Past and present in Our Professions Erasmus Project

Project Title

Past and present in Our Professions

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 : School Exchange Partnerships

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2019

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: EU Citizenship, EU awareness and Democracy; Civic engagement / responsible citizenship; Environment and climate change

Project Summary

This project is the result of an exchange between several institutions on eTwinning, whose theme is “My job yesterday and today” or “POP” “Past and present in Our Professions”. This exchange allowed us to become aware of the similar profile of our French and Czech students : boys of the same age group, in industrial vocational training, dropouts, low motivation, low self-esteem and suffering from a lack of self-confidence, often from disadvantaged social backgrounds, with little mobility and with academic difficulties. These students do not see the interest of the training because they do not make the connection between the various lessons provided. The 20 students of the group “industrial maintenance” of Paul Guérin vocational high school are motivated by the eTwinning project and the idea of ​​meeting European partners. We therefore considered going further with a real meeting with a group of 20 students from a vocational high school in Kutna Hora and a project on the longer term (the time of their studies in high school) and multidisciplinary.
We have extended the theme to an issue of sustainable development and European citizenship : industrial waste treatment in their professions.
The planned activities will take place both in a virtual way, through the eTwinning platform and forums for discussion and exchange but also, more concretely, by real meetings in both countries, spread over both years and culminating in a meeting in Strasbourg.
As a first step, this project will lead to the production of a digital booklet including the statistical result of a survey carried out in the establishments and in the partner companies on the future of the generated industrial waste. It will also include videos showing the progression of different types of waste, slideshows presenting their various professions, but also videos and photos recalling the different meetings that will have occured for the two years. This digital booklet will be made available to each student and partner of the institutions concerned. This booklet will also be given to MEPs on the occasion of a joint visit to the European Parliament in Strasbourg.
In a second step, each establishment will apply the rule of three Rs (Reduce, Reuse and Recycle) and implement a way to reduce waste : high school Paul Guérin will create a “repair cafe”, which will repair defective objects in order to continue using them and Kutna Hora High School will make small toys with scraps or other materials for sick children in a hospital. These two concrete achievements are longer term and can be part of the high school identity card and contribute to its influence. They also bring a solidarity and intergenerational dimension to the project.
The expected benefits for all participants are numerous.
For businesses, an awareness of the problem and closer collaboration with schools.
For schools, a clearer legibility of their civic commitment in the context of sustainable development, and a local and regional influence. In addition, the industrial maintenance section of the school will be enhanced by the creation of the coffee repair.
For teachers, the discovery of new teaching practices, the constructive exchange with foreign colleagues on their students and their job, collaborative work.
For the students, the benefits will be numerous : better self-esteem and better confidence in their potential, development of basic skills (read, write, structure a story, communicate in French, English, use of digital and computer tools, use of maths tools), meaning given to their training and to the interactions between the different subjects, a civic and European conscience, and the awareness of the issues of sustainable development, and also, fostering teamwork and collaboration by overcoming communication difficulties related to language and cultural differences, opening up to different horizons allowing them to better integrate into a globalized society.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 64820 Eur

Project Coordinator

Lycée Paul Guérin & Country: FR

Project Partners

• Stredni odborna skola a stredni odborne uciliste remesel, Kutna Hora, Caslavska 202