Young Entrepeneurs in Action Erasmus Project

Project Title

Young Entrepeneurs in Action

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: Enterprise, industry and SMEs (incl. entrepreneurship); Entrepreneurial learning – entrepreneurship education; International cooperation, international relations, development cooperation

Project Summary

At the Diocesan Classical Gymnasium (DCG) we found that in Slovenia Entrepreneurship in schools is rather undeveloped. In 2013 our school started to participate in the international entrepreneurship programme Junior Achievement Young Enterprises (JA-YE). Since we are a grammar high school (gimnazija) our teachers lack entrepreneurial education, therefore we wanted to improve our knowledge. From our cooperation with JA-YE we knew that regarding entrepreneurship the Norwegian school system is excellent, so the DCG within the Saint Stanislav’s Institution and with the help of our partner organization Zavod za spodbujanje podjetništva mladih (ZSPM, JA-YE Slovenia) arranged a cooperation with our partner school Kongshavn videregående skole in Oslo.

Our first aim was to improve entrepreneurial education and raise the awareness of how impotant such skills are. The second aim to improve work on the mini companies we already had introduced, cooperating with ZSPM (JA-YE Slovenia).
First we evaluated the current situation. INERD (IREŠ), part of the St. Stanislavs institution, assessed the situation in our school system with special emphasis on DCG. We found that very few grammar schools (gimnazija) provide entrepreneurial education in the compulsory syllabus, but there are some programs being introduced.
On the first transnational meeting the situation, our aims and the possibilities how to improve the situation at DCG was thoroughly discussed. Our partners suggested to start with the concept of innovation camp. Thus students learn a lot in a problem – orientated way.
Our partners participated in a meeting for headmasters held by ZSPM, unfortunately just two headmasters attended.
Student exchange was an important part of the project. In November 2014 11 students (2 teachers) visited Kongshavn school in Oslo to participate at their innovation camp.
We learned that innovation camp is a method promoting a problem-orientated approach which is an essential skill the students will have to master to get good jobs in the future. The students work on a real problem, provided by a real company, which is the sponsor of the camp. The sponsor and the mentors (teachers) help the students to solve problems and questions they encounter while preparing their solutions. During the camp the students also attend lectures about entrepreneurship and other topics that might help solving the given problem. The main objective of the camp is to improve entrepreneurial skills, which include understanding the problem, getting good ideas and choosing the best one. Writing a business plan and presenting the idea in front of a jury.
The camp had to be in English which was another benefit.
10 Norwegian students visited Slovenia in March 2015 to participate at the Slovenian camp.
The next two exchanges took place in November 2015 and May 2016. Both groups stayed at their host families (they didn’t in the first year) which was considered a great success of the project, it showed that the students (although other students were involved) felt more comfortable to stay with their hosts.

In Slovenia we introduced teachers involved in ZSPM to our project and invited their students to our camp. Five schools participated. This is a small success and a way to implement entrepreneurship into our schools.

Both manuals were planned for the first year but after the innovation camp in Slovenia we did not feel competent enough to fulfil the task to our satisfaction. Our partners provided us with a lot of knowledge, new ideas and material and we still had a lot to learn from them. The topic of the manual slightly changed, we prepared a teachers’ manual on how to organise an innovation camp (a very complex task) and a students’ manual to be used during innovation camp. Since we moved the preparations of the manuals we lacked the time to prepare a panel discussion about the manuals (E2).

In May 2016 a meeting for headmasters was held at the DCG where the Norwegians explained the method of innovation camp and stressed the importance of entrepreneurial education.

Three transnational meetings were held, two in Norway and one in Slovenia.
Another visit (C1) was planned but not organized.

We would like to stress that both schools are discussing further cooperation (a science camp), therefore a Slovene science teacher attended the last meeting in Oslo.

Communication between partners was good, mainly by e-mail or phone.
Two short videos were produced for teachers (headmasters) interested in such projects.
DCG implemented the innovation camp in the regular syllabus since the method has proven to be very efficient.
Our Norwegian partners proved to be very helpful and responsive to any questions we had. They also provided us with ideas, material and new knowledge we will be able to use for the innovation camps to come. A lot of information included in both manuals are part of their experience and rich knowledge of this topic.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 85066 Eur

Project Coordinator

Zavod sv. Stanislava & Country: SI

Project Partners

• Kongshavn Videregående skole