The Growing Green project planned to link the concept of circular economy with the need to boost entrepreneurial competences for future employees in Europe. The starting point was to raise awareness about environmental and climate change challenges and circular economy topics among VET teachers and students, by practically reinforcing at the same time their entrepreneurship competences through workplace learning. The plan was to bring education to life through practical experiential learning models, through game-based learning and through sharing experience with real-world entrepreneurs in order to give students hands-on experiences of green entrepreneurship and a clear understanding of what green entrepreneurship means. Specific objectives were to make teachers and students familiar with a new practical green entrepreneurship model by working on real cases in business and industry, to design innovative training materials to foster green entrepreneurial skills and mindsets, to equip VET teachers with skills for mentoring and guiding students towards green and circular entrepreneurial thinking, to encourage close cooperation between VET schools and local businesses to support each other to develop green and circular solutions.
The Growing Green project directly responded to major policies of the European Commission and of the partner countries involved in the field of the green transition, such as the European Green Deal to make Europe climate neutral and our economy circular and competitive by 2050, leaving no person behind. In addition, Entrecomp, Greencomp and Digicomp frameworks were applied in the VET schools and there were no adequate approaches and materials to support students to comprehend the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and to turn the challenges into opportunities. The in-depth needs analysis and feasibilty study in the application phase, based on a survey with the target groups and a data analysis, detected a gap in general education and in VET: Curricula, lesson plans and training materials were not available to prepare young people in VET towards a competitive circular economy, a green transition and to find solutions to cope with the climate change. Furthermore, innovative methodologies to ignite students to become creative and proactive to design circular solutions and bold green businesses were lacking.