The idea behind "Learning from each other/ shaping the future together" is to create a European exchange between young people that covers one of the most demanding current problems. German and Irish students will organize four conferences on different aspects of sustainability (such as waste prevention, agriculture, energy, nutrition, biodiversity, ...) within two years. At these conferences the students will get to know the ideas and concepts, best practice examples and possible solutions of the partner country on these topics. The inclusion of external partners in the conferences shows the young people that the topics have a high societal relevance even outside of school. By way of final declarations via video messages, the young people also get to know the format of an international conference and learn to document their findings with the help of new, digital media. As a result after the conferences, the participating students will organize a PR activity at their home school, which helps raise awareness of the topic for the school community and society in the region, and brings possible solutions and new ideas into the discussion. Thus, it is ensured that the topic of sustainability discussed in the conferences also has a lasting effect on the regions of the schools. In total, 48 young people from both countries will be directly involved in this work within two years. The number of students in the home schools who will come into contact with the ideas and results of the project will be even higher. In addition to engaging in sustainability issues and putting their own ideas into practice, young people will benefit greatly from participating in this project by preparing and organizing international conferences, they will develop basic skills and key competences for the working world of the future, and will learn about each other's culture and language. The joint international work on a project leads to communication with other young europeans through the use of modern channels of communication (eTwinning, for example). By implementing their ideas at home in a PR campaign, the students will learn to communicate results in a target group-specific manner with the help of new media. Thus, the society around the school will also be involved and be able to benefit from the ideas of the young people in the long term.
The idea behind "Learning from each other, shaping the future together" was to enable a European exchange of young people on one of the most pressing problems of the present. Within two years, German and Irish students should plan and hold four conferences on different aspects of sustainability (e.g. waste prevention, agriculture, energy supply, nutrition, biodiversity,...) and at these conferences the ideas, best-practice examples and solution approaches of the Get to know partner countries on these topics. Due to the pandemic, however, the planned program could only be carried out to a very limited extent. The first activity on sustainable urban development took place in autumn 2019. Using the example of Constance, Ulm and some architectural examples from the Ochsenhausen area, the young people learned about the topics of sustainable urban development, district planning, waste management in cities and sustainable renovation of listed buildings. As planned, mixed Irish-German teams created video statements on their topics, which were then published on the "Project-Learning.eu" homepage. The other students, parents and the interested public were invited to the final presentation of the conference topics. Due to the pandemic, however, the other activities could no longer take place or only to a very limited extent. The planned PR activities after the conference were no longer possible in Ireland and Ochsenhausen due to the contact restrictions in the pandemic, as was the planned second conference in Dublin. After the first phase of the pandemic in the summer of 2020, there was hope that the program could be completed as planned from 2021. For this reason, an extension was requested. However, the travel bans for school students were only lifted in April 2022 in Ireland and Germany. However, the complicated framework conditions with the numerous "what-if scenarios" did not allow for the short-term implementation of further real student activities. In order to give the young people at least an impression of international cooperation, a number of virtual meetings took place between the German and Irish project participants. In a virtual "conference" in May 2022, the young people then presented each other with best practice examples of sustainability in the form of presentations and videos from their countries. Against the background of the pandemic situation, this was the only way to get in touch with each other and to be able to carry out at least partial aspects of the program.