In Europe, the interest among pupils in compulsory school has decreased in order to apply for technical education at the upper secondary school. This applies to both study preparation and vocational technical education. This at the same time as society's and the business sector's need for technical competence increase, not least due to increased retirements. The decreasing interest in applying for technical education has, in some places, led to education being abandoned, which further reduces the opportunities for students to apply for these education. The aim of the project is for more pupils in compulsory school to apply for the upper secondary school's technical education. The projects aims is also for more girls to seek technical education, partly because they constitute a talent reserve for technical education, and partly because girls/women can contribute a different and creative approach when creating new technologies of the future. The project consists of participants from four countries. Participants from Greece, Romania and Sweden consist of upper secondary schools with vocational and study preparation programs. From Poland also participate in an organization that handles schools' practice and exchanges. In total, the project has five partners. The project consists of one central activities as an Intellectual Outputs. The activity is that students in the upper secondary school's vocational and study preparation technical programs supervise pupils in compulsory school in laboratory work and exercises in workshops, technology, mathematics, cad and programming. Project meetings as Learning Teaching Training (LTT) activity and Transnational Project Meeting with joint follow-up and evaluations are held in conjunction with trips to the partner schools, as students and teachers from all partners participate. The project's product sa an Intellectual Outputs consists of five documents in Greek, Romanian, Polish, Swedish and English respectively which describe in detail how 20 themes for collaboration between the upper secondary school and the compulsory school should be implemented. The activity is carried out at all the schools in the project. Before the project meetings, the activity is evaluated, which is then discussed and improved during the LTT activite. The project's activities are expected to increase the younger students' technology interest and that more students choose technical education in upper secondary school. In the longer term, the activities of the project can lead to more students choosing technical education in upper secondary school, which means that more technicians and engineers are educated and that the lack of trained labor with technical background decreases. Because the business community lacks personnel with the right technical training, the project can therefore also lead to reduced unemployment if more young people choose technical education.
The short answer is to increase the interest in technology among younger students so that more people choose technical educations when they get to secondary school so that we get more students on our technical educations. In a larger perspective, there is also a lack of technicians and engineers in society and therefore it is important to find methods for more people to want to train in the technical field. Therefore, this is an interesting theme for an EU project. In addition, we - teachers, students and school leaders - who participated in the project have had the privilege of visiting schools and meeting teachers and students in other countries, which has been very stimulating and developed in different ways. According to our evaluation, not least the students have really appreciated the project, both the supervision of younger students and the visits to other countries. For us staff, the project has given us an insight into other countries' school systems and teaching and has contributed to a lot of collegial learning.
To be honest, the main reason why we applied for an EU project is that we have participated in several projects before and find it very stimulating to meet and collaborate with teachers and students in other countries. And therefore we have to find an interesting and current theme for a project that leads to school development. In Europe, as well as in our schools, the interest among pupils in compulsory school has decreased in order to apply for technical education at the upper secondary school. This applies to both study preparation and vocational technical education. This at the same time as society's and the business sector's need for technical competence increase, not least due to increased retirements. The decreasing interest in applying for technical education has, in some places, led to education being abandoned, which further reduces the opportunities for students to apply for these education. We believe that an increased collaboration between upper secondary school technical courses and primary school, and especially between younger and older students, can be a way to increase interest in technology at an early stage and thereby increase the number of students applying for technical courses in upper secondary school.