21st century Europe needs young minds trained to face creatively the challenges of the new millennium. Central issues like cultural diversity, democratic participation, peaceful coexistence as well as climate changes should be addressed with critical thinking and innovative solutions. The main aim of this project is to foster high-level skills, preparing students for work and life. We have chosen cultural heritage as a topic, because it is very important both for the European identity and the economy: tourism is a perfect environment to develop key competences through engaging activities. Team working, selecting and organizing information, communicating effectively, adopting digital tools are mandatory for an up-to-date approach. The five partner secondary schools who join the project are from Italy, Greece, Romania, Spain and Belgium. Most of them are expert in Erasmus+ KA1, KA229 or both. Two have been awarded with the eTwinning School label and one eTwinning Ambassador is part of the team. A dedicated eTwinning project is running starting from April 2019 to support all the phases of the process. Although the application has not been approved yet, young partners could certainly profit from getting in touch and realizing some team building activities in order to get to know and get used to collaborating with each other. Special care will also be paid to eSafety training. After approval, five tourist agencies will be organized, one for each country, to develop students’ entrepreneurial skills. They have to respect sustainable standards, increase their knowledge as to their cultural heritage, find creative ways to promote it, use digital tools and devices, encourage multicultural and inclusive participation of all subjects involved. All mobilities will be planned and realized by the agencies, making students play the main role in the whole process. Larger groups of students will be involved, not only the ones who are participating to the mobilities. Young people with Autistic Disorder, part of the association named “La matita parlante” (The talking pencil) will be prepared as tourist guides. Dissemination will start from the very beginning of the project and will be carried out after each meeting of students, using different tools and strategies to reach as many people as possible and to involve the local communities. Long term benefits are expected: strengthening the links between citizens and the EU, further collaborations within partners schools leading to job shadowing experiences and long term students exchanges, an overall improvement of linguistic and entrepreneurial skills among the students, updating of teaching approaches and methodologies. The tourist agencies should will continue to operate after the end of the project.
21st century Europe needs young minds trained to creatively face the challenges of the new millennium. Central issues like cultural diversity, democratic participation, peaceful coexistence as well as climate changes should be addressed with critical thinking and innovative solutions. The main aim of Sm@rtStuff project was to foster high-level skills, preparing students for work and life. We have chosen cultural heritage as a topic, because it is very important both for the European identity and the economy: tourism is a perfect environment to develop key competences through engaging activities. Team working, selecting and organizing information, communicating effectively, adopting digital tools are mandatory for an up-to-date approach. The five partner secondary schools who joined the project were from Italy, Greece, Romania, Spain and Belgium. Most of them are experts in Erasmus+ KA1, KA229 or both. Two have been awarded with the eTwinning School label and two Twinning Ambassadors are part of the team. A dedicated eTwinning project has been running starting from April 2019 to support all the phases of the process. Partners profited from getting in touch and realizing some team building activities in order to get to know and get used to collaborating with each other. Special care has been paid to eSafety training. Students worked in their countries and shared the results of their researches on the eSafety day 2020 during the Greek mobility. The project was awarded with the eTwinning National Quality Label 2022 by the Belgian National Agency. Five tourist agencies have been organized, one for each country, to develop students’ entrepreneurial skills. They had to respect sustainable standards, increase their knowledge as to their cultural heritage, find creative ways to promote it, use digital tools and devices, encourage multicultural and inclusive participation of all subjects involved. All mobilities were planned and realized by the agencies, making students play the main role in the whole process. Larger groups of students were involved, not only the ones who are participating in the mobilities, when allowed by Covid rules. During the Italian mobility, young people with Autistic Disorder, part of the association named “La matita parlante” (The talking pencil) played the role of tourist guides. Dissemination started from the very beginning of the project and was carried out after each meeting of students, using different tools and strategies to reach as many people as possible and to involve the local communities. Long term benefits are expected: strengthening the links between citizens and the EU, further collaborations within partner schools leading to job shadowing experiences and long term students exchanges, an overall improvement of linguistic and entrepreneurial skills among the students, updating of teaching approaches and methodologies. The tourist agencies should continue to operate after the end of the project. Due to COVID pandemic only the Greek mobility took place at the planned time, the other mobilities were realized between February and May 2022. For the same reason students were not hosted by families as previously decided, but stayed in different accommodations.