CAREER PLANNING FOR TEENAGERS Erasmus Project

Project Title

CAREER PLANNING FOR TEENAGERS

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: Entrepreneurial learning – entrepreneurship education; ICT – new technologies – digital competences; Labour market issues incl. career guidance / youth unemployment

Project Summary

Context
In the context of today’s alarmingly high unemployment rated, partly resulting from the difficulty of graduates to find workplaces in accordance with their interests, abilities, skills or personality traits, this project aimed to cater for needs of young European citizens in secondary schools to find a suitable career path and make the right career choices in full self-awareness and having access to information regarding the general economic environment of the European labor market.
The project also targeted the development of students’ entrepreneurial skills and offers them opportunities to connect to universities, local/regional/European institutions or private companies with the same scope.
The project planed to develop students’ adaptability to the European labor market, who analyzed their own marketability, increase their flexibility and align to the concept of lifelong learning and flexible career options.

Objectives
Students did:
1. develop communication, interpersonal, planning and problem-solving, ICT, investigation and data manipulation skills;;
2. use various tools increasing their employability and create strategies to apply in meetings and interviews;
3. identify gaps and business opportunities in the European market and develop entrepreneurial initiative;
4. align themselves to the provisions of international business etiquette;
5. develop joint business plans that will promote transnational cooperation;
6. use a wide range of ICT tools.
Other project-related objectives refer to the promotion of the rights and the values that come with the European Citizenship and to providing the opportunity for students to acquire knowledge and a deeper understanding of the cultural and linguistic diversity characteristic of the European community.

Number and profile of participants:
Our project allowed students from 4 schools from 4 different European Countries to come together to establish linguistic and intercultural understanding. There were 4 project meeting with the participation of 60 teachers and 64 pupils+16 teachers mobility with PUPILS EXCHANGE. More than 1200 beneficiaries were impacted at the end.
The project aimed to involve students coming from socially and financially challenged backgrounds in equal proportion with students coming from average-income families. Also, there was a number of 8 SEN students directly involved and numerous others who indirectly benefited from the partnership

Methodology:
PREPARATION – Project teams were created / Erasmus+ corners were prepared / Digital monitor were placed / Posters and brochures were designed / Students contacted each other / Project was presented to beneficiaries / Conferences for stakeholders / Applying initial questionnaire and evaluation form
IMPLEMENTATION – description of activities:
Transnational meetings – only for teachers – to plan the project schedule in detail, to prepare and assess activities and to apply the evaluation tools and offer feedback on the project. The teachers who have the duties for intellectual output also discuss their working plan and implementation according to the frame established in the application form.
– 4 planned coordinator meetings:
M1 – at the beginning of Year 1 (to plan the activities for the first year);
M2 – at the end of Year 1 (to evaluate the project activities and their impact);
M3 – at the beginning of Year 2 (to plan the activities for the second year);
M4 – at the end of Year 2 (to evaluate the project activities and their impact, to write the final report).
– 2 student exchanges:
C1 – Romania (Year 1)
C2 – Slovakia (Year 2)
FOLLOW-UP
The project was evaluated at the start, during and at the end of the project using various specific tools – questionnaires, feedback forms, observation, surveys etc. and were disseminated at the local, regional, national and international level in the mass-media, on the internet and during offline encounters with representatives of local communities.

Impact
Young people developed the basic life-skills and competencies such as teamwork, adaptability and entrepreneurship necessary for their personal and social development, for their future and for becoming active European citizens. The exchange of good practices enabled students and teachers to develop learning/teaching strategies. The schools became visible in their communities and set examples for other schools to follow. The project activities were embedded in each school’s curriculum through the teaching of entrepreneurial education, career counselling and foreign languages.

Long-term benefits
Students improved their career prospects and made adequate choices in full self-awareness. They were able to identify gaps in the local economy to develop new businesses and projects which leaded to the social and economic development of their communities. They became more responisble European citizens embracing values such as tolerance, respect, solidarity.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 169810 Eur

Project Coordinator

SAIR ABAY KONANBAY ANADOLU LISESI & Country: TR

Project Partners

• Spojena skola
• INSTITUTO POLITECNICO DE SANTAREM
• Colegiul National “Vasile Alecsandri”, Bacau