The project will be a new approach to preparing students to their future career: it will combine theoretical and practical knowledge in marketing (market research, advertising campaign), ICT, foreign languages (English and German) and cultural awareness. We will get students from Poland, Ireland, Portugal and Germany to design multilingual mobile phone apps about their schools and regions in English, German and in their mother tongue. Within the project, students will develop linguistic fluency and marketing skills by making commercials and posters, running a professional marketing campaign of their school and making video tutorials. Students will work on their creativity, imagination and soft skills mostly on developing artistic sense, accepting feedback, being assertive, collaborative, communicative, highly organised, multitasking, willing to learn and able to do public speaking. When performing various tasks, students will learn by talking to their peers from abroad both online and face-to-face. They will establish personal contacts and will get to know other cultures, customs and traditions. The project will also instil values such as tolerance, openness and responsibility. There are four schools involved in the project. Zespol Szkol Ekonomicznych Nr 1 in Krakow, Poland is a four-year vocational upper-secondary school providing education to students aged 16-20 in economics, hospitality and tourism. St. Ciarán’s Community School located in Kells, Ireland is a co-educational community school with 600 pupils aged 12-19. It welcomes students from many different nationalities. St Ciarán’s has excellent facilities in technology, construction, science, engineering, information technology and physical education. Berufsschulzentrum Stockach, Germany (Center for Vocational Education) offers vocational training in three distinct directions: business, technical and home economics. The school has approximately 750 students and 55 teachers. As it is a vocational school it has strong bonds with the companies in the region. It is focused on forming strong partnerships, so its students can profit from easy access to good apprenticeships and jobs. Loulé Secondary School is a multicultural school with 135 teachers and 1200 students aged 15-21 of different nationalities and from different continents. It provides vocational education in Computer Equipment, Computer Programming, Renewable Energies, Restaurant, Cooking, Environmental and Rural Tourism, Mechatronics Automobile and more. The project involves regular classes in each school and short student exchanges in Poland, Portugal, Ireland and Germany. All partners will go through the standardised procedure and will use English as a means of communication. During student exchanges participants will become familiar with the basics of host’s mother tongue and acceptable/ unacceptable behaviour. Students will visit local places of interest, learn about history and geography and meet local residents. They will perform practical tasks in a multinational group and will attend regular classes run in the host school for its students. Students will use textbooks, magazines, the Internet and will set up a website, blog, social network site and will create apps to advertise their schools. In this way they will unwittingly learn about Electronic Conferencing, web design and many other communication skills, including English. Peer-learning, decision-making, workshops, pair work, group work and preparing video tutorials will Call 2018 Round 1 KA2 - Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices be invaluable means of acquiring new skills. Establishing international contacts will help improve students’ linguistic skills: English and the basics of Gaelic, German, Portuguese and Polish. Teachers will improve their teaching techniques and language skills. They will promote problembased and problem-solving approach to learning and they will use ICT in teaching economics to a greater extent. Each student will act as an advertisement for their schools among potential students and their parents. Project’s participants will also promote their region and their homeland. New skills and qualifications will enable students to find jobs easily as local enterprises will be aware of highly-motivated young people able to work on the international market and willing to hone their skills. After the end of the EU funding all apps created within this project will be used by students to promote their schools and regions. All participants will easily contact foreigners and will effortlessly get around in foreign countries with no fear of or distance towards other cultures. The experience gained throughout the project will strengthen the entrepreneurship and resourcefulness among the students. All schools involved in the project will consider international cooperation in the future and may initiate similar projects founded by the European Union.
The project helped students prepare for their future careers. It combined theoretical and practical knowledge in the field of marketing (market research and advertising campaign), ICT, foreign languages (English and German) and cultural awareness. Students from Poland, Ireland, Portugal and Germany designed mobile applications about their schools and regions in their native languages and in English. As part of the project, students developed their language proficiency and marketing skills by creating commercials and posters, by running professional advertising campaigns for their schools and by creating video tutorials. Students worked on their creativity and soft skills mainly in the field of developing their artistic sense, accepting feedback, assertiveness, communicativeness, multitasking, willingness to learn and public speaking skills. During online classes and exchanges, students had to communicate in English and/or German. They made new friends and got to know other cultures, customs and traditions. The project taught tolerance, openness and responsibility. Four schools were involved in the project. Zespół Szkół Ekonomicznych Nr 1 w Krakowie (Poland) is a 5-year technical school educating students aged 16-20 in the profession of an economist, accountant, hotelier and travel organizer. St. Ciarán's Community School in Kells (Ireland) is a co-educational school with 600 pupils aged 12-19 from many different nationalities. The school has excellent facilities in construction, engineering, computer science and physical education. Berufsschulzentrum Stockach (Germany) is a vocational training centre which offers vocational training in three different fields: business, technical economics and home economics. The school has approximately 750 students and 55 teachers. As a vocational school, it has strong ties with companies in the region. Escola Secundaria de Loulé (Portugal) is a multicultural school with 135 teachers and 1200 students aged 15-21, of different nationalities and continents. It offers vocational education in the field of computer hardware, programming, renewable energy, gastronomy, ecological and rural tourism, car mechatronics and others. As part of the project regular classes were held in all schools. Students participated in marketing, foreign languages, IT and cultural lessons, they took part in student exchanges and teachers developed their skills at training courses. During student exchanges, the participants learned the basics of the host's native language and the code of conduct of a given country, visited local attractions, learned about history and geography, and learned about local people. They performed practical marketing tasks (designing advertising gadgets and applications) in a multinational group and they used applications previously designed by their project friends. Students used textbooks, magazines and the Internet to gather data, they designed websites and social media pages. The main result of the project are student-designed mobile applications of schools and regions. In this way, project participants learned digital tools, application and website design principles and they developed communication skills. Teaching techniques used in the project were peer learning, group decision making, case studies, pair and group work online and in person. Establishing international contacts helped to improve the students' language skills: English and basic Irish, German, Portuguese and Polish. The teachers improved their language skills and developed modern teaching techniques, e.g. problem-solving tasks and online teamwork. Each student acted as an advertisement for their schools among school candidates, their parents and foreign guests, as well as they promoted their region and their country. New skills and qualifications will enable students to easily find a job or inspire them to run their own business based on mobile applications. After the end of the EU funding, all applications created in this project will be used by students to promote their schools and regions. Moreover, project participants will move around foreign countries without fear or distance to other cultures and will easily establish direct contacts. The experience gained during the implementation of the project will strengthen entrepreneurship and resourcefulness among students. All schools involved in this project are considering further international cooperation in a similar project.