This strategic partnership project named FTC, “Future Trends in Clothing: Trendy, Smart and Healthy?” was developed among four European partners (three vocational schools from Austria, Spain and Germany and a general high school from Greece). Behind the given title of the project hides the unique attempt of the four involved schools to use their very different expertises in the fields of business, management and marketing, ICT, healthcare, social services and tailoring to foster the provision and the assessment of key competences, with special regards to entrepreneurship, languages and digital skills, and to increase labour market relevance in learning. In each partner college a group of both teachers and students takes part in the project work. Teachers of different subjects such as ICT, media, marketing/customer service, entrepreneurship, healthcare and social services as well as languages are involved. Central objectives of the project are to link education to employment through the use of enterprise and entrepreneurial skills in a setting of project related work-based learning. It will increase students’ knowledge of the European job market and contribute to the free movement of European citizens. At least three key competences for lifelong learning will be targeted: communication in foreign languages, the sense of initiative and entrepreneurship and cultural awareness and expression. The rationale of the project is to make students work together to experience cultural differences, international cooperation and develop their personality. We plan to involve as many students as possible at the participating schools, aged 16 to 20. Most students will be part of the project at their own schools and involved in virtual cooperation or at least help to conduct a survey essential to the project’s objective. 15 students from each school will also take part in one of the four one week long blended mobilities. With regards to central activities, there will be a short-term joint staff training event that will focus on preparation of the administrative and ICT frame at the start of the project. Workshops on ICT and the creation of materials and assignments to be used in the project are of main concern. Further preparatory activities, which serve as foundation for student’s own projects to develop a business plan and marketing strategy to promote a prototype of smart clothes with healthcare functions, consist of analysing and visualizing the demands and wishes of their local community, especially among those who work in these sectors or are in need of care. Consequently, the participant take the results of this survey into consideration and start to realize their own ideas on the issue in international project groups, after being introduced to relevant business and entrepreneurial skills. Virtual collaboration between the project groups’ members will be ongoing and vital for reaching project milestones and deadlines. Another crucial activity involves the development of a real prototype of a piece of smart clothing, made possible due to the expertise of involved tailoring trainees from Germany. Besides these central activities repeated assessment of participants’ development, their opinion on assignments, materials and organization of transnational meetings will take place. Likewise, the participants will be highly involved in dissemination activities. They present their project work and talk about their experience at science fairs, the school’s open house at special events such as graduation ceremonies or the European week. In addition, the channels of social media and local / regional newspapers are going to be used by the schools. Methodology used include: focus on cooperative approaches during workshops, in feedback situations and online collaboration, applying CLIL methodology, research and assessment methods, learning cafes, panel discussions, videos and other creative output. Furthermore, there will be visits to businesses, the creation of templates for business plans or the approach of SMART project planning used to achieve the project’s objectives and participant’s needs. Results and impacts that we hope to achieve for in students are a better knowledge of the European job market, better self-confidence, higher proficiency in English and a better cultural awareness and understanding. In the schools we will develop better didactics and methodology for teaching entrepreneurship and business, thanks to the exchange of good practices and cooperation in making lesson plans and materials. To conclude, the main benefits of the FTC project are that due do international cooperation the participants are able to experience project related work-based learning, receive deeper insight into local job markets as well as into the situation of healthcare and social services in the EU, meet concrete examples of entrepreneurs and above all, exchange of good practices among vocational teachers.
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