Project named Project Learning for better Establishment on Labor market (P.L.E.L.) responds to labor market needs for qualified young people who have a good knowledge and skills in the field, but have also advanced soft skills like as teamwork, sense of responsibility, respect terms, the ability to adapt to changing conditions, working with ICT, communication in foreign languages, willingness to constantly learn. The project, during the 17 months, address these needs through project-based teaching and work based learning (WBL) that can develop students' professional knowledge and hardskills and soft skills, too. To achieve these goals extend for students who are not engaged in the project , we will create the methodology for the creation of student´s tasks, management and also manual for project evaluation. Created materials together with student´s tasks and documentation for school projects will be possible to use at participating schools or other teachers at other schools that the project outputs interested. The project will involve 5 secondary schools - Secondary School of Electrical Engineering, Kosice (Slovakia), Secondary School of Electrical Engineering, Havirov (Czech Republic), Srednja poklicna in Tehniška šola, Murska Sobota (Slovenia), Zespół Szkół Technicznych, Mikołów (Poland) and Miskolci Szakképzési Center Kandó Kálmán Szakgimnáziuma, Miskolc (Hungary). Every school in the project includes 12 students and 2 teachers, which together counts for 60 students and 12 teachers. Students, who are involved in project, are 16+ years old, so they are students from 2nd to 4th grade mentioned schools in various fields mainly focused on electrical engineering, electronics, mechatronics, automation and information-communication technologies. In every school, there will be selected two teachers who will work with the students, and also prepare the above project outputs. The particular phases of the project will consist in dialogue with employers, preparing student´s tasks, implementation of student´s tasks, the presentation of student´s tasks and creation the outputs of the project. At first, it is necessary to determine the requirements of employers for graduates. Based on these requirements, the teachers prepare student´s tasks. These tasks will serve as a base for students' application to the project. Then it can start the next phase of students and pupils creating international project teams and the phase of working on a tasks. During the working phase, students must communicate with each other and incrementally work on product/ service that will be output of the project. During this phase, students will have two weeks for meetings (the first meeting will be in the country of one student and the second in the country of another student), on which they can complete their products and repair errors and inaccuracies. After working phase the presentation will be on turn in each countries, where commitee build of teachers-experts, who verify the fulfillment of project tasks and acquired knowledge and skills of students. During the final months of the project, teachers will complete methodology for the creation and management of student projects together with the manual for evaluation. The first output of the project should be an electronic version of the Methodology for creation and management of student projects, which will describe the steps from contacts of employers to tasks specification and expected knowledge up to actual continuous control works on the project. This guide is written in the language of each participating school and in English. The second output will be the student´s projects assignments, which will contain the goals of project, sub-tasks and required knowledge and skills acquired. The third output will the guide for the assessment of pupils' projects, which would include criteria for evaluating individual parts of the project. The final output of the project are the pupil´s products, which were based on solution of project tasks. For these outputs, there will be available photo documentation and technical documentation in the languages of participating students. The successful presentation of the project will be recognized as successful pupils completion of vocational subject related to project or as completion of the practical part of the final (graduation) exam. The outputs of the project we plan to publish on the websites of participating schools, the website Erasmus + project results and send information about them through school founders as well as through social networks and other available communication channels to reach as many schools as we can. We assume that the preparation of a methodology and manual assessments will facilitate the implementation of the project to other schools in their teaching subjects and allows as many students to get in addition to professional knowledge and soft skills.
Main goal of project named „Project Learning for better Establishment on Labor market“ was to provide opportunity for young graduates of secondary vocational schools to find (better) job on labor market, where present employers requires not only good knowledge and hard-skills but also well mastered soft-skills such as teamwork, sense of responsibility, following the deadlines, being flexible to changing conditions, working with ICT, communicating in foreign language or willingness for lifelong learning. During 19 months of project duration, 60 students from 5 different schools under supervision of their tutors and project coordinators worked on 30 students’ projects developing their technical knowledge and skills, but also mentioned soft- skills. Two students from different countries worked on each project, in which it was necessary to learn how to plan, divide tasks, take responsibility for his/her own work, communicate mostly in English, but also understand different culture and habits in different countries. With partner schools we created Methodology for creation and management of students’ vocational international projects and Manual for evaluation of students’ vocational international projects. In this way we allowed to spread impact of project also to students, that were not involved in project. Created materials together with student project assignments and selected documentations can be used at schools by teachers, who will show interest to see the project outcomes. Five secondary schools were involved in project Secondary school of electrical engineering, Košice (Slovakia), Secondary school of electrical engineering, Havířov (Czech republic), Secondary vocational and technical school, Murska Sobota (Slovenia), Joined Technical Schools, Mikołów (Poland) a Kandó Kálmán Vocational Training center and Information Technology Gymnasium, Miskolc (Hungary). From each school, 12 students were involved in project, that is together 60 students involved. Students were in age of 16-20 and they were in 2nd to 4th grade in mentioned schools, mostly studied in the area of electrotechnics, electronics, mechatronics, automation and ICT. In each school, teachers-tutors were chosen, who provide professional technical consultations for students and also project coordinators, who took part in preparing project outcomes. First step of project was to speak to local employers to identify key hard-skills and soft-skills, that we wanted to develop in students’ projects. At first transnational meeting, students’ project assignments were prepared based on employers’ answers with respect to knowledge and abilities of students and also to material, technical and personal possibilities of individual schools. Created project assignments was offered to students, who applied for working in such technical project. After creation of student teams, each student was contacted to his/her teammate, then they communicate with each other and step-by-step creating product, that was the output of student project. During this working phase, students had two one-week meetings (one in first student country, the other in second student country), during which they can test, debug and complete their product. After working phase, project presentations followed, where commission of technical teachers verify the fulfilment of the assignment together with gained knowledge and skills of students. In final months of project, teachers completed the Methodology for creation and management of students’ vocational international projects and Manual for evaluation of students’ vocational international projects. Outputs of project: 1. Methodology for creation and management of students’ vocational international projects (contacting of employers, tasks and expected outcomes specifications, tutoring of students). It is available in printed form on each involved school and in PDF version on project site. 2. Projects’ assignments (goal of project, tasks, expected knowledge and skills). Available on project site. 3. Manual for evaluation of students’ vocational international projects (criteria for evaluation of each part of project). Available on project site. 4. Selected student products, that was created during the project work. To these products, documentation and pictures are available in printed form and on project site. Successful presentation of project output was considered as finishing vocational subject, which content was used during the project or as finishing of practical part of final exams. Outputs of projects were published on websites of involved schools, on portal Erasmus+ project results and information about project were disseminated by printed media. We expect that by preparing methodology and evaluation manual, we make it easier for other schools to implement project-based learning and allow wide range of students to gain not only technical knowledge and skills, but also soft-skills.