Within the "Education and Training 2020" agenda, one of the long term strategic objectives is to enhance creativity and innovation, including entrepreneurship at all levels of education. Entrepreneurship in the global public interest, based on the belief that entrepreneurial thinking and activity can, should and does create a wide range of benefits for both individuals and society. Our goal is for educators and pupils in our organisations to step out of their comfort zone and transform from passive learners into active MAKERS, gaining experience from established and successful businesses in our communities. This approach of a broad, balanced, sustainable learning and teaching experiences will ensure that individuals fulfill their potential, take ownership of their learning paths and create a healthy, open, inclusive environment. The teaching profession is constantly challenged by new demands and legislation, therefore educators have to be ready and open to change acquiring new ways of delivering skills and knowledge.This project will be a great initiative for educators developing actions (listens well, sells and harnesses ideas), and support measures (professional development, support from staff and leaders and networking) and characteristics (flexible, open minded, action focused) of the entrepreneurial teacher. The objectives of our project are to create high quality learning opportunities and strengthening quality through mobility and cross - border cooperation. We want to provoke entrepreneurial thinking of school-children by founding international company M@KERS, which will connect didactic process with true life needs and develop critical thinking and problem solving. The participant organisations cover a wide geographical area which is an add-on value in terms of cultural diversity and representation within Europe. The group consists of 6 schools and 5 different countries and is a mixture of small rural and large urban units from socioeconomic deprived areas facing new challenges with unemployment and immigration. The estimated number of people who will directly and indirectly benefit from this partnerships will be in the thousands. We have a very clear structured achievable timetable of tasks to be carried out. During the two year project there are two subthemes- 1st year Cultural Heritage; 2nd year Digital Innovations- with the same framework. At the beginning stakeholders will design and realize innovative and market appealing product, then they will get to know basic concepts of financial literacy, financial construction of company and a market analysis. After that they will advertise the product and in the end they will sell it traditionally or on the web. In the first year stakeholders will get familiar with cultural heritage and entrepreneurship in a traditional way. In the second year the main subtheme is digital innovations. This well organized educational process will lead our schools to tangible and intangible results. Our tangible results include guide for schools to use as a manual how to start, questionnare for measuring quality of products and products and successfulness’s of the business, photographs and advertisements, international fair, Logo of the international company, an online company M@KERS and self-evaluation sheets for all the activities conducted during the project. More tangible results will be produced at all partner schools: brochures, products, packages. These tasks are designed in order to facilitate differentiated learning, working individually, in groups, cross culturally with access to different stakeholders, with planned visits to motivate and nurture an eagerness to develop further learning. Entrepreneurial skills are not only applicable to business, but are useful in life and in the workplace. Pupils learn how to take initatives, be proactive as well as reactive and find solutions to problems. Exposing pupils to entrepreneurship skills has long lasting benefits, both for them and the wider community. Through entrepreneurial endeavours, pupils learn effective problem solving and decision-making skills, leadership, communication skills and responsibilities. Exposure to the world of business and entrepreneurial activities support pupils in developing their confidence. The knowledge and experience gained through this project will create well qualified and highly motivated entrpreneurs, self confident and professional teachers, sensitive and responsible European citizens.
Entrepreneurship in the global public interest, based on the belief that entrepreneurial thinking and activity can, should and does create a wide range of benefits for both individuals and society. Our goal for educators and pupils in our organisations was to step out of their comfort zone and transform from passive learners into active MAKERS, gaining experience from established and successful businesses in our communities. This approach of a broad, balanced, sustainable learning and teaching experiences ensured that individuals fulfilled their potential, took ownership of their learning paths and create a healthy, open, inclusive environment. The teaching profession is constantly challenged by new demands and legislation, therefore educators have to be ready and open to change, acquiring new ways of delivering skills and knowledge. This project was a great initiative for educators developing actions, and support measures and characteristics of the entrepreneurial teacher. The main objectives of the project was that all participants developed digital skills, learnt basic concepts and characteristics of entrepreneurship and learnt new skills which were appropriate to the needs and requirements of each school taking into consideration the pupils ages and maturity. International fictitious ''company'' M@KERS was established, consisting of partner companies from 5 countries, that worked locally under certain theme. Teachers were trained for teaching entreprenurship or similiar activites in their school. Self esteem, critical thinking, problem solving communication, team building skills and cooperative learning of both, pupils and teachers', were raised. We managed to establish new relation with cultural heritage and natural legacy. All intelligences were included in project. The main target groups were pupils, teachers, support staff, parents, local community (local city councils, local businesses, local and national media, local and regional education authorities) education advisers, county councillors and supervisors and regional authorities responsible for European programmes. We had a very clear structured achievable timetable of tasks to be carried out. During the two year project there were two subthemes- 1st year Cultural Heritage; 2nd year Digital Innovations- with the same framework. Due to Covid-19 2nd year was extended to three years. At the beginning stakeholders designed and realized innovative and market appealing product, then they got to know basic concepts of financial literacy, financial construction of company and a market analysis. After that they advertised the product and in the end they was selling it traditionally. The webshop for products was created but due to Covid 19, we couldn't sell it online, because school was closed. In the first year stakeholders got familiar with natural and cultural heritage and entrepreneurship in a traditional way. In the second year the main subtheme was digital innovations. Pupils did a market research what is popular in their local environment, created videos, photos and commercials and put everything online. We decided not to sell the products but to collect likes. This well organized educational process led our schools to tangible and intangible results. The project provided tangible and intangible results. Tangible results are questionnaire about financial literacy for teachers and for pupils, catalogues of products related to cultural/natural heritage of each country, check list for measuring quality of products, International Fair, logo of M@kers international company, M@kers webshop, evaluation questionnaire about quality of digital product and analysis, PPT presentations of market research and product development and evaluatuon questionnaire for teachers who evaluated the final impact and presentation of the whole project. More tangible results were produced at all partner schools: amazing range of products produced and sold at the International Fair realated to culutral and natural heritage, packages, photos and commercials of the products, template of financial contruction of products, financial contructions of all products sold in International Fair and digital products (videos) of all countries uploaded online. These tasks were designed in order to facilitate differentiated learning, working individually, in groups, cross culturally with access to different stakeholders, with planned visits to motivate and nurture an eagerness to develop further learning. Pupils have learnt how to take initatives, be proactive as well as reactive and find solutions to problems. Through entrepreneurial endeavours, pupils has learnt effective problem solving and decision-making skills, leadership, communication skills and responsibilities. The knowledge and experience gained through this project created well qualified and highly motivated entrpreneurs, self confident and professional teachers, sensitive and responsible European citizens.