How to run a sustainable European business Erasmus Project

Project Title

How to run a sustainable European business

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 : School Exchange Partnerships

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2018

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Creativity and culture; Entrepreneurial learning – entrepreneurship education

Project Summary

Entrepreneurship is the ability to turn ideas into action; it takes courage, creativity, prioritizing, risk-taking, as well as the ability to plan in order to achieve objectives. Nowadays students require skills such as critical and creative thinking and the ability to acquire, construct, integrate and apply knowledge to new settings. Students also require problem solving skills led by an effective decision-making process. Entrepreneurship is a mindset which must be cultivated and nurtured from an early age. Regardless of whether you want to start your own business or take ownership of your own career, in today’s world, an entrepreneurial mindset is a necessity.

The project “How to run a sustainable European business” aimed at strengthening students’ entrepreneurial mindset as well as teachers’ knowledge on how to teach in a more problem-based hands-on way. Participants in the project were a multi-disciplinary team of teachers and 19 students (aged 14-16) from the Spanish institution INX Flix and a multi-disciplinary team of teachers and 23 students (aged 13-16) from the Danish institution Toemmerup Fri- og Efterskole. Both schools had experience with project-based learning-by-doing teaching and learning, but in diverse ways. This project has been an exchange of experience and knowledge between two European institutions, between students as well as teachers. “How to run a sustainable European business” was inspired by an entrepreneurial project started by students at INS Flix: INSOAP, a small business run by students which produced traditional handmade soap. After working on a start-up producing and selling traditional homemade soap at a local/regional scale, INS Flix in the project “How to run a sustainable European business” went global by establishing an alliance with a foreign partner Toemmerup Fri- og Efterskole. Together the two groups built a “company”. While the Spanish students went on with the production of soap, the Danish students designed sustainable packaging for the soaps.

Students worked closely together both through etwinning and during the mobilities. Besides the production, students promoted and advertised the soap product using the latest ICT tools: an ecommerce website which allowed customers from all places to order the product. Students also drove traffic from potential customers to the webpage by using all the digital marketing
tools available (Twitter, Instagram, YouTube), and they advertised the product through TV-commercials and radio podcasts. Videos and photos were posted to connect with a new generation of potential buyers; a new image for a new market. However, selling online was also combined with a more traditional trade fair in Spain, where the soaps were wrapped and sold in newly designed packaging made by the Danish students. In a globalized world where many jobs demand international skills, it is necessary to be aware of cultural differences. This project allowed students as well as teachers to work together collaboratively in a meaningful context. In three workshops planned during mobilities, students were able to interact in internationally mixed groups in order to learn about saponification, packaging, sustainability, TV-advertisements and to organize the trade fair to sell the final product. The trade fair was the culmination of the project, and the event put the product and the project to the test and had a great impact on local community. The project allowed teachers to exchange and develop best practice on learning-by-doing teaching, and in that way, to elaborate on new innovative teaching methods for both participating institutions. Exchanging and improving new teaching methods with the basis on real world problems has made our teaching methodology more appealing to both academic and non-academic students. The learning-by-doing project has allowed early drop-out students regain interest in education, and thereby continue their school life.

All didactic material produced in the project, i.e. infographics and a project work process manual is now available for the educational sector through teachers’ forums in both countries. The project has become a model example on how to educate for real life, and the know-how gained in the project has become part of school curriculum in both schools. All material from students as well as the didactic teachers’ material are available on the eTwinning site of the project.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 26926 Eur

Project Coordinator

INSTITUT DE FLIX & Country: ES

Project Partners

• Tømmerup Fri- og Efterskole