“SYCAS” Start Your Career At School -Young Entrepreneurs: learning to create and innovate your own career Erasmus Project

Project Title

“SYCAS” Start Your Career At School -Young Entrepreneurs: learning to create and innovate your own career

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: ICT – new technologies – digital competences; International cooperation, international relations, development cooperation; New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses

Project Summary

“Students teach students” has been the central methodology of our project. Students of all the participating countries have prepared a PowerPoint presentation of their hometown, school, country and education system which were presented to the students and teachers of every participating school and even to the local community. After the mobilities, participating students taught other students about their experiences and results. Both activities have increased their self-confidence as well as their understanding and awareness of cultural differences within Europe.
The students who were more proficient in IT skills taught the other students how to navigate the SYCAS website, video editing skills and creation of the PowerPoint presentations.
The hosting students became guides for the visiting partners around their schools, local areas and major cities. They taught each other the history, traditions, language, music, dance, sport and typical dishes in their country.
The students formulated a questionnaire to find out if the school satisfied the students` needs for knowledge about future careers and study opportunities. A student representative from the project visited the other classes and explained the questionnaire and why the information was valuable to the project. The results for this questionnaire were collected and analysed by the students and the data was compared between the countries. The results showed us that the students have very different ideas of their future lives depending on the country they come from. These results are uploaded and can be viewed on the E-twinning platform of the project.
Students had access to a wide variety of career opportunities. They saw various career paths such as Media, Arts, Crafts, Communications, Administration, Outdoor Maintenance, Food Processing, Entrepreneurship, STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths), Environment, Pharmacy, Commerce and Catering. During the meetings they were able to actively participate in various workshops which benefitted them greatly.

The students have the confidence and ability to use different languages and now they feel more comfortable to move around Europe as true European citizens. The students are now looking at study and career opportunities not only in their own country but in Europe. Thus, students are increasing their employability. During the project they have visited many universities, companies and firms in the six different countries involved in this project.

These visits provided students with an insight into the possibilities of furthering their education or working life throughout Europe. In Germany, students from other countries informed the partners of positive and negative aspects of studying abroad. In Ireland, past students explained how they transitioned to University from school through the preparation the school had provided for them. In Finland, the students visited a University of Applied Sciences and gained an insight into the gaming industry and the world of virtual reality. In Greece, they visited the university and were given the opportunity to see the long history (2000 years) of education and the roots of European civilisation. In Poland, students presented what each school has to offer for working life. In Italy, a past pupil who is involved in arts and culture, shared his experiences with the students about working in this field.

On several occasions the students have been exposed to very creative people who have spoken about entrepreneurship, creativity, imagination and self-motivation as a tool for a future career. We have also visited many firms or companies that have originated from a very creative idea and these people have explained their pathways to success to our students. This showed the many routes that can lead to your goals. E.g. Ikea, Microsoft, Kedrion, Ponsse, Sputnik.
All schools have established close collaboration with training centres, firms and entrepreneurs in their regions. This helps students to understand what they want to do in their future while they are still at school and therefore increases their self-confidence and motivation about their own futures.

The results from the project are available in a number of online platforms such as: SYCAS website, E – twinning and individual school websites. In addition to this, facebook, twitter and online newspapers were also used by some schools. Online radio interviews also took place.

Although the original idea was to create a booklet with detailed results of the project, after some discussion, we decided to change this to a website. We felt that it would be more sustainable for the future and relevant to the students`everyday lives.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 198110 Eur

Project Coordinator

Giebichenstein-Gymnasium “Thomas Müntzer” & Country: DE

Project Partners

• Zespol Szkol nr 5 im. Karola Brzostowskiego
• 14o Gymnasio Athinas
• Iisalmen lyseo ja aikuislukio
• I.S.I. Istituto Superiore D’Istruzione Barga
• Coláiste Pobail Setanta