Das Wissen für die Entwicklung Erasmus Project

Project Title

Das Wissen für die Entwicklung

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for school education

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2014

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Entrepreneurial learning – entrepreneurship education; New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses; Key Competences (incl. mathematics and literacy) – basic skills

Project Summary

Creativity and innovation as well as entrepreneurship are the key to sustainable economic and social development. They are as well indispensable in overcoming global challenges that will happen in following years. In the project “Knowledge for Development” we developed a model for developing key competence (KC) of a sense of initiative and entrepreneurship in the curriculum of general high school program.
Today, there are 5.5 million unemployed young people in the EU. Apart from the economic crisis, the reason is also in the insufficient education and lack of skills of young people. Cooperation between schools and the local economy is rare, so the schools can not respond adequately and on time to the needs of the environment. The knowledge acquired by students is often incomplete and theoretically, young people do not know how to transfer it to new situations. The students don’t have the ability to turn ideas into action. More and more young people see themselves as victims of current circumstances and hope only for government assistance.
Many EU documents reveal that the part of the solution is development of skills, including the KC sense of initiative and entrepreneurship in all sectors of education. Currently, there are some good models for the development of these SK, but these are limited to the vocational and technical education as well as to the simulated establishment and management of individual companies. But in the time we started the project, there was no satisfying model that would allow the development of SK in general education, where this competence is broader to understand.
Therefore in the project “Knowledge for Development” a model for the development of KC entrepreneurial spirit and initiative through the curriculums for high schools is developed. It is about the opportunity to develop these skills in all subjects in regular classes. In the project teaching methods are developed and tested, which make it possible to make such learning process that students develop their creativity, self-motivation and goal-orientation. They learn to generate ideas, make decisions and deal with their consequences. But this is only possible if the teachers are trained. One part of the model is the close cooperation between the school and the local environment, the application of academic knowledge in real-world solutions to problems of the local economy.
Objectives of the project were:
– Promote entrepreneurship, initiative and creativity,
– To develop other skills that will help the students in the labour market
– Connection of the knowledge of the various disciplines,
– Trained teachers for the development of SK initiative and entrepreneurship,
– Exchange of experiences between partner schools and wider,
– Strengthening the role of the school as a catalyst for development in the local environment,
– Setting up of solid connections between education and the economy,

To achieve the objectives, three general-education schools have joined:
– Gimnazija Ptuj (Slovenia) that has a lot of experience with the management of EU projects,
– Alpe-Adria High School Völkermarkt (Austria) that has experience with the model Entrepreneur’s, collaborates with the Chamber of Commerce and is very active in many international connections (this partner left the project in the first year).
– II. gimnazija Osijek (Croatia) is very competent because of the professionals who are involved in analysis and the development of teaching materials.

Long-term impact of the project :
– At the local level: competent treacher, that can develope KC sense of initiative and entrepreneurship by their students, group of students with their first experience as entrepreneurs, links between schools and industry, development of skills and competences needed by the environment, consequently lower unemployment rate.
– At the national level: the model could be applied to all general high schools and could represent a systematic solution, but we are not there jet. The project ended in the beginning of the new school year, so the results could not be implemented in this year. But meny representatives of high schools know our project results, so there is a possibility that they will use them in the next school year. Some of our project resultes were used in others Erasmus projects (Highlight your Surroundings, A Cup of Creativity in Educational Process).
– At the European level : International and interdisciplinary cooperation, which is of enormous importance for the development of the EU’s dynamic, competitive economy, development of underdeveloped regions, the exchange of ideas and effective practices across regional and national borders , the strengthening of the European consciousness, the development of social competence, civic competence and the foreign linguistic competence and creative and entrepreneurial young people who have no burden of their own countries, but create new opportunities for themselves and others with their own activ

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 164964,02 Eur

Project Coordinator

Gimnazija Ptuj & Country: SI

Project Partners

• II. gimnazija Osijek
• Alpen-Adria Gymnasium Völkermarkt