WALTESQUITA BEVERAGES is a marketing project developed by the German Walter-Eucken-Berufskolleg located in Düsseldorf and the Portuguese secondary school Agrupamento de Escolas Marcelino Mesquita do Cartxon near Lisbon. The project revolves around the development of a non-alcoholic beverage and its introduction onto the German and Portuguese market. At the beginning of the project the students take on the roles of young entrepreneurs in the beverage sector who want to launch a soft drink which they think will be successful with both German and Portuguese teenagers. In a first step they will learn about key aspects of entrepreneurship and marketing basics. During a first short term exchange the students will deepen their knowledge of marketing and market research tools and hold presentations on e.g. 4/8Ps, the 4Cs/As/Os. They will then create a market research brief in bi-national groups and take a decision as to what specific beverage can be expected to be successful on both markets and which they therefore want to launch. Back at home, the teams conduct the necessary market research staying in close contact with their partners via e-Twinning, skype etc. In a second short term exchange the teams will develop a detailed marketing concept for their product. During the planning process the students will be supported by German apprentices who are attending a dual VET programme in the field of marketing / communication. At the end of the meeting there will be a reality check: the students will present their product concept before a panel consisting of marketing experts and the partner students who have been taking the role of consultants. As the working language will be English, the students will also improve their foreign language competence with a specific focus on professional contexts. The main priorities of this project are threefold: 1. to develop the students' basic and transversal skills with a special focus on those skills that enhance their sense of entrepreneurship; qualities that are necessary not only to get a job on the job market but also in daily life and interaction. 2. to foster the students' personal development by increasing among others self-esteem, self-confidence, understanding of and tolerance towards other cultures 2. to create a highly motivating, student-oriented learning environment which in turn helps to tackle early school leaving. The participating students on the German side are between 16 and 18 years of age attending the first year of a 2-years vocational school based programme. The German students are rather weak graduates from secondary education with considerable deficiencies in basic skills such as Maths and English. There is a high dropout risk / risk of not achieving the entrance qualifications for higher education (Fachabitur). The Portuguese students are also between 16 and 18 years old attending a high vocational class of management and marketing. The students in both countries lack experience in structuring and organising their own learning processes. Thus, they need a motivating environment which allows for problem / project based learning in order to stimulate self-initiative, creativity and self-confidence. So far, they have had little opportunity to practice their English communicative skills in real life / real business situations, i.e. situations which actually necessitate the use of English to explain economic aspects. Also, for many of the students, the European idea is still abstract. All in all, round about 45 students will take part in this project. The project puts high emphasis on the use of learner centered approaches such as problem based learning, reciprocal teaching, peer tutoring and cooperative learning methods in combination with digital technology in order to increase active student involvement and initiative. With this project we not only hope to extend the students’ transversal / entrepreneurial skills, language competences and digital skills and thus their future employability but also to provide teachers with the opportunity to gain more experience and confidence in the development and assessment of competence based projects within a European dimension. At the institutional level this project will speed up the schools’ modernization towards competence / output oriented teaching and learning and reinforce education system’s response to the main challenges of today’s world.
WALTESQUITA BEVERAGES is a German-Portuguese marketing project developed by the Walter-Eucken-Berufskolleg based in Düsseldorf and the secondary school Agrupamento de Escolas Marcelino Mesquita do Cartxon near Lisbon. In preparation for the exchange, a 3-day workshop was held for the participating teachers in Germany. This ensured that the teachers were on the same or the latest level with regard to digital learning tools, teaching methods and the key topic of "marketing". The project was about the development of a non-alcoholic drink and its introduction on the German and Portuguese market. At the beginning of the project, the students took on the roles of young entrepreneurs from the beverage industry who wanted to launch a soft drink for young Germans and Portuguese. Due to the pandemic, the other planned short-term exchanges in both Portugal and Germany could not take place. In addition, several lockdowns that took place at different times affected the course of the project and the concrete project work. The technical equipment and internet reception at the participating students' homes also varied greatly. In addition, Covid 19 had a motivational and psychological impact on all participants after only a short time, so we are happy to have achieved results nevertheless. The much praised digitalisation has reached its limits and has shown us how important real contact with people is. In a first step, the students learned about important aspects of entrepreneurship and basics of marketing, such as the 8 Ps. In order to get to grips with the potential target group, educational videos on personas and Generation Y and Z were created. Afterwards, the students researched the beverage market of the respective country in national groups. In addition, soft drinks typical of the country were sent to the partner country by post. They served as the basis for a taste test with the help of a decision matrix. From this, it was generally derived which characteristics Portuguese and Germans appreciate in their drinks. The knowledge gained from this was used to develop a detailed marketing concept for a concrete product in teams. By sharing the results, the students were able to improve their English language skills - especially in a professional context. The main priorities of this project were: 1. to develop the students' basic and cross-cutting skills, with a special focus on entrepreneurship; qualities that are necessary not only to get a job in the labour market, but also in daily life and interaction with others. 2. to foster students' personal development and create a student-centred learning environment, which in turn helps to prevent school drop-out. 3. to improve students' digital skills in order to improve their future opportunities in the labour market. 4. to give teachers the opportunity to gain further experience and confidence in developing and assessing competence-based European projects, thus accelerating the modernisation of schools towards competence- and output-oriented teaching and learning. In addition to the students' competence enhancement, the long-term benefit of the project is to have found a reliable partner with whom we can exchange ideas in all respects and also carry out future projects. This was made possible on the one hand by the intensive personal exchange during the teacher workshop in Germany, and on the other hand by the permanent contact via email or video conference during the pandemic.