ENTREPRENEURIAL YOUNG CITIZENS OF MODERN EUROPE Social inclusion is becoming an increasingly important need of today's reality. We observe the problem of radicalism, unemployment, immigration and disaffection for EU touching every European country. To keep a modern Europe growing, we need to strengthen international cooperation to find ways to better promote citizenship and European values to foster social inclusion. For two years, the four participating schools from Croatia, Hungary, Spain and Poland will exchange good practices to promote social inclusion among our students via the development of key competences: the citizenship competence and the entrepreneurial competence. Both are intimately related to social inclusion. The former as a means of fostering our students’ sense of belonging (both to their local and to a wider European community), and the latter to enhance their sense of worth and purpose. Our project work will revolve around the creation of mini-companies in each partner country, an innovative practical entrepreneurial experience based on a learner-driven method. Students will work in teams and under the guidance of teachers and have the opportunity to set up and manage a mini-company with a social goal that is, they’ll develop entrepreneurial skills while trying to find ways to make a difference in their local communities. Their work will be developed in constant communication with their international counterparts on a shared Twinspace. Our methodology will focus on “service learning”, as working in mini-companies will combine instruction and reflection about community service and will include hands-on, peer learning, real-life experiences. English language practice and the use of ICT tools will be an essential part of the process. Participating students organised in mini-companies will carry out activities, integrated in our schools annual plans, both at local and international level, to develop citizenship competence and to foster dialogue and reflection on cultural differences and similarities and common European values. Besides, they will engage in entrepreneurial activities in a cross-curricular way to work in teams, solve problems, take initiative, present and really do things that matters to them. Moreover, cooperation with the non-formal sector is an essential part of our project. In this sense, students will be also exposed of “examples of good practices” of social entrepreneurship and will engage with non-profit voluntary organisations. Transnational learning activities will be the meeting point for the mini-companies which will actively engage in their preparation, implementation and evaluation. Mini companies will get together in Croatia, Poland and Hungary with a common goal: implement their skills in a real context. They will have to find ways to make an impact on a chosen group, disadvantaged children. This particular topic has been chosen in answer to students’ interests as shown in previous Etwinning project of participating countries. Activities in different countries are interconnected to help learning from previous experience and are focused on different specific entrepreneurial skills (mainly interpersonal skills). The last transnational activity in Spain, participating in a social entrepreneurial fair, is meant to implement their acquired business skills We believe international cooperation will be a helpful tool when it comes to eliminating social, mental and language barriers, with added value: comparing participating European cultures and values in relation to the main topic of the project: social inclusion. Our project will result in the following output: a “Bank of Resources for teachers on social entrepreneurship education" and a "Booklet on good practices on citizenship and entrepreneurship education for social inclusion in formal education". This booklet will include examples of the project activities and creative work by students. A detailed description of all the actions in the project will be collected in the project's logbook as well as in a video which will be edited at the end of the project. We expect, first of all, to help shape active young citizens of modern Europe by developing their social and civic and entrepreneurial competences. Students will have the chance to inspire their global peers, learn from each other, use different tools and demonstrate how everyone can make a positive difference in people’s lives while learning. We also expect to engage families, especially those economically disadvantaged to feel part of the school and inspire neighbouring primary schools and other local associations to work internationally. Finally, participating schools will benefit in regard to the professional development of their teachers in the field of social inclusion and entrepreneurship education, by establishing deeper bonds to voluntary organizations and especially with the acquisition of a European dimension and cross-border cooperation.
ENTREPRENEURIAL YOUNG CITIZENS OF MODERN EUROPE Social inclusion is becoming an increasingly important need of today's reality. We observe the problem of radicalism, unemployment, immigration and disaffection for EU touching every European country. To keep a modern Europe growing, we need to strengthen international cooperation and promote citizenship and European values to foster social inclusion. In this project the four participating schools from Croatia, Hungary, Spain and Poland have exchanged good practices to promote social inclusion among our students via the development of key competences: the citizenship competence and the entrepreneurial competence. Both are intimately related to social inclusion. The former as a means of fostering our students’ sense of belonging (both to their local and to a wider European community), and the latter to enhance their sense of worth and purpose. Our project work has revolved around the creation of mini-companies in each partner country, an innovative practical entrepreneurial experience based on a learner-driven method. Students worked in teams and under the guidance of teachers and have the opportunity to set up and manage a mini-company with a social goal, that is, they’ll develop entrepreneurial skills while trying to find ways to make a difference in their local communities. Their work was developed in constant communication with their international counterparts on a shared Twinspace for the project on Etwinning. Our methodology has focused on “service learning”, as working in mini-companies combined instruction and reflection about community service and included hands-on, peer learning, real-life experiences. English language practice and the use of ICT tools was an essential part of the process. Participating students of secondary education (around 200, aged 16-18), organised in mini-companies, carried out activities, integrated in our schools annual plans, both at local and international level. They developed citizenship competence and practised dialogue and reflection on cultural differences and similarities and common European values by celebrating international days, such as Volunteers, Peace or World Down-Syndrome Day. Besides, they engaged in entrepreneurial activities in a cross-curricular way to work in teams, solve problems, take initiative, present and really do things that matter to them. Moreover, cooperation with the non-formal sector was an essential part of our project. In this sense, students were also exposed of “examples of good practices” of social entrepreneurship and engaged with non-profit voluntary organisations. Transnational learning activities was the meeting point for the mini-companies which will actively engage in their preparation, implementation and evaluation. Mini companies got together in Croatia, Poland and Hungary with a common goal: implement their skills in a real context. They had to find ways to make an impact on elderly people, disadvantaged children, visually disabled and down-syndrome people. Activities in different countries were interconnected to help learning from previous experience and are focused on different specific entrepreneurial skills (mainly interpersonal skills). Also, they had to put into practice their skills to come up with ideas to make an impact in their communities regarding social change in a transnational activity in Spain. We managed to organised two more extra transnational activities in Poland and Hungary to follow up on their previous work. We believe international cooperation has proven a helpful tool to eliminate social, mental and language barriers, with added value: comparing participating European cultures and values in relation to the main topic of the project: social inclusion. Our project resulted in the following output: a “Bank of Resources for Teachers on Social entrepreneurship Education" and a "Booklet on Good practices on Citizenship and Entrepreneurship Education for Social Inclusion". This booklet includes examples of the project activities and creative work by students. Also, students' work resulted in a booklet: “Erasmus Students Taking Action to Change the World” and an online magazine. We believe to have contributed to shape active young citizens of modern Europe by developing their social and civic and entrepreneurial competences. Students had the chance to inspire their global peers, learn from each other, use different tools and demonstrate how everyone can make a positive difference in people’s lives while learning. We also engaged families and other local associations to work internationally. Finally, participating schools benefited in regard to the professional development of their teachers in the field of social inclusion and entrepreneurship education, by establishing deeper bonds to NGOs and especially with the acquisition of a European dimension and cross-border cooperation which will continue to impact our work in the future.