Inspiring studies and future careers Erasmus Project

Project Title

Inspiring studies and future careers

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); Early School Leaving / combating failure in education; Overcoming skills mismatches (basic/transversal)

Project Summary

The project Inspiring Studies and Future Careers grew out of the recognition that for many pupils the border between school and outside-of-school-life exists very clearly. Youngsters do not understand why they need everything they have to learn. This leads to losing motivation and early school leaving. We believe that motivation is the key factor and it can be achieved through inspiring studies and improving the attainment of young people. Upgrading skills for employability helps to fight poverty and social exclusion. Young people should be entrepreneurial and able to adapt to the changes in the labour market.

With the help of this project we wanted our pupils to think and learn more about how knowledge and skills learned at school can help them in life. Five partner schools worked together: the coordinator Kääpa Kool (Estonia), Vaalan Yhtenäiskoulu (Finland), Friedrich-Spee-Gesamtschule Paderborn (Germany), Osnovna Skola Zaprudje (Croatia) and IES Sabina Mora (Spain).

The project activities were both international and local including three short-term learning activities, five transnational meetings and tens of local in- and out-of-school events in every country (web page: ka2inspiringstudies.wixsite.com/erasmus and Padlet: padlet.com/mpuskaric/ErasmusNews)

The project supported an innovative approach to teaching and learning process throughout comparison of educational realities in partner countries. Besides regular lessons non-formal and informal learning are effective instruments for making learning attractive.
Cooperation with different institutions, non-governmental organizations as well as companies has been established in every country. We have prepared lots of special events like Career Days, Science Night, robotics exhibitions and workshops, Code Week, Safer Internet Day, performances in the Technical Museum Nikola Tesla about him as well as about other famous persons from our partner countries. We have organized visits to secondary schools and companies, museums, science centres, universities etc to inform our students of different possibilities on their educational ladder. We had job shadowing days, practical training in companies at home and abroad, STEM workshops and days, fairs (selling self-made goods and products from partner countries), school Olympic Games and other events where pupils got practical entrepreneurial experiences. They helped to organise activities being responsible for the results and taking leadership. School teams worked together to create activities for connecting school subjects with work life. As a result pupils have improved their ability to take initiative, think critically, solve problems and work collaboratively.

To promote diversity as a cultural wealth of Europe we celebrations – European Day of Languages, school exhibitions – “Strolling Through Europe”, National Costume Design Workshop, creation of digital Christmas cards, lessons guided by pupils about partner countries, celebrations of national holidays with songs and dances from partner countries etc.
The overall impact of the project on partner schools was very positive and it has longer-term benefits. Most objectives were achieved but there is still a lot to do in this field. The project was focused on inspiring young people in their studies and motivate them to think about their future careers. All partner schools consider the promotion of entrepreneurship and improving the co-operation between education and work life important. We pursue that all our pupils are motivated to finish school and to go on studying to get a job. Teachers have become more confident about using ICT and improved their teaching skills of key competencies. They know more about diversity and inclusion and how to meet the needs of disadvantaged learners but also the gifted ones.

In schools the skills are taught in a wider variety of in-school and outside-of-school settings. Both teachers and pupils have improved their foreign language and cooperation skills as well as understanding of other nations and cultures in Europe. The pupil – centred pedagogical approaches are sustainable and enrich the school life of partner schools after the end of the project. As a result of the project there will be KA1 job shadowing projects e.g. GER will send a teacher to FIN to learn more about the use of tablets and ESP will send a teacher to GER to learn more about technology lessons. Every school has learned something from partners. We go on with career days, job shadowing, STEM days and workshops, secondary schools and company visits. Our intention is to implement successful models we saw in the partner countries into our own school and educational system.
Connections between partner school are strong – our new three-year strategic partnership with the same partners and one more from Hungary is approved by the EU and we are continuing our cooperation. One project can not change the world but long-term partnerships are a way to improvement.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 119430 Eur

Project Coordinator

Kääpa Põhikool & Country: EE

Project Partners

• IES SABINA MORA
• Vaalan yhtenäiskoulu
• Friedrich-Spee-Gesamtschule Paderborn
• Osnovna skola Zaprudje