The social inclusion is one of the mail goals of the Europe 2020 Strategy. The focus of the Inclusion Strategy is to include young people with fewer opportunities in EU projects and in society in general. It is therefore very important to equip teachers and educators with the competences necessary to successfully manage and support social inclusion of young people, especially those at risk of marginalization. This can contribute to positive interaction with various groups, regardless of their diversity. Social inclusion is also one of the main national policy priorities of most European countries. The Covid-19 pandemic outbreak affected young people. Many of those belong today to Neet group.Today we are all witnessing a possible new crisis that will affect not only Europe but the whole World. We are not able to predict its effects, but we know today that after the Covid-19 wave, which has swept and flows through Europe and the World, many companies will fail, many people will be unemployed, young people may not even finish their education and be at risk of poverty and social exclusion. We created this Strategic Partnerships project under Erasmus+ aimed at support young people with fewer opportunities in their better social inclusion. To achieve this, we will use innovative method which is Educational Robotics and we will create the Robotics workshops using non-formal methods. Thanks to participating in the workshops, we intend to improve the key competences of young people, digital skills and creativity, their motivation to learn and achieve success, their self-esteem as well as social and intercultural skills. In addition, thanks to joint activities during local workshops, during virtual meetings with young people from partner countries and thanks to international workshops in Bristol, young people will improve their relations with peers and teachers.The workshops will end with handing out certificates, that will help young people to have their skills recognised. Seven partner organizations from five countries were involved in the project: - ENSO GROUP from the United Kingdom (coordinator) - Istituto Istruzione Superiore "A. Lincoln" from Italy - Scuola di Robotica, Associazione Culturale from Italy - 5th Senior High School of Agrinio from Greece - Cetin Sen Bilim ve Sanat Merkezi from Turkey - Centrum Ksztalcenia Zawodowego i Ustawicznego from Poland - Academia de Robótica from Portugal Objectives of the Partnership are to: - Share the good practices of successful outreach and social inclusion methods - Develop knowledge and understanding of Educational Robotics method and non-formal method by teachers and educators - Collaborate to create a hub of resources for teacherss teach robotics through non-formal workshops To implement the project's objectives, the partners will organize 7 meetings, 4 Transnational Project Meetings and 3 Learning, Teaching and Training Activities. 6 partner organisations will select 10-12 young participants who will take part in local robotics workshops and 8 participants of international mobility in Bristol. In each activity, at least half of the seats will be reserved for participants with fewer opportunities in order to ensure more effective social inclusion. We expect the project to achieve the following results for partner organisations: - Better understanding of non-formal learning methods in the context of robotic and social inclusion - Increased schools and partner organisations capacity to support young people - Better understanding of young people with fewer opportunities needs in the context of greater inclusion We expect young people to improve key and social competences, improve their creativity and digital skills, their relationships with peers and teachers, increase their empowerment and better social inclusion. This partnership aims to share best practices in order to create a hub of resources to equip teachers with enabling safe environments and trusting relationships with young people with fewer opportunities across Europe. The exchange of best practices will be of the highest quality through exceptionally executed planning, collaboration and dissemination. Enso Group from the United Kingdom is an experienced agency which seeks to enhance the Erasmus +'s aims of sharing best practice internationally in order to create greater participation of people with fewer opportunities and therefore greater social inclusion across Europe. Academia de Robótica from Portugal and Scuola di Robotica from Italy will be the experts in Educational Robotics. Partner school will benefit greatly from the partnership that seeks to provide more inclusive methods to ensure support to students with fewer opportunities and to prevent negative effects of marginalization and social exclusion.
By implementing this project we aimed to achieve: - New innovative curricula/ educational methods - through development of Robotics training course - Improve students STEM skills through participation in the Robotics course (local workshops) and the final RoboPower training event in Bristol (international workshops) - Develop knowledge and understanding of Educational Robotics method and non-formal method by teachers and educators. - Improve teachers ability to use non formal and informal methods when developing students STEM skills and implementing inclusive learning in Robotics - Share the good practices of successful outreach and social inclusion methods. - Collaborate to create a hub of resources for teachers teaching robotics through non-formal workshops. The overall goal of this partnership was to increase the social inclusion of young students with fewer opportunities, empower them, develop their creativity and increase their digital and STEM skills.
The aim of this project was to address the needs identified in the partner organisations. The main needs were as follows: 1. Post covid situation in education and economics - the aim of the project was to break down the barriers that prevent young people from fully participating in school life and maintaining good relationships with their peers and teachers. 2. The demand for technological skills in the labour market and consequently in education. 3. The need of improving social inclusion of learners including those with fewer opportunities. Partners identified the need of empower, develop students creativity and increase their digital skills. But also, especially after the Covid 19 pandemic - improving the social skills and self-esteem of students and their peer relationships, as well as relationships with teachers and tutors. 4.The need to increase students' motivation to learn through more engaging learning methods and to increase young students' chances of further education and employment. 5. The need to improve key competences - increase creativity with engineering disciplines such as mathematics and strengthen cognitive development, literacy, art, communication skills, strategic thinking, and goal-oriented thinking.