Mind the gap. Improving the transition between school education and employment. Erasmus Project

Project Title

Mind the gap. Improving the transition between school education and employment.

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 2016

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Entrepreneurial learning – entrepreneurship education; Labour market issues incl. career guidance / youth unemployment; Quality Improvement Institutions and/or methods (incl. school development)

Project Summary

Two of the priorities of the New European Commission are: to deepen the internal market and to ensure that employment rates are increasing: ‘Creating a European market where entrepreneurs can innovate and expand; new business models and services can flourish; and retailers find it easy to establish’ (source: http://ec.europa.eu/)At the same time our schools, due to the contacts with the working field we have, realised that the gap between what students learn in the educational field, and the skills they need in order to be successful on the European job market is still wide. We investigated this thesis further by discussing this with people from the work field and by interviewing ex-students who have recently made their first steps in companies. This inspired us to work together in an international project, with the main and fundamental OBJECTIVE to narrow this gap and thus contribute to strengthening the cooperation between the world of education and the world of work.Our specific objectives are:1. To let students and teachers find out which skills young employees are missing in order to be successful in an internationally oriented workfield, via an on site research in companies.2. To learn in an innovative way, mostly outside the classroom and in companies which are relevant for the different topics during learning/teaching/training activities. We call this ‘Interactive 21 century learning’. 3. To prepare effective lesson and workshop plans focusing on those essential skills and competences and which can easily be accessed and implemented in the school practice all over Europe.In order to achieve these objectives, 4 schools from quite different contexts in Europe cooperate, each contributing with specific strengths and experiences. The project will focus on 4 subtopics (areas of skills) which will be worked sequentially: 1. Foreign languages and communication skills; 2. European Entrepreneurship skills; 3. Leadership skills; 4. Skills for working abroad and/or in international companies.Each of these will stand in the centre of a learning/teaching/training activity with students and will be organised by the school who has gained expertise within this subtopic. The subtopics have been chosen as they are linked to the EU commission’s priorities, allow a multi-disciplinary approach and are strongly connected to our schools’ curricula. The METHODOLOGY of this project is what we call “Interactive 21st century learning”, which aims to make the students the owners of their learning process by giving them the opportunity to learn together, in international groups, ‘on site’: outside the schools and in this case inside the companies, and find the answers to the research questions which they prepared together, within the frame of the subtopics of the project.The European commission says on its website about the top priorities: ‘This investment should be targeted towards education, research and innovation ‘. This will be the centre of our approach. It will be developed in 3 steps and includes the following ACTIVITIES:Step 1- Education: Before each l/t/t activity, students in their own country prepare themselves to become more conscious about the modern day jobs by formulating questions and doing preliminary interviews in local companies. Documented in a multimedia presentation, they will be shared with students and teachers from the other schools during the first day of the l/t/t activity.Step 2- Research: After this, the students combine their findings and, in mixed groups of six, decide on common research questions which they will research in the companies in the host country.Step 3- Innovation: Students will record their experiences in a vlog and report their findings in a presentation, which will be documented on WordPress. On the basis of the students’ research, the teachers will prepare lesson/workshop plans which suggest creative and useful ways to include the acquisition of these skills into the schools’ teaching. They will use the transnational teachers’ meetings in order complete this task. All results will be published and made accessible via WordPress.Over two years, 100 students and their teachers from different countries will be actively involved in this project and cooperate with their partners; virtually and during the l/t/t activities, conducting comparative research and practice related to the 4 subtopics. This methodology will produce results and impact not only among the directly involved students and teachers, but also on the participating schools and companies. Furthermore, they will be spread widely, following a multifaceted dissemination plan which, besides the more traditional tools, includes innovative ones like, for example, a chain letter. The progress and the quality of the results will be evaluated progressively, making use of qualitative and quantitative indicators, so the necessary adaptations can be made In order to guarantee the success of the project.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 128680 Eur

Project Coordinator

Sundsvalls gymnasium Hedbergska & Country: SE

Project Partners

• Seminário Liceal de Penafirme – Externato de Penafirme
• Gimnaziya s prepodavane na chuzhdi ezici “Romen Rolan”
• Bisschoppelijk college Broekhin Roermond