Creativity @Work Erasmus Project

Project Title

Creativity @Work

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: Entrepreneurial learning – entrepreneurship education; ICT – new technologies – digital competences; Creativity and culture

Project Summary

Our project Creativity@Work, which was meant to run for 2 years, lasted 3 years due to Covid-19 and the ensuing lockdowns. We were granted permission for an extra year during which we should have arranged the final exchange to Italy. However, due to the prolonged nature of the pandemic, this exchange never took place and we decided to organize a virtual-exchange instead.

In these 3 years our main objective was to raise students’ awareness of the possibilities offered by being self-employed in the creative sector in the European Union, regardless of background (migrant) or learning disabilities.
Creativity is one of the important 21st century skills, but, as some schools pay less and less attention to creative subjects, we wanted to emphasize the importance of these subjects. We also brought students into contact with creative entrepreneurs.

Schools from 4 countries (Germany, Spain, Italy, the Netherlands) worked together on this project; all secondary schools with students aged between 13 and 16, some from a migrant background and/ or with learning disabilities. All together there were 3 student exchanges in which 4 schools participated with 8 students and 2 teachers plus one virtual exchange with approximately 25 students per country.

In prior to an exchange, the students prepared presentations about themselves (PowerPoint/ Prezi/ iMovie) during English lessons. In art classes they prepared designs (3D printing/ textile printing/ printing on wood/ Flamenco choreography) for the creative workshops they were going to attend during the exchanges. In economics classes they were taught the basics concerning business plans and marketing. Thus, this project was very well integrated in the regular school life.

During the exchanges, students:
– took part in several creative workshops (3D printing design/ flamenco workshop/ composing music via apps/ textile printing/ creative writing)
– visited art schools (Cibap, music school and the Harderbastei) and art museums (Pinakothek der Moderne, Museum for Concrete Art and a Streetart tour)
– visited and interviewed self-employed creative entrepreneurs in the different countries (ICT start-ups/ Blokhuispoort Leeuwarden/ portrait drawing artist/ flamenco dancer)
– visited cultural heritage sites, like Leeuwarden, the Cultural Capital of Europe 2018, the Mesquita and a Flamenco center in Cordoba.
– practiced how to make a business and marketing plan for their designed products.
(The school in Spain has entered into a partnership with Fundecor (University of Cordoba) to create a game about product design and marketing.)
– improved their ICT skills (PowerPoint/ Prezi/ iMovie/ 3D print design/ Virtual Reality/ Music making apps/ green screen pictures)

The planned activities during the exchange in Italy did not take place, instead we organized virtual activities with whole classes/ Erasmus groups (creative writing, interviewing creative entrepreneurs (by Zoom/Team meeting), vlogs, 3D printing competition (by Spain).

Students have become acquainted with the visited countries as they were staying with host families and got the chance to meet a lot of different people living in those countries.
Because communication was in English, students had a lot of opportunities to practise and their English has definitely improved.

All activities were communicated via Facebook and our blog www.creativityatworkerasmus.blogspot.com where students uploaded their pictures, stories and vlogs. Updates and links were published on each school’s website and local media tuned in every time there was an activity.

Most students have discovered their creative talents while taking part in the different workshops (see results on our Facebook and blog).
Through presentations of their designed products and accompanying business plans, the students proved that they have applied the acquired knowledge in the final product.
By visiting and interviewing young entrepreneurs, students became enthusiastic about working on the job market. They also discovered the possibility of working in any country within the European Union.

Not only students benefited from this project, participating teachers also learned a lot about the different school systems, cultural heritage and they also discovered their creative talents, since they were taking part of all the activities.

Before Covid-19 there were a lot of possibilities for self-employed people in the creative sector, for instance musicians/ DJ’s/ dancers/ photographers/ actors/ and people working in the entertainment sector in general. During Covid-19 and the ensuing lockdowns we noticed that especially self-employed people working in this sector had a hard time surviving.
The impact of this project with regard to giving more attention to the creative subjects is difficult to measure at some schools due to long school closures and communication only via online meetings.
Of course we will provide the deans at our schools with all the information we’ve gathered about self-employed entrepreneurship within the creative sector and writing a simple business plan, so they can include this in career orientation and guidance.

We have seen that a lot of students have creative talents and we opened up to them the possibility of working in the creative sector. In this way the students are better prepared for their future.
We hope more students will opt for a job as a self-employed entrepreneur in this area; whoever they are, wherever they choose to.

Project Website

http://creativityatworkerasmus.blogspot.com/?m=1

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 96889,5 Eur

Project Coordinator

Emelwerda College & Country: NL

Project Partners

• IES MAIMONIDES
• Staatliche Wirtschaftsschule Neuburg a. d. Donau
• Istituto comprensivo Margherita Hack