Job opportunities for young people across Europe Erasmus Project

Project Title

Job opportunities for young people across Europe

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: New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses; Early School Leaving / combating failure in education; ICT – new technologies – digital competences

Project Summary

The imparting of international professional skills is becoming more and more important.
Foreign language skills, intercultural skills, digital skills, key qualifications such as
the ability to work in a team and self-organization will have increasing importance for professional careers in the future. In order to improve the career opportunities of young people in Europe, we decided to start this project.
Job opportunities for young people across Europe was a project over 2 years with 4 participating schools from Terceira (Portugal), Cordoba (Spain), Montana (Bulgaria) and Düsseldorf (Germany) as coordinating school. Each country was attended by 6 pupils and 2 teachers so that more than 60 different pupils and 15 teachers were involved in the project over the entire period. The main topic of the project was the acquisition of professional skills for adolescents and thus also increasing the professional opportunities of young pupils in order to reduce youth unemployment. The focus of the project was on exploring different professions and visiting different companies. A total of 15 different professions were examined in the course of the project. (Farmer, cattle breeder, winemaker, museum guide, marine biologist, employee of an employment agency, social pedagogue, olive oil production, stockfish production, chocolate production, advertising agent, IT specialist, administrative specialist, beer brewer, refrigeration and air conditioning technician and mechanical engineer). The main activity consisted of doing an interview about the professional competences and skills required to carry out the profession. Asking for salaries and career opportunities, school requirements and advantages and disadvantages of this profession. The pupils visited many companies in different countries and learned the processes in the companies on site and were able to ask questions.
All this information were collected and transferred to Job Cards which were developed in this project. The results were classified, evaluated and presented. All job cards were collected in a final booklet and include detailed descriptions of over 15 different professions.
The follow-up and presentation took place during the exchange phase, but also as an activity between the visits.
All results of the project were made available on the homepage www.job-erasmus.eu or on Etwinning. Through these activities, the pupils were able to improve their foreign language skills, expand their professional knowledge and apply ICT skills. The development of a questionnaire (Job Suitability Test) helped the pupils to discover their career options and to find out their own strengths and weaknesses. In presentations, the pupils worked out the historical changes in selected professions in order to relate them to their own professional future. Particular attention was paid to local and regional aspects of a profession, which are very different in all participating countries. The pupils recognized that there are regional differences in a metropolis or a small town. The climate, nature and culture therefore also have an influence on career opportunities
By integrating lectures by the employment agency, Europa-Direkt or local professional representatives, the pupils were able to find out directly which professions are suitable for them now and in the future. They learned e.g. about the soft- and hard skills that will be necessary in the professions of the future.
The lectures in English and discussions in an international context led to an increase in self-esteem and intercultural competence.
Most of the tasks were carried out in international groups from 4 countries each, and so the pupils developed an understanding of the cultural and socio-economic differences of the countries. Unfortunately, due to the outbreak of the Covid 19 pandemic, Bulgaria could no longer be visited and so we had to cancel the visits to the companies in Montana, Bulgaria.
The teachers worked out a summary of how to deal with school dropout in the countries and discussed it in the group. Unfortunately, no coherent strategy or standard could be developed because the school systems and legislation in the countries are too different. Nevertheless, the teachers and schools were able to learn from the measures and solutions of the others and enrich their strategies for dealing with early school leavers.
Some of the participating pupils reported that they could imagine acquiring a job in another European country in the future, or at least complete an internship abroad with Erasmus +. With the results obtained, this type of project can be repeated as often as desired with different countries and professions. We are already in contact with other partner schools to carry out such a project with other partners.
The end of the project was completed by the development of a booklet with all the job cards and results of this project, which was printed and distributed to all schools and groups of people involved.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 89793,38 Eur

Project Coordinator

Heinrich-Hertz Berufskolleg & Country: DE

Project Partners

• Escola Secundária Jerónimo Emiliano de Andrade
• Prirodo-matematicheska profilirana gimnaziya “Sv. Kliment Ohridski”
• Instituto Enseñanza Secundaria “Ategua”