(Attr)active Schools Erasmus Project

Project Title

(Attr)active Schools

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 2015

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Early School Leaving / combating failure in education; Health and wellbeing; Quality Improvement Institutions and/or methods (incl. school development)

Project Summary

The project was realized by four vocational colleges, namely Berufskolleg Kaufmannsschule der Stadt Krefeld, Berufskolleg Rheydt-Mülfort für Wirtschaft und Verwaltung (both Germany), Tekirdag Mesleki ve Teknik Anadolu Lisesi (Turkey) and IES Universidad Laboral in Albacete (Spain). It approached the problem of high numbers of young unemployed people, whose unemployment is often not just caused by difficult economic circumstances in their home countries but also by their lack of qualifications which in turn makes it harder for them to acquire a high-level job or training. A school’s task in this context should be to reach those young people who are considering to drop out of school without a school degree because of frustration or lack of motivation. For this end, the project pursued a highly individualized approach and aimed specifically at meeting the requirements of this target group, with the leading question: What does school have to be like in order to be attractive for students? Consequently, the students of the project schools were asked to express their wishes and requirements for a motivating school. These wishes and requirements were internally evaluated and examined as to their realisation by interested students.

Moreover, the project maintained that measures going beyond classic teaching and lesson organization but also activating students, or health-boosting activities, would also be part of a solution to the problem of students dropping out. These should also be suitable to make schools a place where the students’ needs for education are addressed in a positive way. As a result, in the project measures such as so-called active breaks during a lesson or learning possibilities in self-learning centres were examined.

Also the exchange of ideas and experiences between the students of the different project schools provided inspiration for improvements of each school: during visits to the project schools they learned about the specific local cultural, structural and social preconditions and examined the peculiarities of the partner school as to their applicability at their own school.

For the execution of the project measures in the academic years 2015/16 and 2016/17, in each school around 30 students participated and examined possible improvement measures. Ultimately, a total number of 4000 students in the four schools will profit in one way or another from the improvement measures. In particular, those students who are considering dropping out of school should get a motivation boost. At the end of the project, each school had introduced various extra measures addressing the individual requirements of these students.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 88770 Eur

Project Coordinator

Berufskolleg Kaufmannsschule der Stadt Krefeld & Country: DE

Project Partners

• IES UNIVERSIDAD LABORAL
• Berufskolleg Rheydt-Mülfort für Wirtschaft und Verwaltung
• Tekirdag Mesleki ve Teknik Anadolu Lisesi