CALL TO SKILLS! – CALL TO action for developing pupils’ Key and soft SKILLS Erasmus Project

Project Title

CALL TO SKILLS! – CALL TO action for developing pupils’ Key and soft SKILLS

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 2020

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Early School Leaving / combating failure in education; Enterprise, industry and SMEs (incl. entrepreneurship); EU Citizenship, EU awareness and Democracy

Project Summary

“CALL TO SKILLS! – CALL TO action for developing pupils’ Key and soft SKILLS” foresees the development of learning activities among pupils from different nationalities throughout a period of 24 months, from October 2020 to October 2022, aimed at enhancing important key skills which school curricular programmes are not always able to cover and develop despite the trends coming from the European labor markets. Professional trends are in great demand for individuals equipped with social and cognitive skills, such as critical thinking, creativity, entrepreneurial spirit, etc. in order to be able to adapt to uncertainty and develop resilience. Studies (conducted on the first supply of network connections and job opportunities, LinkedIn) have shown that, in 2019, hiring managers and employers valued skills like being creative and collaborative over technical abilities, such as computing or knowledge of artificial intelligence technology. Aware of such demands and conscious of the learning needs of their own students, the schools forming the Strategic Partnership come from different Countries: the Agrupamento de Escolas de Ourique from Portugal, as Leading Coordinator; the Scientific High School “B. Rescigno” from Italy; Cranford Community College from United Kingdom; Zespol Szkol w Wągrowcu from Poland. They decided to get together to integrate their different expertise and promote support actions targeting pupils’ self-development and lifelong success.
The European Pillar of Social Rights states that “Everyone has the right to quality and inclusive education, training and lifelong learning in order to maintain and acquire skills that allow full participation in society and successful transitions in the labour market” and then declares “People need the right set of skills and competences to sustain current standards of living, support high rates of employment and foster social cohesion in the light of tomorrow’s society and world of work […] for personal fulfillment, health, employability and social inclusion” (COUNCIL RECOMMENDATION of 22 May 2018 on key competences for lifelong learning – 2018/C 189/01).
The project “CALL TO SKILLS!” was inspired by such principles and, in a time of rapid and profound changes, it aims at strengthening the resilience of 84 young learners (aged 15-16) of different nationalities through training activities developed in transnational mode, hosted in turns by each of the partner school engaged in this Strategic Partnership (7 pupils will be selected by each school for each LTTA to be developed in mobility mode; if hosting, the schools will still involve 7 local students so that actual number of pupils involved will increase to 112); the activities will be organized during 4 international exchanges lasting 5 days, plus 2 days destined to travel arrangements from and to the Hosting Countries: Portugal, Italy, Poland and United Kingdom. The groups of students will be accompanied by 2 teachers from each school (for a total of 6 educators representing the school staff). Participants will be guided towards the creation of concrete outputs, an App “KEY to EUr SKILLS!” where students will describe the skills acquired in the project activities and will propose lifelong learning approaches to keep empowering such skills, even after the end of their school years and in adult life. The project objectives are:
-to enhance pupils’ key competences and soft skills so as to mold their profiles according to the demands coming from the labor market through personalized transnational training activities;
-to sensitize educational stakeholders and schools towards a more conscious perception of the game played by the acquisition and empowerment of key and soft skills in the individual process of integration within society and the labor market;
-to speed the internationalization process of the partner schools involved by empowering its staff’s language/digital skills throughout the project lifespan as well as by enriching their curriculum with an additional management experience in the framework of the Erasmus+ Programme; to allow the educators involved in the management and accompanying teachers to develop sustainable planning and organizational competences and establish long term cross-border cooperation opportunities.
The project will produce positive impacts:
-students will acquire key competence and soft skills that will lead them along their self-development as professionals and individuals;
-teachers will integrate the didactic methodologies and self-assessment tools used during the LTTAs in their teaching routine;
-new didactic activities, transnational projects and virtual exchanges will stem from the cooperation among the partner schools to enhance the quality of teaching key skills.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 114672 Eur

Project Coordinator

Agrupamento Vertical de Ourique & Country: PT

Project Partners

• Liceo Scientifico “B. Rescigno”
• Zespol Szkol nr 2 im. pplk. dr Stanislawa Kulinskiego w Wagrowcu
• Cranford Community College