Our schools found entrepreneurship as a common interest and that there are different experiences we could share among each other. In order to make pupils aware of the fact being the part of society, we are convinced, that the project will improve the chances of the students to get a better job in their future life and improve the students' way of learning, their understanding of themselves will also be much better. The students will know how to cooperate with others, how to become a successful person. They will become more like global European citizens and able to interact in any country, feeling more at home, with a high awareness and entrepreneurship. Of course, also teachers, other member of the school staff and parents get the chance, in the course of such a project, to enlarge their knowledge of the partner schools' country, their labour market and the way of life. Our educational target is also an achievement of relevant and high quality skills and competences both the students and the teachers. The overall purpose of the project is: - to involve pupils in mixed transnationals teams for learning events in order to increase their cooperation and interactions - to increase school’s European dimension by promoting closer relationships among students, teachers and other people related to schools from different countries with different languages and cultures – to create a link between school activities and daily life challenges for the future adults, especially in labour market - to strengthen the profile of the teaching profession by improving ICT, foreign language and entrepreneurial skills - to enhance the quality of the relationship among students of different cultural backgrounds and develop their social and communication skills - to encourage the learning of different languages and cultures from different European countries There are 4 schools around Europe in our project: Croatia, Portugal, Lithuania, Poland. There will be almost 1500 students, parents, people from local communities who will be involved directly and indirectly in the project activities and the aims and objectives of the project. Out of these, 15 students and 10 accompanying persons form each partner schools will participate in the short-term exchanges, which will give a number of 125 participants enagaged including students and teachers from host schools. The project team in each school will comprise at least 5 teachers. Their work will be coordinated and supervised by the contact person and the headmaster of each school. The selection process of students will be fair and transparent. The criteria for the selection will be based on the information provided by the school social benefits programme, parents’ approval and support, tutor teachers information regarding each student’s learning difficulties, obstacles, success and behavior. DESCRIPTION OF ACTIVITIES , RESULTS AND IMPACT The project will last two years. During the first year of our project there will be the first meeting in Portugal where partners will agree on the work plan, tasks and deadlines, evaluation strategy, dissemination plan. Also, partnership countries and schools will be presented and we will agree how and when set up school co-operatives. Then we are planning to create Twin Space and the website of our project where all our work will be presented. We will also make leaflets and posters informing other people about the objectives and activities related to our project. Furthermore we will create questionnaires carrying out statistical analysis and evaluation forms. After the first year of the project a project calendar about our entrepreneurial activities will be made. In the second year of the project we will create a guide “How to be a young entrepreneur” for students, teachers, parents and e-dictionary related with setting up a new business. Furthermore, we will continue running a website, Twin Space and we will design a catalogue with lesson plans. We will design and create a location game. We will also run out the mini local conference to disseminate project activities. The last meeting will be in Croatia to summarize the project, evaluate project activities and also discuss the possibility of developing a better and more effective method of dissemination of results. All information will be collected in the form of the evaluation meeting. During the project period evaluation and management process will be kept. The results will be a basis for the development of conception against dropping out of school early, consciousness of importance of learning and its links to students’ future.
Entrepreneurship was the common interest which bonded Polish, Croatian, Lithuanian and Portuguese schools. We believed that developing the “European Start-Up” project would converge our different experiences into something that could be enriching for everyone. Making pupils more proactive and more conscious of their future roles in society and in the market place was one of the key goals of the project. This objective was achieved because most of them improved their academic performances, their understanding of themselves, their cooperation skills, and their willingness in participating in entrepreneurship programmes. On the other hand, teachers, other members of the school staff and parents got the chance to broaden their knowledge on other European countries, their working realities, their languages and cultures. Our educational goal was also to achieve relevant and high quality skills and competences both for students and teachers. We managed to involve pupils in mixed transnationals teams in all planned learning events, which increased their collaboration and interactions; to increase school’s European dimension by promoting closer relationships among students, teachers and other people related to schools from countries with different languages and cultures; to create a link between school activities and daily life challenges for the future adults, especially in labour market; to enhance the quality of the relationship among students of different cultural backgrounds and develop their social and communication skills; and to implement new teaching methods and using new materials, which created context for international cooperation and encouraged the learning of languages and cultures from different European countries and improved IT skills, especially during our virtual mobility due to Covid19 pandemic; The 4 schools that were part of the project were from Croatia, Portugal, Lithuania and Poland. There were about 1500 students, parents, people from local communities involved directly and indirectly in the project activities and the aims and objectives of the project. Out of these, 18 students and 6 accompanying persons form each partner schools participated in the short-term exchanges. The last mobility, was postponed and later replaced into a virtual one, given the pandemic circumstances lived in Europe. This enabled the participation of more students and teachers, which wouldn’t have been possible, had it been an onsite mobility. Throughout the project, there were some changes in the team corps of the Polish, Lithuanian and Portuguese school. Nevertheless, each school was able to successfully manage the project, coordinating and carrying out all planned activities.The selection process of students was fair and transparent. The criteria for the selection were based on the information provided by the school social benefits programme, parents’ approval and support, tutor teachers information regarding each student’s learning difficulties, obstacles, success and behaviour. DESCRIPTION OF ACTIVITIES , RESULTS AND IMPACT The project was designed to last two years. But, due to the pandemic, Force Majeure had to be activated and the project was extended for 6 more months. During the first year of our project, there was the first mobility to Portugal where partners agreed on the work plan, tasks and deadlines, evaluation strategy, dissemination plan. Also, partnership countries and schools were presented and we agreed on how and when to set up school cooperatives. Then, in the second and third mobilities to Poland and Croatia, we created TwinSpace and the website of our project where all our work is now presented. We also made leaflets and posters informing other people about the objectives and activities related to our project and created questionnaires carrying out statistical analysis and evaluation forms. After the first year of the project, a project calendar about our entrepreneurial activities was produced. In the second year, we created the guide “How to be a young entrepreneur”and e-dictionary related with setting up a new business. Furthermore, we continued running the TwinSpace platform, designed the catalogue with lesson plans, and created a location game. The last meeting was planned to be in Croatia, but to accomplish in a more effective way the planned activities, we had to reschedule the order of the mobilities. The last mobility was to Lithuania, which ended up being a virtual mobility. In this moment, we presented our results summarized, evaluated the project activities and also discussed the possibility of developing a better and more effective method of dissemination of results. All information was collected in the form of the evaluation meeting. Evaluation and management process was kept throughout the project period. The results are the basis for the development of strategies to tackle early-school leaving, and raising awareness of the importance of education for students’ future.