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CONTEXT
Our partnership of five completely different and far away countries has been created out of the desire of all the schools involved to contribute more significantly to the personal and professional development of their students, improving their critical and creative thinking, promoting an entrepreneurial mindset that will serve them and their communities in the future years. In a century in which creativity, innovation, critical thinking and digital competences are the key to success, we consider it our mission to guide and support students in acquiring them. 3 of the schools have vocational profiles –MK, CZ and PL, while the other 2 have a general education profile. This will make the Erasmus+ experience even more meaningful, by providing us with different approaches to entrepreneurship. We will gain an insight into local economies and needs and our students will collaborate in order to meet those needs. Although we are part of the EU, we come from diverse places where we will encounter different social and economic contexts, different needs and interests. This makes this opportunity even more rewarding and appealing.
PARTICIPANTS
Through this initiative, we address a target group of 500 students aged 15-18, including both boys and girls, 30% of whom come from challenged backgrounds, low-income families or dismembered families. 100 students aged 15-18 will be directly involved in the exchanges, as participants, and as host students. There will be 5 students and 2 accompanying teachers from each country who will attend each exchange, which means 20 students and 8 teachers per school and overall 100 students and 40 teachers will have been attended to exchange meetings. OBJECTIVES 1. to enable the participants to get acquainted with new cultures and develop their intercultural competence 2. to develop students’ entrepreneurial mindset by providing them with the context for developing joint business ideas, thus improving the transition to the business world 3. to improve the soft skills of students in order to facilitate their professional development – critical and analytical thinking, communication, creativity etc., thus improving their transition to the world of work 4.to improve students’ self-confidence in unfamiliar contexts and their language skills 5. to improve the school’s European dimension through collaboration with other schools and transfer of best practices.
MAIN ACTIVITIES
We have planned 5 student exchanges in this project, during which students will meet their peers, learn about specifics of local economies, meet entrepreneurs and visit local businesses. The practical side consists of students’ collaborative work in order to produce innovative business ideas suitable for the local economies of the partner schools which will then be adapted to students’ own local needs. The topics of the exchanges are:
1. C1 – Spanish economy and startups in agriculture.
2. C2 – Polish economy and startups in PL .
3. C3 – Macedonia economy and startups in small scale manufacturing enterprises. (excluded)
4. C4 – Turkish economy and startups in the beauty industry.
5. C5 – Czech Nation economy and startups in outdoor activities and sports.
MOTIVATION
Our partnership of five completely different and far away countries has been created out of the desire of all the schools involved to contribute more significantly to the personal and professional development of their students, improving their critical and creative thinking, promoting an entrepreneurial mindset that will serve them and their communities in the future years. In a century in which creativity, innovation, critical thinking and digital competences are the key to success, we consider it our mission to guide and support students in acquiring them. Our schools are already making efforts to promote entrepreneurial learning and initiatives have so far been taken to connect students to real-life businesses in order to facilitate their understanding of the business world. However, we firmly believe that a partnership with other European schools will boost the students’ motivation, involvement in learning will open their minds to different ideas and will enable them to compare and contrast the social and economic systems, with a view to becoming better prepared to analyze the potential of a business idea in different social and economic contexts. 3 of the schools have vocational profiles –MK, CZ, and PL, while the other 2 have a general education profile. This will make the Erasmus+ experience even more meaningful, by providing us with different approaches to entrepreneurship. We will gain an insight into local economies and needs and our students will collaborate in order to meet those needs. Although we are part of the EU, we come from diverse places where we will encounter different social and economic contexts, different needs and interests. This makes this opportunity even more rewarding and appealing. Through this initiative, we address a target group of 500 students aged 15-18, including both boys and girls, 30% of whom come from challenged backgrounds, low-income families or dismembered families.
OBJECTIVES
The general aim of the project is to facilitate the collaboration of young people from different European countries, by exchanging ideas, views, and perspectives and producing relevant business ideas for local economies. The specific objectives are: 1. to enable the participants to get acquainted with new cultures and develop their intercultural competence 2. to develop students’ entrepreneurial mindset by providing them with the context for developing joint business ideas, thus improving the transition to the business world 3. to improve the soft skills of students in order to facilitate their professional development – critical and analytical thinking, communication, creativity, etc., thus improving their transition to the world of work 4.to improve students’ self-confidence in unfamiliar contexts and their language skills 5. to improve the school’s European dimension through collaboration with other schools and transfer of best practices Our objectives are consistent with the priorities established by the European Commission and published in the Programme Guide. We aim to develop basic skills and key competencies in order to foster employability, language skills, critical thinking and creativity and applying them into key fields for economic development. We are going to promote the project and establish partnerships with local businesses and entrepreneurs in order to improve the quality and relevance of the project. We also meet the second priority, Social and educational value of European cultural heritage, its contribution to job creation, economic growth and social cohesion, through the fact that the exchanges will have an important intercultural component and are built on the principle of intercultural learning. Students from different countries work together, learn together, and communicate in order to achieve the same goal. The exchanges will enable us to produce some valuable outputs: presentations about local economies in the 5 partner countries, student-made brochures about local businesses, 20 startup business ideas and business plans developed by multicultural teams of students, evaluation forms for business plans completed by entrepreneurs, workshop materials, students’ testimonials, initial and final evaluation, feedback forms, self-assessment forms, project brochure “Business ideas for students”, project website, eTwinning space, 137 Europass mobility documents and certificates of attendance, 5 interim reports and final reports. The outcomes consist of an increased capacity of students to integrate professionally in the field of business and work, increased competence of school educators to facilitate the transition of students to the world of work/business and the increased relevance of schools for the 21st century needs.
TASKS AND RESPONSIBILITIES
This project initiative was created with the contribution of all partners and all the activities and responsibilities were agreed beforehand. Therefore, we have decided on a set of common and specific tasks which was done in accordance with the experience and expertise of each partner: Common duties refer to the implementation of the project activities in line with the application form: dissemination and promotion of the project at the local level, organization of preparatory activities, organization of one exchange and participation in four other exchanges, monitoring and evaluation of project activities and participants, reporting results to the coordinator and to the National Agency, completion of project documents with the established deadlines. For the LTTAs hosted, each team identifies resources needed for the organization, evaluates the LTTA and students’ work, makes the practical arrangements for the accommodation of guests, establishes partnerships with local businesses identify guest speakers for the organization of lectures and workshops, organizes visits – cultural and topic-related, applies initial and final evaluation of participants in terms of cultural and entrepreneurial knowledge, completes Europass mobility documents and certificates of attendance, collects dissemination materials (creates the LTTA brochure and the presentation about local businesses which will be included in the final output) and sends them to all partners within a week from the end of the LTTA Specific duties: 1. CZ – the coordinator – designs the plan for implementation and the plan for dissemination which are shared with partners who adapt them to their school. Is in charge of the online communication and sets up a communication plan in line with the needs of the project that will be discussed, adjusted and agreed by all partners. Coordinates the initial and final evaluation instruments and sets guidelines for partners regarding the questions. Coordinates the creation of the final output “Business Ideas for Students”. CZ creates the final narrative report of the project and uploads the results on EPRP. CZ also organizes C5. 2. ES – organizes C1, creates LinkedIn profile of the partnership 3. MK – organizes C3, creates and updates Facebook page 4. TR – organizes C4, creates and updates Twinspace 5. PL – organizes C2, creates and updates website and logo Full and effective cooperation will be attained through intense communication in all key stages of the project – at the beginning (Sep 2020), before and after LTTAs (Live eTwinning), at the end of each project year. The current exchange of information will also take place on the WhatsApp and Facebook communication groups, which will be used mainly for urgent matters and quick Q&A sessions. We will make sure from the beginning that all partners understand their duties, we will take into account any suggestions that may appear. After everything is established, all schools sign agreements with the coordinator.
