Many European countries live a contradiction: on the one hand worrying levels of youth unemployment and school dropouts and on the other hand craft, agricultural and forestry activities that progressively disappear with their wealth of knowledge, traditions and culture. Is it possible to overcome this contradiction by linking traditional crafts, at risk of disappearance, and young students who risk getting lost, today in school and tomorrow in a labour market that offers no more security? Is it possible in 2018, the European year of culture, to link the valorisation of ancient agricultural, artisan or forest traditions with school and professional training? Is it desirable that we can build a network of relationships and exchanges that will make flourish in students curiosity and interest in those "crafts" with their economic, social and cultural value, stimulating creativity and curiosity for the uniqueness of the artisanal agricultural work and forestry in young people often overwhelmed by the standardization of mass production? Is it appropriate to do so thanks to international exchanges between countries with a past rich in traditions, knowledge, craft realities, culture and skills, and a present sometimes characterized by high levels of youth unemployment? We believe that all this is possible and indispensable and that the role of schools is decisive: -because stimulating curiosity towards craft activities that can also offer occupational developments, it is plausible to oppose school drop-out. -because one of the objectives we set ourselves is to experiment, through the exchange between schools and the relationship with some artisanal, agricultural and forestry realities in partner countries, new training methodologies that enrich our teachers and offer students a stock of transversal skills that help them to complete their knowledge and increase their chances of success once they leave school. - Because we want to do all this by trying the difficult but fascinating way of developing a fruitful exchange between ancient crafts, manual skills and the potential offered by multimedia technologies genetically owned by the new generations. - Because we want to stimulate, through the exchange of knowledge and experience between schools, families and agricultural and forestry factories in other countries, not only a curiosity aimed at job prospects, but also the knowledge of other languages, cultures and traditions and the growth of a more mature European consciousness, of a curiosity without prejudices towards those who have different histories and backgrounds from their own, as well as the increase of awareness of how much, works harmoniously connected with nature, are fundamental for the protection of environment. The activities we aim to develop are aimed at teachers on the one hand, and on the other at students between the ages of 15 and 18, and the objectives and results we want to achieve are ambitious: - develop skills in students that facilitate job prospects and enrich their socio-cultural background, thanks to the mobility between schools and collaboration with artisan companies. - Valuing craft activities and their impact on European culture and history, as the cornerstone of the training path - Improve entrepreneurship and professional orientation of students - Develop an educational experimentation that, thanks to the propos.ed activities, to concrete job openings, to forms of peer-meeting among students, contrasts the scholastic abandonment, enhancing the experiences of the realities in which the phenomenon is more contained. - Activate collaborations between schools, artisans and families as an opportunity for learning aimed at the work and the enhancement of traditions, identities and experiences of non formal education. - Development of a toolkit that makes the educational experimentation exportable. - Peer-meetings in which the older students motivate the younger ones to study and work life. - Preparation of a tool that allows an advanced assessment of knowledge, skills and competences acquired by the students. - Structural agreements between institutional actors, educational institutions and crafts activities involved. - Preparation of a research, developed by the students, on the ancient trades of their areas and construction of a database on the activities still present in the territory. - Preparation of a digital exhibition on local crafts, their modern applications, possible innovations and objects built by students with videos made during the training course. If it is true, as Einstein said, that "Creativity is intelligence having fun" with our project we intend to invest on the intelligence of our students and on the creativity of our artisans returning to have faith in the future while having fun.
The goals achieved by the end of the project are the following: -The students have gained and developed a comprehensive awareness concerning the occupational field, as, thanks to the short term mobilities, they have been able to experience professional situations and educational courses different from their reality. -The students have developed a socio-educational competence, due to the contact with peers from other cultural contexts, boosting their relational and linguistic skills. -The students, through the essential role of the schools, have experienced the importance of the recovery of the values connected to the craft activities, seen as a possible occupational development, opposed to school drop-out. -Throughout the whole duration of the project, the students have always been in contact with the lore and traditions of each culture, concerning the local artisan crafts and their crucial influence on the development of the european culture and history. At the end of the project, we have been able to produce: -a toolkit that will give teachers the possibility of applying the new educational experimentation to different learning contexts; -an assessment grid aimed at evaluating the progress of the students in terms of ability and knowledge acquisition; -an active collaboration between schools, artisans as an opportunity for the students’ future internships(unfortunately this aspect has been penalised by the spread of the new coronavirus, which has impeded the LTM); - thorough research done by the students concerning the roots of the local crafts; -the preparation of a digital exhibition on local crafts and their modern applications to their contexts, which were experienced by the students throughout the short term mobility; As for the STM, all the practical arrangements have been made and agreed by all the partners during the planning stage. Every short mobility lasted 5 working days, from Monday to Friday, 7 students and 2 teachers took part in every short term project meeting, a total of 21 students for each participating school. The hosted school was in charge of the arrangements of the flights, while the hosting school had to organise the transfer from/to the airports, and the activities during the whole stay. Some of them were compulsory, such as an official welcome ceremony with the local authorities; an event together with the parents of the participating students; 3 local craft workshops; a final meeting to evaluate the meeting, to work on the toolkit, and to give “homework” for the following meeting. The participants aged between 15 and 18, came from different educational curricula, as they could share their experience with a wider range of school mates. Each school selected the candidates autonomously, but still taking into account two basic criteria, the level of english, at least B1, and a high motivational attitude from the students to participate. The STM took place in Italy, Finland and Spain. Unfortunately, due to the current pandemic, the schools couldn’t meet in Ireland for the last STM and above all the students could not experience the LTM. As coordinator school, we have always made sure that all the other participating schools were updated, via mail and whatsapp, with the latest development concerning the project. The exchange of the material between the schools was possible through the E-tweening platform. Each school contributed to the success of the project through their experience gained in the previous school exchanges. As for the dissemination the coordinator school: -has created two Erasmus corners; -has organised a Europe day event; -has designed a website; -has issued articles in the local newspapers; -has cooperated with a local director for an awarded short film about the migration in the past.