RATIONALE, SUBJECT AND LEARNING NEEDS ADDRESSED: According to our experiences, following our students' prosperity in the world of work after graduating, we expire an increasing number of cases when students have conflicts, puzzlement, integration problems and difficulties to find their ways as adults. Relying on short opinion polls and needs assessments preceeded the project, most of the parents, students and even the teachers consider the school system and the content of the curricua far away from those information and skills which students need on the labour market. The school content, the school environment doesn't lead somewhere reliable to real life. Also professional analyses concerning future jobs and skills strengthen this statement: ICT competences and soft skills such as creativity, innovation, problem solving skills and entrepreneurship will be the most seekable competences in demand in the following 10 years. Developing entrepreneur skills are particularly valid for those students, which have to break out from unpriviliged social-financial backgrounds, or having those special unique personalities, which don't fit in the genearal operation of major society. The project provides basic knowledge about the feature of self-employment status or small businesses. During various activities it raises consiousness about participants' valuable attitudes, skills, which can be used in creating personal futures. It teaches self-identification and selfmanagement techniques; visual marketing issues, and models conflict situations with exciting rolegames. It provides "business simulation" workshops teaching to develop business plans with all necessary steps. It also generates group workshops to model how to build a cooperation with mates. Forms the spirit of entrepreneurship and innovation, motivates to plan start-up ideas and to learn how to work with basic elements and roles of a small enterprise. .With the help of students' mobility actions, it also presents to build future plans with crossing borders - realizing the difference on a more global thinking. AIMS AND OBJECTIVES: - Identifying the feature of the recent global labour market, focusing on self-employment status and entrepreneurs, defining skills and competences generally needed for it. - Providing self-identification and self-management techniques in order to raise self-awareness of pupils' personal identity. Identifying connection between personalities and jobs undertaken. - Investigating ways of establishing a business. Learning to prepare needs assessments, business plans, financial plans and operational plans. Modelling possible risky situations and business attitudes with TIE role games. Learning basic visual marketing techniques and those ICT programmes they require. - Raising the spirit of entrepreneurship with examining the possibilities of self-employment status. - (Find your valuable attitudes and create your own future!) Providing information about basic spirits, skills of entrepreneurs. Collecting and generating start-up ideas, modelling their fictive operation. - Improving the level of key competences and skills, with particular regard to their relevance for the labour market, focusing on self-employment status and small enterprises matched with personal mentalities, and their contribution to a cohesive society, through strengthened cooperation between the world of education and the world of work; STRUCTURE, RESULTS, METHODS: There are six main topic issues based on each other in a logical order during the implementation: 1.) Business in general. Trainings, researches and workshops on the feature of small enterprises 2.) Who you are? Matching business ideas with personal skills and attitudes with the help of drama pedagogy workshops 3.) Create your own business! Business simulating workshops 4.) Visual marketing. Trainings and workshops of designing corporate identity. 5.) Situations of a business life. Workshops analysing business situations with the help of role games. 6.) Networking and cooperation (also on international level) For transmitting the information, the partnership use alternative methods involving creative arts into the educational process, relied on the idea of experienced-based learning (the information is retained if own experience and emotion is tied to it). Thematic-based workshops, TIE role games, research, visual communication, creative writing and business simulation will be applied during the itinerary. The project contains four learning-teaching mobilities. All these activities increase pupils' entrepreneur skills and creativity, improve their basic and transversal competences, and prepare them for future labour market roles with relevant information and skill development. The project awakens innovative thinking, strengthens self-consciousness and self-reflection. The itinerary is based on intercultural dialogue between participants. 3 schools participate in it.
The idea behind the project "Create your own business" was the fact that there is an increasing need for pupils to find a way in the maze of the world of jobs after graduation. When finishing their studies, students face different problems to find the best jobs to suit them. The curricula of the schools do not put enough emphasis on dealing with job related issues. This project was the teamwork of three countries: Italy, being the overall coordinator, Portugal and Hungary. The Italian school provided the business knowledge for the participants as the institution teaches business related studies. The Portuguese school brought in various drama techniques and TIE methods, the Hungarian school had the experience of Erasmus+ projects and visual marketing methods. There were six main topics to deal with during the three year cooperation: 1.) Business in general. Trainings, researches and workshops on the feature of small enterprises 2.) Who you are? Matching business ideas with personal skills and attitudes with the help of drama pedagogy workshops 3.) Create your own business! Business simulating workshops 4.) Visual marketing. Trainings and workshops of designing corporate identity. 5.) Situations of a business life. Workshops analysing business situations with the help of role games. 6.) Networking and cooperation on local and on international level The main objectives of the project were the following: - Identifying the feature of the recent global labour market, focusing on self-employment status and entrepreneurs, defining skills and competences generally needed for it. - Providing self-identification and self-management techniques in order to raise self-awareness of pupils' personal identity. -Using creative art and writing techniques, poems and pieces of music to make advertising more fun and advertisements more catching. -Identifying connection between personalities and jobs undertaken. - Investigating ways of establishing a business. Learning to prepare needs assessments, business plans, financial plans and operational plans. Collecting and generating start-up ideas, modelling their fictive operation. -Learning basic visual marketing techniques and those ICT programmes they require. - Raising the spirit of entrepreneurship with examining the possibilities of self-employment status. - Improving the level of key competences and skills, with particular regard to their relevance for the labour market, focusing on self-employment status and small enterprises matched with personal mentalities, and their contribution to a cohesive society, through strengthened cooperation between the world of education and the world of work; - Modelling possible risky situations and business attitudes with TIE role games. -Becoming familiar with other educational systems and pedagogical systems of our partner countries -Promoting the use of new communication and information technologies, for example eTwinning, blogs, web conference and online lessons. -Making students, parents and teachers feel an active part of the European community. During the three year long period we organized Erasmus Days on business related issues, we created power point presentations on different topics like marketing strategy, jobs in our neighbourhood, self-esteem, we also collected jobs related reading comprehension tasks, we made questionnaires, logos, videos about the TIE workshops and job interview simulations, short video clips about all the mobilities, slam poetry, video advertisements, financial and business plans and leaflets about existing and imaginary businesses. The project contained four learning-teaching mobilities: one training event for teachers and three short term exchanges of pupils. All these activities increased pupils' entrepreneur skills and creativity, improved their basic and transversal competences, ICT skills, problem solving skills, cooperation and prepared them for future labour market roles with relevant information and skill development. The project awakened innovative thinking, strengthened self-consciousness and self-reflection, developed the participants’ self-esteem, too. The members of the partnership were provided with alternative methods involving creative arts into the educational process, thematic-based workshops, TIE role games, research, visual communication, creative writing tasks. We used several evaluation and dissemination methods at various levels. In the long term our ideas and products will be useful for the participating schools and some of them will be integrated in the curricula, too.