CONTEXT Our partnership of six completely different and far away countries has been created out of the desire of all the schools involved to contribute more significantly to the personal and professional development of their students, improving their critical and creative thinking, promoting an entrepreneurial mindset that will serve them and their communities in the future years. In a century in which creativity, innovation, critical thinking and digital competences are the key to success, we consider it our mission to guide and support students in acquiring them. 3 of the schools have vocational profiles – FR, PT, IT, while the other 3 have general education profile. This will make the Erasmus+ experience even more meaningful, by providing us with different approaches to entrepreneurship. We will gain an insight into local economies and needs and our students will collaborate in order to meet those needs. Although we are part of the EU, we come from diverse places where we will encounter different social and economic contexts, different needs and interests. This makes this opportunity even more rewarding and appealing. PARTICIPANTS Through this initiative, we address a target group of 600 students aged 14–19, including both boys and girls, 30% of whom come from challenged backgrounds, low income families or dismembered families. 100 students aged 14–19 will be directly involved in the exchanges, as participants and as host students. There will be 4 students from each country who will attend each exchange, which means 20 students overall. OBJECTIVES 1. to enable the participants to get acquainted with new cultures and develop their intercultural competence 2. to develop students’ entrepreneurial mindset by providing them with the context for developing joint business ideas, thus improving the transition to the business world 3. to improve the soft skills of students in order to facilitate their professional development – critical and analytical thinking, communication, creativity etc., thus improving their transition to the world of work 4.to improve students’ self-confidence in unfamiliar contexts and their language skills 5. to improve the school’s European dimension through collaboration with other schools and transfer of best practices MAIN ACTIVITIES We have planned 2 joint stuff meetings and 4 student exchanges in this project, during which students will meet their peers, learn about specifics of local economies, meet entrepreneurs and visit local businesses. The practical side consists of students’ collaborative work in order to produce innovative business ideas suitable for the local economies of the partner schools which will then be adapted to students’ own local needs. The topics of the exchanges/joint stuff meetings are: 1. C1 – Italian economy and IT-startups in IT (student exchange) 2. C2 – Portuguese economy and startups in small scale manufacturing enterprises (student exchange) 3. C3 – French Guyana’s economy and startups in agriculture (mid-term joint stuff meeting) 4. C4 – Turkish economy and startups in the beauty industry (student exchange) 5. C5 – Macedonian economy and startups in outdoor activities and sports (student exchange) 6. C6 – Estonian economy and startups (initial joint stuff meeting) RESULTS The results consist of: presentations about local economies in the 6 partner countries, student-made brochures about local businesses, 25 best startup business ideas and business plans developed by multicultural teams of students, evaluation forms for business plans completed by entrepreneurs, workshop materials, students’ testimonials, initial and final evaluation, feedback forms, self-assessment forms, project brochure “Business ideas for students”, project website, eTwinning space, certificates of attendance, 6 interim reports (if requested by NA) and final reports. The outcomes consist of an increased capacity of students to integrate professionally in the field of business and work, increased competence of school educators to facilitate the transition of students to the world of work/business and the increased relevance of schools for the 21st century needs. IMPACT The project will impact the school on different levels: - development of human resources - development of partnerships with local businesses - development of European collaboration at institutional and personal level. - promotion of the schools in local communities and European communities - strengthened relationship with local authorities - improvement of project management capacity of all partner schools - promotion of the school as a key factor in the professional guidance of students
CONTEXT Our partnership of six completely different and far away countries was created out of the desire of all the schools involved to contribute more significantly to the personal and professional development of their students, improving their critical and creative thinking, promoting an entrepreneurial mindset that will serve them and their communities in the future years. In a century in which creativity, innovation, critical thinking and digital competences are the key to success, we considered it our mission to guide and support students in acquiring them. 3 of the schools had vocational profiles – FR, PT, IT, while the other 3 had general education profile. This made the Erasmus+ experience even more meaningful, by providing us with different approaches to entrepreneurship. We gained an insight into local economies and needs and our students collaborated in order to meet those needs. Although we are part of the EU, we came from diverse places where we encountered different social and economic contexts, different needs and interests. This made this opportunity even more rewarding and appealing. PARTICIPANTS Through this initiative, we addressed a target group of 600 students aged 14–19, including both boys and girls, 30% of whom came from challenged backgrounds, low income families or dismembered families. About 100 students aged 14–19 were directly involved in the exchanges, as participants and as host students. There were 4 students from each country who attended each exchange, which meant 20 students overall. OBJECTIVES 1. to enable the participants to get acquainted with new cultures and develop their intercultural competence 2. to develop students’ entrepreneurial mindset by providing them with the context for developing joint business ideas, thus improving the transition to the business world 3. to improve the soft skills of students in order to facilitate their professional development – critical and analytical thinking, communication, creativity etc., thus improving their transition to the world of work 4. to improve students’ self-confidence in unfamiliar contexts and their language skills 5. to improve the school’s European dimension through collaboration with other schools and transfer of best practices MAIN ACTIVITIES We had 1 joint staff meeting and 4 student exchanges in this project, during which students met their peers, learned about specifics of local economies, met entrepreneurs and visited local businesses. The practical side consisted of students’ collaborative work in order to produce innovative business ideas suitable for the local economies of the partner schools which then were adapted to students’ own local needs. The topics of the exchanges/joint staff meetings were: 1. C1 – Italian economy and IT-startups in IT (student exchange) 2. C2 – Portuguese economy and startups in small scale manufacturing enterprises (student exchange) 3. C4 – Turkish economy and startups in the beauty industry (student exchange) 4. C5 – Macedonian economy and startups (student exchange) 5. C6 – Estonian economy and startups (initial joint staff meeting) RESULTS The results were: presentations about local economies in the 6 partner countries, student-made interviews with local businessmen, e-book of best startup business ideas and business plans developed by multicultural teams of students, workshop materials, students’ testimonials, final evaluation feedback forms, project website, eTwinning space, certificates of attendance, final report. The outcomes consist of an increased capacity of students to integrate professionally in the field of business and work, increased competence of school educators to facilitate the transition of students to the world of work/business and the increased relevance of schools for the 21st century needs. IMPACT The project impacted the schools on different levels: - development of human resources - development of partnerships with local businesses - development of European collaboration at institutional and personal level. - promotion of the schools in local communities and European communities - improvement of project management capacity of all partner schools - promotion of the school as a key factor in the professional guidance of students