The situation of schools and of all those involved in the education system has changed enormously in the 21st Century. The digital world around us presents teachers and students with new challenges, also as far as the expectations of the modern world of work are concerned. Teachers find themselves in the role of advisor or counselor, no longer at the centre of their classroom teaching, but doing their best on the sidelines to enable their students to gain useful knowledge for enhancing their career prospects – even though technological progress can be faster than professional development. Through our project entitled "Creativity and Digital Competences - Requirements for the World of Work in the 21st Century”, we want to work together with our four selected partners to find ways to educational success. The main objective of our project is to promote students' creativity and competences in order to prepare them well for their future careers. Thus, the emphasis is on a future which we can but imagine, but which will certainly require creative, flexible and imaginative personalities. The necessity for the project is based on a thorough audit of current needs carried out in schools, according to which about 40% of students think their preparation for the world of work leaves to be desired. The students themselves will take a central role in the teaching and are involved in the project from start to finish. On the one hand, the project teams formed in the respective schools are networked with each other online so that they can assume the role of mediators, observers or evaluators. Firstly, they will report on current teaching methods through video presentations, and then evaluate each others’ reports. They will then produce their own teaching videos in some subjects, thus becoming co-creators of lessons, furthering their independence and sense of responsibility and making them more successful learners. These factors are also important prerequisites for the modern world of work. At the meeting in Budapest, the team members from each country will familiarize themselves with the concept of "startup" businesses, learning how to create a business from scratch and strengthening entrepreneurial spirit and critical thinking. The participating students will return to their own school to share their knowledge and help the project group to develop business contacts at home; a "guidebook for students on career choice and interview techniques” will be created by the teams, as well as video presentations of their own job profiles. The outcomes of the project will be presented in an exhibition entitled "Role Models Past and Present" in partner schools. There will be two further opportunities for participating students to meet together. In England, the guest students will experience a classic girls’ school and member of the Girls’ Day School Trust (GDST), where the project will also look at equality between women and men / equal opportunities. This topic is important as there are three girls' only schools (in Germany, Great Britain, and Hungary) and two mixed schools in the project (Portugal and Latvia). Supported by the GDST, this topic will be explored with guest speakers, workshops, student interviews, and film making, with findings published in a booklet. In Riga, the CLIL approach will be trialed by the international teams and the topics of career prospects, company expectations, and work opportunities abroad will be further investigated in workshops and meetings. The teachers of all the participating schools will be given the opportunity to engage with new, effective teaching methods, and will critically review current methodology. Through their international experience, the teachers should be able to combine carefully selected subject-specific content using digital media, endeavouring to train the qualified professionals of the future. In order to provide teachers with the necessary specialist knowledge, short-term training courses are provided in Germany and Portugal for the teachers involved, where recognized professionals and experts will provide training for the teachers. We believe that a well thought-out means of assessment will contribute significantly to increasing student creativity and motivation; in addition, the conditions of the digital age make new student products and achievements possible which the traditional grading systems cannot properly evaluate. New teaching methods also call for new forms of assessment. As another new initiative, we will put together resources for assessing competences, setting out the basics of objective and positive feedback wherever possible. The students need feedback and a form of assessment that will allow them to evaluate their own performance. Through the results of our project, we hope for a more effective and qualitative outcome promising better career opportunities for students and encouraging other colleagues to further develop their own teaching methods.
Through the project entitled "Creativity and Digital Competencies - Prerequisites for the World of Work 4.0", the coordinating school and its four selected partners together sought ways to achieve joint educational success. The following thoughts were the basis of the project idea: The situation of schools and also of the participants of the teaching system have changed a lot in the 21st century. The digitalized world poses new challenges to teachers and students, including the expectations of the modern working world. The teacher finds himself in the role of the advisor who is no longer the focus of teaching, but - as a coach - strives to provide his students with useful knowledge which guarantees them good chances on the job market, although technological progress is often faster than training measures for teachers can be. The main goal of the project was to promote the creativity and skills of the students. In this way, we wanted our students to be better prepared for their future professional life. Our project was based on the fact that the working world of the future, which is difficult to assess at the moment, will certainly need creative and imaginative personalities. The project work was started after a needs analysis conducted in the schools concerned. According to the results of the survey, the need to provide more support to the students in preparing them for the world of work became evident. The students, who had been involved in all phases, were the main actors of the project. Project teams were formed in the schools participating in the project. They were networked together so that they could participate in the role of facilitators, observers, or evaluators, depending on the nature or location of the project work. In the initial phase, the students reported on the lessons of the local schools in the form of videos, then they created explanatory videos in some subjects. In this way, they were able to help shape the lessons themselves, which had a very positive effect on strengthening independence and personal responsibility for learning success. At the first meeting in Budapest, the representatives of the country teams were familiarized with the business idea "Startup", which gave them knowledge in the realization of business ideas and made them realize what kind of expectations they have to meet in order to have good chances in the working world of the near future. They received suggestions for strengthening entrepreneurial and critical thinking. The participating students as multipliers helped their own project group to establish company contacts in order to jointly compile a "Guidebook for Students: Career Choice and Job Interviews" and to make their own presentation videos. At the second student meeting in Riga, the importance of language skills was emphasized and the CLIL method was tested by the international team. In addition, the topics of job opportunities, expectations of companies and job opportunities abroad were further explored in workshops and meetings. Unfortunately, the third student meeting with the planned topic "Gender Equality" could only be organized online due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Thus, it unfortunately lost some of its impact, although the topic seemed very important to us, since three all-girls schools (DE, UK, HU) participated in this project. During the project work, not only the promotion of the students was considered, but also the training of the teachers. The teachers of the participating schools were given the opportunity to learn about new, effective teaching methods - with a critical look at the current methods. The international exchange of experience enabled the teachers to link subject-related content with contemporary and also digital means in order to be able to train qualified specialists of the future. With this project, short-term training sessions were held for the staff in Germany and Portugal, where recognized professionals and experts trained the teachers and gave them valuable advice. Since we were convinced that new teaching methods also demand new evaluation systems, the teachers compiled an e-book of evaluation systems as a project result, in which the basics of feedback that is as objective and constructive as possible were laid down. On the one hand, the pandemic has made our project work more difficult - on the other hand, it has shown how topical our subject matter is, as we have all had to meet this challenge with creativity and digital competencies. We hope that our project results will enable better teaching and learning, so that our students will have good chances on the job market and our staff will be motivated to optimize their own teaching methods.