Our project will be developed by five secondary schools in DE, IT, PT, PL, TR and were designed to meet the objectives of the European Commission. Taking into account the different rates of youth unemployment in the countries participating in this project (DE: 4.1%, IT: 37.8%, PL: 20.6%, PT 17.2%, TR: 19.6%) (Source: ec.europa.eu/Eurostat/statistics) there is a great need for innovation on this issue. In the context of rising unemployment rates today, the above results stem from the difficulty of graduates finding jobs according to their interests, abilities, skills or personality traits. Therefore, this project is designed to meet the needs of young European citizens in secondary schools and to enable them to choose the right career and make the right choices of their careers. Young people should also be aware of their potential and have access to information on the general economic environment of the European labor market. The project is set around the central concept of sharing experience and good practice. Participants will benefit from the expertise of the professionals and associate partners of the beneficiaries. They will help students to transfer information and apply them in a modern and dynamic school environment. The project focuses on developing entrepreneurial skills for students and offers them opportunities to connect to the labor market, local / regional / European institutions or private companies with the same scope. It will allow pupils to develop real adaptability to the market at local, national and EU level. Our project will last for two years - a project evaluation process and four learning / teaching / training activities will take place. There will be workshops on student exchanges and good practice in the German school (Good Practice 1: The Developed Relationship between the School and Labor Market in Germany) and the Italian School (Good Practice 2: Creating Firm Training Companies) These practical and useful applications will be integrated into project activities and in the second year all partners will apply the two actions. During each exchange, seminars will be provided by labor market professionals to easily achieve the transition from school to work and to reduce the segmentation of the labor market. The purpose of the project is international. This will create strong synergy between partner schools and provide inspiration for students to develop their future career. The project comprises 2630 participants in a direct and indirect manner. Students: All project activities at local and international level will involve students as beneficiaries directly and indirectly. Approximately 1,200 pupils will be indirectly affected. Teachers: Teachers will be involved both as instructors and as beneficiaries by observing other schools and their education system). There will be teams of 5 teachers in each partner organization, so a total of 25 will actively participate in project activities. Approximately 150 teachers / adults will be affected indirectly. Administrative staff: They will address the legal issues of the project, respecting other school education systems and transferring good practice in the curriculum. Approximately 36 administrative staff will be indirectly affected. Student graduates: The questionnaires will be applied to at least 100 students and this assessment will provide the state of professional life. A total of 500 students will be involved. Parents: The number of family members will total 300 and will contribute to the introduction of the culture and tradition of the host country. Approximately 480 family members will be indirectly involved in the project. Labor market members: At least 15 members of the labor market will be involved in each school. Local community: Members of the local community, such as university lecturers, local media, the municipality, the national education direction, and the PTA, will contribute to disseminating the project to a wider community. Approximately 300 people in the local community will be indirectly involved. A direct positive effect is expected at a 30% rate from target students and groups by: - acquiring basic skills in terms of entrepreneurship; - reduction of the segmentation of the labor market; - providing pupils with opportunities to connect to the labor market through local / regional / European institutions or private companies; - leading students to analyze their own market; - increasing students' flexibility and alignment to the concept of lifelong learning and flexible career choices; - adapting to local, national and European labor markets; - providing a unique opportunity for students to acquire knowledge and deepen understanding of cultural and linguistic diversity of the European community
Our project achieved the goal of introducing young European students to the difficult transition from school to work, offering them a wide range of support concerning the goal of their future careers. We shared a series of good ideas and our European partners were particularly impressed by the possiblities of the German Dual System which serves a good model of connecting training on the job with education at school. The project "Yes" achieved insights to the issues of lifelong vocational guidance and to self-entrepreneurship, while representing a strategic tool to contrast failure and school early leaving: secondary school should develop students’ ability to imagine, plan and implement a life-long project meeting personal attitudes and vocations deriving from the environment, while ensuring personal and social development. Every partner school has implemented a curricular with new training targets such as: - Development of key competencies and life skills; - Exercise of active, informed citizenship; - Development of entrepreneurship abilities. Our achievements are built on a keyword: "versatility". Today young people need to learn how to be versatile, flexible, available to moving to different working places and life-long education. Teachers, however, don’t succeed in changing the traditional teaching/learning process and, generally speaking, the cultural context in which the learning experience takes place, in order to shift from a disciplinary planning approach to the building of educational opportunities purposely oriented to the development of the purposes described above. The following goals have been achieved 1a) increasing teachers competence for what concerns the design of specific training programs aimed at developing students’ skills on life-long planning 1b) changing teaching attitude to try alternative routes to traditional education, especially those aimed at including Special Needs Students; 2a) great chance for students to experience a mixed route between school and work in which the theoretical knowledge learned in the traditional curriculum can be used in contexts of authentic work 2b) students’ cultural horizons have been increased, to be implemented through the exchange of experiences, the improvement of the English language and the use of means of communication and work tools The objectives of YES. project were achieved by - Organizing an integrated training system giving students the chance to be part of lifelong learning system; - Providing the students the opportunity to get directly in touch with the world of business and work; - Allowing the students to express their own potential and abilities and better understand their interests and limits, developing reusable skills; - Enablingstudents to learn from practical experience and learn to communicate and work in an international team; - Forming a human capital and create opportunities for employment; - Building self-guidance on job search and skills and motivations analysis; - Overcoming the traditional teaching methods and guide young people in acquiring autonomy and skills starting from facts; - Instilling skills of self-guidance and training students to be self-confident, showing initiative, flexibility, mental agility and willingness to change; - Concerning teachers, YES has set a progressive refurbishing of the educational and teaching techniques as a target; not only in terms of the traditional student/teacher relationship but also from the side of the explorations of the cognitive opportunities of supplementary activities and the transmission of non-formal skills useful throughout the lifetime and to be integrated with already learnt theoretical concepts; - The opportunity for students to test their skills through a real business simulation, also making mistakes in a simulated environment protected from the consequences on their economic and financial decisions; - Educating young people to the evaluation of an enterprise function by experiencing a large range of business experiences, including group work, the development and design of new products, production processes, sales, marketing and finance; - Improving relationship skills and learn how to manage staff selections, measure resources and assess personal features to outline potential business profiles; - Guiding students through the development of a business plan, verifying its compliance to their personal characteristics and how it fits to the socio-economic context. The pupils involved were encouraged to undertake a business as a necessary step to the creation of new jobs, by involving motivation, self-control, risk-taking attitude, problem solving approach and management of human resources; - The pupils involved acquired more relational competence and self-marketing