the achievement of our students raising awareness of the European Union goals and will lead them to stand on their own feet in the future. Students will promote their work in the local primary schools to develop transgeneration exchanges. They will also participate in transnational meetings where they will present their work in English to their European peers. This project will give us the opportunity to share different opinions, evaluate the products developed, do common activities and solve problems. The project that will last three years will permit teachers and students to gain the skill of entrepreneurship and also to act together in a European dimension on tourism. All productions will be uploaded on a website, on each school website, etwinning and on a facebook page. The club will last after the project is finished.
Context The Erasmus + project “Eurotour - Engage, explore, evolve” was created for pupils aged 11 to 15 and was linked to tourism, the environment and culture. This project made it possible to deepen the school programs in transversal activities, such as art, history, geography, culture and cuisine. Sharing friendship and cooperation with their fellow students from other countries also gave our students the opportunity to understand culture, citizenship, develop their English skills, in the context of international education. The exchange of material through ICT tools (email, Facebook, publishing school websites, publishing project websites, creating calendars, games and videos) has been extremely relevant in this creative project and has developed social skills, self-confident teamwork and independent learning. Goals - Allow pupils and also teachers to acquire a better knowledge of new technologies through the project which made them discover and share the beauties and the European wealth as well as develop their responsibility and the sense of commitment and initiative. - Create a tourism business, develop their ability to communicate in a common foreign language (English) and use ICTs through Etwinning. - Develop European citizenship, knowledge and respect for other countries. - Investigate the tourist attractions of their own city, region, country, meet people working in the tourism industry and local communities, organize interviews, gather information on existing businesses. Develop skills in their mother tongue and also in English, as well as in ICT (Internet research, download their interviews). - Approach improving the transition between the different school subjects, in order to support each pupil and make them master their own "life" project. - Become aware of the need for qualified staff and develop the qualification of participating teachers. - Concrete approach to the world of work through the creation of their own company (create the name of the company, develop business ideas through brainstorming, surveys, reflect on the process of starting the company, identify the missions of their company, vision, customers advertising, promotion, company logo etc.) - Let the students prepare the project, discover the tourist diversity of the country in which they live, carry out activities, develop their creativity and autonomy, generate innovative ideas, explore, share and discover other countries through the businesses created by the students from other countries. Participant profiles The students in charge of the creation of the travel agency, working as an extra-curricular club, were volunteers. With the aim of working with students with special needs (dropouts, refugees, in precarious situations or coming from socially disadvantaged backgrounds) it quickly became apparent that few students with this profile enrolled of their own free will in extra- school activities. We have therefore added activities to include these students: cooking workshops during school time, city visits organized by the students of the club for non-speaking students, support for RRE students (relay for student success) by teachers of the Erasmus project and work on the project within the framework of the RRE. Interventions in primary schools have also made it possible to involve classes of younger pupils through board games, created by pupils from the clubs, on the theme of tourism in the six partner countries. The teachers also organized letter exchanges in their classes in order to involve a greater number of pupils from each establishment in the project. Concerning the teachers, identified teams of teachers led the project on a daily basis in each establishment.Other teachers participated in it on an ad hoc basis (science workshops, creation of treasure hunts during meetings, workshops to create greeting cards in December, participation in Spirit Week, dance workshops, city tour by bike, participation in Europe Day ...) Regarding the other staff, the management teams got involved in the project and helped its dissemination, the agents helped to carry out certain projects (chefs helped for cuisine workshops, technical agents for the arrangement of travel agencies and various exhibitions , especially banners and photo exhibitions).