Creative Entrepreneurship in the Field of Leisure Activities in a European Context Erasmus Project

Project Title

Creative Entrepreneurship in the Field of Leisure Activities in a European Context

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 Schools Only

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2016

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Labour market issues incl. career guidance / youth unemployment; International cooperation, international relations, development cooperation; Entrepreneurial learning – entrepreneurship education

Project Summary

The three-year project of three vocational schools in Spain, Germany and Slovakia aimed at developing creative business ideas in the field of leisure activities in a Europe-wide context. Participating schools were La Guineueta in Barcelona / Spain, Obchodná académia in Bratislava / Slovakia and Berufskolleg Bottrop in the Ruhr area.
In the first year of the project, students developed various creative business ideas in areas where they saw a potential for a successful business. First of all they prepared presentations in which they presented their business ideas to the students of the other partner schools. The basis for this was research on the leisure behavior of the population including visits to leisure companies in the region such as the Alpincenter Bottrop (a former coal heap converted to a ski hall with a connected Sky-Diving wind tunnel) or the Scary Maze, “Grusellabrinth”, in Bottrop. In numerous additional classroom sessions the students developed their own creative ideas for starting a business. During the project meeting with the participating students and teachers in Barcelona, ​​the diverse proposals for creative start-ups were not only presented to the students of the partner schools. In international groups of 6 students (2 per country) several ideas were combined and then further elaborated. The idea of ​​a recreational labyrinth of a group of students from Berufskolleg Bottrop, in which various tasks and “challenges” must be solved, obviously found great approval because the idea of ​​”the maze” is found in several of the five newly founded companies, e.g. also in the “Invima – the invisible maze”, a maze in which also disabled or blind people can experience and solve exciting tasks virtually. In the Fairytale World, a kind of fantasy land of three cultures, Spanish, Slovak and German legends and cultures can be experienced. Using various business tools like the Model Canvas or Empathy Map, which focuses on a company’s customers these ideas were developed and then presented to other groups of students and teachers.
In addition to working together on the project, the students also had enough opportunities to get to know the partner school in Barcelona and, above all, each other while exploring the city together in a tour of the Paseo de Gracia and the old town of Barcelona, ​​where many different tasks had to be solved. Not only did they get to know their classmates but they also learned a lot about the city of Barcelona.
In the second year of the project, the business plans and target groups of the five newly founded companies were further developed and, above all, a marketing concept was developed. Students developed a logo and slogan for their newly founded company in international groups as well as a marketing concept specifically for the dissemination via social media. The concrete development of such companies as “Fairytale World”, “Mosaic Maze”, “Momo’s Up”, “Invima” and “Brave Maze” was supported during the student meeting in Bratislava by an IBM workshop, from which the students could get to know communication tools. The improvement of the English language was also in the foreground. In addition to the project work, the 30 pupils in general got to know the Slovak school life, typical Slovak dishes and dances, and Bratislava itself during a city tour in the snow. The highlight of the meeting was the presentation of the advertising strategies for the newly-founded companies to a larger audience in English.
Finally, the third year was about deciding on an opening location and planning an opening event. The preliminary work was done in numerous sessions in addition to the lessons. In their international teams, the participants carried out and then compared the results of a self-conducted survey in order to decide in which country or location the company would have the greatest chance of success. Then they had the task of creating merchandising giveaways and presenting them at the last student meeting in Bottrop as well as planning an opening event for their company. At the Bottroper Kulturwerkstatt they also used green-screen technology to create a short advertising clip to advertise the opening of their company and finally planned an opening event for their company in internationally mixed groups and presented it to all the fellow-students and teachers, which also marked the completion of the 3-year project work.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 89200 Eur

Project Coordinator

Berufskolleg der Stadt Bottrop & Country: DE

Project Partners

• IES La Guineueta
• Obchodna akademia, Nevadzova 3, 820 07 Bratislava