I-STEP Erasmus Project

Project Title

I-STEP

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 vocational education and training

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2016

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Entrepreneurial learning – entrepreneurship education; EU Citizenship, EU awareness and Democracy; Enterprise, industry and SMEs (incl. entrepreneurship)

Project Summary

In recent years, VET colleges have shown impressive progress in developing entrepreneurship programmes in their schools. The quality of these programmes is increasing. More and more entrepreneurship programmes are involving competence based learning and are aimed at active learning. Furthermore, many of the VET-institutions in Europe are aware of the importance of internationalisation and have developed approaches to incorporate international activities into their training and organisations. Internationalisation is a crucial response to the demands to develop graduates who possess adequate skills, knowledge and attributes to engage and perform in a globalised and intercultural world. Even though many colleges, besides entrepreneurial behaviour, also promote international experiences for their students, the connection between entrepreneurship and internationalisation is rarely made in VET. In short, existing entrepreneurship programmes in VET have no clear and high quality international dimension. The I-STEP project is initiated to address this issue and combines entrepreneurship and internationalisation by giving entrepreneurship students the opportunity to work with foreign students and explore possibilities for internationalisation. Therefore the main objective of the I-STEP project is to enhance international entrepreneurial skills, attitudes and mind-sets of teachers and students in VET by 1) creating an international dimension to the entrepreneurship programmes already in place and 2) strengthening the local and European (industry) network of VET schools. The I-STEP consortium consists of a variety of organisations with experience in entrepreneurship and internationalisation support including 2 VET schools, 2 HE institutes and 3 business representatives. These organisations form a strong consortium as it involves both education and business which allows knowledge, experience and expertise from both perspectives. During the 2 years of the I-STEP project we have undertaken the following activities:
Intellectual Outputs
In total there have been developed 4 final Intellectual Outputs which are:
– I-STEP Teacher Manual that guides VET teachers and trainers to get started with implementing International Entrepreneurship in VET
– International Student Entrepreneurs Programme which is a training programme for VET students that highlights all aspects that are important in doing business internationally
– International Entrepreneurship Platform & Community where all I-STEP materials can be downloaded for free and includes a communication and file share area for everyone interested in the subject to chat together and set up international cooperation and projects
– I-STEP quality label which is an online tool (self-assessment) that helps schools to assess their performance related to international entrepreneurship activities. If a certain score is achieved, the I-STEP quality label certificate will be released.
The I-STEP project has used a clear, complete and logical work programme to achieve the final results of the project and can be divided into the following 3 phases: Strategy, Development and Implementation. This is expressed in the approach to the development of the Intellectual Outputs as the phases contain activities for preparation, research, development, alpha testing, implementation, beta testing and dissemination.
Learning/Teaching/Training activity – Blended mobility of VET learners (C1)
4 students and 1 accompanying teacher from LT, NL, UK and IE gathered in Birmingham for the I-STEP training week. The students formed mixed groups of different nationalities and under the guidance of the teachers they worked on the development of a new international business idea.
Final Multiplier Event in Kaunas and national Multiplier Events
KSPMC organised the I-STEP final conference in Kaunas. Besides the final conference in Lithuania, all other partners organised a Multiplier Event by the end of the project to share and disseminate the final results of IO1, IO2, IO3 and IO4 amongst the stakeholders.
I-STEP realised a major impact on the planning and development of the educational programmes and curriculum of the partner schools in the project as they have serious plans to (partly) implement the I-STEP materials in their curriculum (or are already doing so!). Mind-sets have been changed and networks expanded of all organisations and individuals that have been involved in the project. This has strongly enhanced the international entrepreneurial skills, attitudes and mind-sets of teachers and students in VET, improving transversal competences such as curiosity, flexibility, adaptability, resilience and teamwork but also competences related to internationalisation such as English language and intercultural cooperation. The I-STEP project serves as a strong and great example and will encourage other schools and organisations in the region to increase internationalisation in entrepreneurship education in VET.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 272702 Eur

Project Coordinator

Kauno statybos ir paslaugu mokymo centras & Country: LT

Project Partners

• BRIDGING TO THE FUTURE LTD
• LETTERKENNY INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
• STICHTING BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT FRIESLAND
• MOMENTUM MARKETING SERVICES LIMITED
• ROC Noorderpoort
• VILNIAUS GEDIMINO TECHNIKOS UNIVERSITETAS