Project “Start your own business” is carried out within the international partnership of different educational systems of Croatia, Estonia, Germany, Poland and Portugal. Project coordinator is Secondary school Hrvatski kralj Zvonimir from Krk, Croatia, and other schools included are Escola Secundária Ferreira Dias, Agualva Sintra, Portugal, Ida-Virumaa Kutsehariduskeskus, Estonia, Zespol Szkol Ponadgimnazjalnych w Somoninie im. Jozefa Wybickiego, Poland and Berufskolleg Meschede des HSK, Germany. The most important project goals are: - to increase quality of education in vocational programmes by introducing entrepreneurship into school curriculums as an optional or cross-subject topic - improving teachers' professional competences required to help them introduce and implement innovations The project is aimed at two target groups – teachers and students. Competent teachers are the basis for development and changes in education, and student achievements are a good measure of this. Professional training of teachers is realized by participating in two structured courses: “Entrepreneurship education at school: creative and effective methods and tools”, and “Interactive ICT-based, web and digital tools for an effective blended, flipped and cooperative learning”. The above mentioned trainings are carried out during transnational teachers' assemblies in which they determine the process, dynamics, methods and work strategies between the partner schools. To set the basis for development and implementation of business activities in the context of economic freedom, initiative and competition, we have to improve entrepreneurial skills and foster self-employment and students' creativity by promoting entrepreneurial awareness, initiative, critical thinking and risk assessment. By fostering entrepreneurial mind-set and by developing entrepreneurial competences, we contribute to increasing employment rate and social security efficiency and boosting domestic production and export. By achieving these goals, we set the foundations for sustainable economic development of all partner countries. The results of this project will directly influence the improvement of European educational systems. The project directly involves 50 teachers and 1000 students in partner schools, and indirectly another 50 teachers and 2000 students through dissemination in the local and regional communities of the partner institutions. The innovation of this project lies in publishing of two multimedia manuals: – ''Entrepreneurship in the classroom'', intended for teachers to help them teach the topic of entrepreneurship, available publicly in digital format. The manual will be useful for teachers as a classroom tool. - ''Step by step towards your own business'' – intended for students and entrepreneurship beginners. This multimedia manual will inspire students in a very picturesque and simple way towards development of personal entrepreneurial skills needed in the labour market. All partner schools will take part in creating these manuals which will be published on the project website and will also have their separate web page. Both manuals will be available in English and languages of the partner schools. Also, this is the first example of elaborating entrepreneurship as a topic in a multimedia format. The results of this project will be disseminated by all participating schools on a local, national and international level. At three international meetings the students will collaborate and exchange experiences about their work on the project; they will plan further cooperation and assignments, and open their own training firms where they will simulate the actual start-ups. The peak of this collaboration will take place at the International fair of training firms in school which coordinates the project, in Croatia, and it will include all partner schools and schools not directly included in the project. Also, two International conferences will be held in Croatia and Poland in order to disseminate and implement the project results in other schools. The Conferences will gather representatives from regional schools, Faculties of humanities, Ministry of Education, National EU programs agencies, and VET agencies, and officials from local, regional and national authorities. There will also be a press conference where we will present the project to the general public. The accomplishments of this project are a guarantee for this project's sustainability because improved competences of teachers and students become their permanent value. By introducing entrepreneurship innovations into vocational schools, the process will result in further implementation of entrepreneurship in the teaching process as well as in professional training of teachers. Students will apply the newly acquired knowledge and skills in their professional life. Intellectual project results will enable schools to implement the new educational standard and thus increasing sustainability.
“Start your own business” strategic partnership project achieved international cooperation between schools of various educational systems with the aim of developing entrepreneurial skills of students in vocational programs and encouraging self-employment of students of various profiles, interests and competencies. Project partners were: Srednja skola Hrvatski kralj Zvonimir, Krk, Croatia, Escola Secundária Ferreira Dias, Agualva Sintra, Portugal, Ida-Virumaa Kutsehariduskeskus, Estonia, Zespol Szkol Ponadgimnazjalnych w Somoninie im. Jozefa Wybickiego, Poland i Berufskolleg Meschede des HSK, Germany. Partner schools managed to increase the quality of education of vocational programs by introducing entrepreneurship as a cross-curricular topic or an optional subject thanks to the application of intellectual results created within this project. Partner schools from Croatia, Germany and Estonia have enriched their curricula with the optional subject of entrepreneurship, and schools from Poland and Portugal have introduced entrepreneurship as a cross-curricular topic. Fifty teachers and one thousand students in partner schools were directly involved in the project, while during the implementation of the project another fifty teachers and two thousand students in local and regional communities of partner institutions indirectly joined the project through dissemination. Within the project, 2 transnational meetings were held for the purpose of coordination and implementation of the project activities, during this period implementation stages for every school were agreed upon, previous stages were analyzed and the plan for the next period was defined. For the need of creating multimedia handbooks, professional training "Foster Entrepreneurship & Creativity through easy ICT" was conducted in the organization of Europass Teacher Academy. Project’s intellectual results are the culmination of many years of teaching and creating teaching materials. The handbook for teachers "Entrepreneurship in classroom" is intended for teachers without entrepreneurial competencies interested in introducing the cross-curricular topic of entrepreneurship in everyday teaching. The topic of entrepreneurship is presented in a simple and understandable way, which enables teachers of different profiles to get acquainted with the basic knowledge in the field of entrepreneurship. It is the international team and cooperation of partner schools that makes this handbook applicable and impartial. Furthermore it makes the topic of entrepreneurship more real and accessible to all thanks to the emphasis on practical achieved through gathering experiences of partner schools in the form of teaching practice or student work. Proof of this is the development of an appendix to the handbook for teachers with complete lesson plans – “Entrepreneurship in classroom - Lesson Plan” – initially not planned in the project application, but created because there was a need for it. The "Step by step towards your own business" student handbook is intended for students and beginners in entrepreneurship. The innovativeness of the handbook lies in its multimedia content in the field of entrepreneurship, as well as the fact it can be used for self-regulated learning and acquisition of entrepreneurial competencies. The aim of the handbook - to allow young people to understand ways of independently opening and successfully running a small business, or start-ups - has been successfully achieved. All mentioned handbooks are available for free on project’s web page, all partner schools’ web pages, on eTwinning, Edmodo and Edutorij. A total of 33 participants took part in the combined mobility for students, of which 25 were students and 11 teachers. The aim of the activity was to acquire the competencies needed for further work and successful management of the Training Firms. By establishing training firms for all students, and by cooperating with educational institutions, economic subjects and local communities on entrepreneurial learning programs, the exchange of experience and dissemination of examples of good practice of partner schools was achieved. Students of partner schools participated in creative learning through team, research and project work, and thus acquired the necessary entrepreneurial competencies. Team work on project activities was achieved through eTwinning, the success of which is reflected in the awarded quality labels and the award of the Portuguese National Agency for the best project in the category of Erasmus + projects in 2020, which we consider an exceptional success. With the aim of presenting the project results, 2 online international conferences were held, organized by Hrvatski kralj Zvonimir High School, the project coordinator, and the partner school Ponadgimnazjalnych w Somoninie im. Jozef Wybickiego from Poland. Both conferences had more than two hundred participants.