Five schools of the European community will work on a project called 'Business without Borders' during 24 months. The project was planned for high school students between 15 and 18 years in five countries: Hungary, Cyprus, Italy, Romania and Portugal. In every learning activity, this project will bring 16 students together from the participating countries, thus the number of participants is limited in international learning activities but in the national activities much more students will take part. Furthermore, the students will work in teams and will take part in different workshops where they can try their skills and abilities during the short- term exchanges of groups of pupils. Some national activities will be done during the project implementation, like the logo competition, creating a 'project corner', making videos and interviews, working on the financial and business plan or designing posters for dissemination. Besides, it is important to underline the importance of experience-based learning of the professional subjects, practising the English language and ICT skills. The aim of the project is to set up a company, based on real values by students in every partner country. During the five student mobilities we will build the system step by step, creating a new start up, in theory and practice. Main areas of the project are market analysis, marketing, owner’s structure and organisation build-up, franchise, credit, financial plan, technology, strategy, sustainable, competitive edge, taking social responsibility, ethical way of thinking. At the end of the project the students make their own business plans with good practices through experience-based learning which will be presented in the frame of closing the project. We want to show our students that being as an entrepreneur means we can acquaint the bad and good side of this form of jobs which can develop the entrepreneur competences. It can help them to know their possibilities on the job market and they can be able to grab the given possibilities. It means knowledge, creativity, new perspectives, risk taking and the individual makes planes to reach his/her goals and makes it real. Entrepreneurship is merely an opportunity for the students in the future. With this project we would like to help students to make right decisions, create their future life on the job market, present the advantages and disadvantages of having an own company. Our goal is getting insight into the entrepreneurship on international level taking into consideration the local qualities before setting up a company. There are international and local organisations which help the work of student companies like JA and MICE Foundation. The most important product done by schools in this project will be the Project Book which will contain all the materials in connection with building up businesses. This project implemented with teachers, students and professionals will be described and summarized in the Project Book which we plan to publish at the end of the partnership and make available to teachers from other European schools, local and national authorities. This project will have a good influence not only on the quality of school scheduled work but as well as the creation of a new school image strengthening its role and impact on the local community. We expect that the work will result in significant changes in our students' attitude to the most crucial issues of the European society. The students participating in the project will get competences and skills like planning, organising, leading, ruling, sharing the tasks, analysing, communication, evaluating experiences, measuring and taking risk, working individually and in team, as well as the ethical behaviour. The positive attitude is characterised by the independence, creative and innovation ability, motivation to reach the goals and determination in the social life and at work. They can use the acquired skills and competences in everyday life, in the society and at work as well. Teachers involved in this project will learn the experience- based learning technics with their active involvement in the organisation and planned activities. They can widen their professional knowledge, develop their interactivity, learn the importance of team work and can use the different problem-solving technics. They will share their good practices and teaching methods, presentation technics. It is very important in an international project that teachers can improve their foreign language knowledge and use the professional language of the project. We would like to promote and distribute the final products of the project widely, on the occasion of professional meetings and other events. All these activities and events will promote the quality of teaching profession in partner schools which can make the schools more attractive for young people and a new school image will strengthen the role of schools on the local community.
The project called Business without Borders was a cooperation of five secondary schools from Hungary, Cyprus, Italy, Portugal and Romania. In every learning activity, this project has brought 16 students together from the participating countries, but much more students could take part in the national activities. The main aim was to build a company in every partner country by students to show them how to start a business and become a successful entrepreneur. The frame of the project were the two joint staff training events at the beginning and at the end of the project. The first staff training activity was the kick-off meeting of teachers, where the participants have worked out a two-year-long working and dissemination plan and shared the activities. There were practical arrangements about tasks between and during the mobilities among partners. The last mobility was a joint staff-training event to close the project and start to compile the final product. We have organized five short-term exchanges of groups of pupils. During the short-term mobilities, students first acquired theoretical knowledge about entrepreneurship on different topics in the order to understand the basics of a company they had to build up during the implementation. After the mobility, the partners used their theoretical knowledge to build their own student businesses step by step. Between the two meetings, the students worked on the project elements, which became also part of the upcoming business plan. These new elements were presented to the partners at the next meeting, such as marketing strategy, financial plan, etc. At the end of the project, the students made their own business plans with good practices through experience-based learning, which were presented in the frame of closing the project online. We want to present our students the theory and the practice how to build up a business in the future. On the base of this knowledge, they created their own student companies in every country. However, all the participant school had the same tasks, but every country had to work on their own economic and social possibilities and customs. The main challenge for all of us was the covid-19 pandemic, but all the participants were ready to continue our work online. Besides a video about the business plan presents the process of building up the student companies. The most important product done by schools in this project is the Project Book, which contains all the materials in connection with building up businesses. In addition, the students prepared chapters of the professional dictionary for each meeting in the given topic. A translator application was developed to know each other's languages, and it helped to better the language competence of both teachers and students. Students participating in the project have acquired competences and skills like planning, organising, leading, ruling, sharing the tasks, analysing, communicating, evaluating experiences, measuring and taking risk, working individually and in team, as well as the ethical behaviour. The positive attitude was characterised by the independence, creative and innovative ability, motivation to reach the goals and determination in the social life and at work. They can use the acquired skills and competences in everyday life, in society and at work as well. Teachers involved in this project have learned the experience- based learning techniques with their active involvement in the organisation and activities. They could widen their professional knowledge, developed their interactivity, experienced the importance of teamwork and could use the different problem-solving techniques. They shared their good practices and teaching methods, presentation techniques, which they can use effectively in project-based teaching. It is very important in an international project that students and teachers could improve their foreign language knowledge and use the professional language of the project. We hope that this project helps students to grab the given possibilities. It means knowledge, creativity, new perspectives, risk taking, and the individual makes plans to reach his/her goals and makes it real. We intend to help students to make right decisions, create their future life on the job market, and present the advantages and disadvantages of having their own company. Our goal was getting insight into entrepreneurship on an international level taking into consideration the local qualities before setting up a company. We believe that the project will have an effect on the involved schools. We would like to promote and distribute the final products of the project widely, on the occasions of professional meetings and other events. These activities and events will promote the quality of teaching profession in partner schools, which can make the schools more attractive for young people and a new school image will strengthen the role of schools in the local community.