Young Europeans Learning about Politics Erasmus Project

Project Title

Young Europeans Learning about Politics

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 2015

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Youth (Participation, Youth Work, Youth Policy) ; EU Citizenship, EU awareness and Democracy

Project Summary

According to research there was a need for Yelp. Voter turnout in Europe is declining; membership in political parties is shrinking. There is a lack of interest in political and social life, and there is incapacity of youngsters to define their own political views. The Teaching and Learning Survey shows there is a need of high quality and well-trained teachers because they have an important influence on ensuring that learners develop the skills and competences by a rapidly changing global labour market. Therefore Yelp invested in activities and student and teacher training to promote European Citizenship.
YELP (Young Europeans Learning about Politics) was a project for innovation and cross-fertilisation and spread of EU content aimed to promote discussion and reflection on EU issues and to enhance knowledge about the EU and its processes in a way to achieve active European citizenship.The aim of YELP was to develop a learning pathway concerning implementation of the issues Europe and politics in the curriculum of European students and to create lessons, learning resources and tools to promote discussion, reflection on EU issues and to enhance knowledge about the EU and its processes. YELP widened the interest in politics by training the students as communicators and as ‘think tankers’ in specific matters such as environment, employment, education and poverty topics. The aim of YELP was to promote the Europe 2020 strategy by organising seminars and dissemination activities in order to capture the audience’s attention to very important European matters. YELP trained students to be involved in the decision-making process by expressing their views. YELP gave students a chance to discuss, open debate and understand what the EU citizenship is and what their duties and rights are. To form a civic society means to enable its citizens to take part in their life. Young people should be encouraged to take part in the decision-making process on different levels of the country and society management, particularly in local societies. This project engaged in the above mentioned process, also in political rehabilitation by the provision of proper knowledge, and the development of the necessary skills and competences.International students created together their visions for the future. Yelp also strengthened the professional profile of the teaching personnel and the school policy. During the YELP-project teachers were trained on important topics to assist students in their learning process to active European citizenship, such as ICT, CLIL, inclusion and non-formal education methods.
Four European partner schools from all over Europe organised various trainings and activities in which not only teachers and pupils aged 12-18 of vocational, technical and general education, but also the parents and the community were involved. All activities and trainings were organised to enhance active European Citizenship among a wider public.

Starting on their own school level a school parliament was installed to organise a “Two star and a wish” election. The results of the national school elections initiated the “European School Vision”. In a “Yes we care competition” students produced a creative product to show that they really care about Europe and politics. Thanks to international conferences with MEP think tanks on the four European key issues (education, environment, poverty and employment) a “Europe 2020 Revision” was made by European youth and handed over to the European Parliament. To draw media and public attention to other important European topics of citizenship such as sports and the climate a European flash mob “Dance for the climate” and a “European Awareness Run” was organised in alle countries. Because of the importance of entrepreneurship in citizenship a workshop on European entrepreneurship was organised.

We want to be the type of school which does not only teach but also educates. Thanks to Yelp, we contributed to the process of political socialisation through education and we made youngsters more aware of their responsibilities. We also involved respected individuals and organisations in shaping youngsters’ attitudes. Thanks to the developed learning pathway and the educational class material about Europe and politics we not only increased the knowledge, skills and competences of the students involved in the project but also future students will gain from YELP.

Yelp was the ‘student connector’, ‘parent connector’, ‘community connector’ and ‘business connector’, which not only the partner schools but also the whole community needed.

Yelp has not only provided youngsters with knowledge, skills and competences, but it also invested in necessary trainings for teachers to achieve active European citizenship. Yelp is a perfect example of a concrete, ambitious but realistic project designed on the needs of all partner schools and succeeded to empower European youth and teachers.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 76860 Eur

Project Coordinator

VZW Leiepoort campus Sint-Vincentius & Country: BE

Project Partners

• Christian-Gottlob-Frege-Oberschule
• Michael – Stredni skola a Vyssi odborna skola reklamni a umelecke tvorby, s.r.o.
• Agrupamento de Escolas de Vialonga