Enterprising & Fun: Enjoying the creation of socially responsible companies with European friends. Erasmus Project

Project Title

Enterprising & Fun: Enjoying the creation of socially responsible companies with European friends.

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: Teaching and learning of foreign languages; Inclusion – equity; Entrepreneurial learning – entrepreneurship education

Project Summary

Enterprising & Fun: Enjoying the creation of socially responsible companies with European friends.

The “Enterprising & Fun” educational project achieved that 9 teamworks designed 9 socially responsible business projects with a comprehensive feasibility plan. Overall, 40 students have participated in the project, 20 were Spanish and 20 were Swedish. Generally the teams consisted of two Spanish students and two Swedish students. All companies were designed in order to fit into the economic contexts of Mataró (Spain) or Karlskrona (Sweden). The working languages ​​of the groups have been English and Spanish, which is the second foreign language of the Swedish students in the project. The teams worked through online documents in the cloud and physically met during 7 days of the working meeting in Mataro (meetings with entrepreneurs, businessmen, NGOs and local politicians) and during the 10 days of the working meeting in Karlskrona (the same kind of meetings with local entrepreneurs, businessmen, NGOs and politicians). The 40 students narrated in real time through social networks what an Erasmus + project is, what they are learning and what their experiences are. To do this they used the #ErasmusPlus and #EnterprisingandFun hashtags.

Context:

Miquel Biada School is an educative centre with experience managing inequality and diversity. The institution is located in a humble working class suburb of Mataro with very high rates of unemployment and immigrant population. The institute Af Chapman has been the perfect partner for this project. The Swedish centre, like Miquel Biada, is very sensitive to equity, inclusion and diversity and its faculty is very active in new technologies.

Goals:

-Creating a project focused on equity, inclusion and on the preservation of the diversity of our students.
-Learning the importance of smart, sustainable and inclusive growth (“Europe 2020” strategy).
-Learning The importance of the 17 goals for the sustainable development set by the United Nations.
-Learning to create a business in a foreign economic environment.
-Improving dramatically students’ level of foreign languages.
-Mastering 3.0. digital skills (editing online documents in the cloud simultaneously from different countries and using video-conferences among the group members as a coordination tool)
-Helping students learn about other European cultures so they can get rid of of xenophobia, racism and radicalism.

Number and type of organisations involved:

20 different organisations have been involved in the educative project Enterprising & Fun. Mainly they are the two secondary education schools that promoted the project -Miquel Biada in Spain and Af Chapman in Sweden-, city councils, universities, NGOs, entrepreneurs, business owners, cooperatives, social companies and several media organisations.

Activities:

-Classes of the course “Business Economics”, where the guidelines, tools and phases to design companies were taught.
-Online developing of the project monitored by the tutor.
-Working meetings and fieldwork in Mataro and Karlskrona, respectively (city mayor’s welcome-debate, talks and debates with entrepreneurs, businessmen, representatives of cooperatives and local NGOs managers).
-Attending the media in the high schools as well as in the radio studio of Mataró Ràdio.
-Public event of projects presentation in Mataró and formal awarding of the Youthpass certificates achieved by our students.

Results and impact achieved:

-Promotion of the social cohesion and integration of the participating students.
-Improving dramatically students’ level of foreign languages (specially English).
-Developing to the maximum the digital competences.
-Learning to work in multinational team works.
-Learning to design companies in foreign business contexts.
-Creation of a teaching guide translated into English, Spanish, Swedish and Catalan with the instructions needed so any educative institution may implement this educative project among its activities).
-Creation of a web site that hosts the teaching guide as well as all the teaching material needed (URL: enterprising.fun).

Long-term benefits achieved:

-Training the new generation of Europe’s business entrepreneurs.
-Disseminating and understanding the vital need for companies with social values
-Contributing decisively in the fight against unemployment.
-Promote students’ European feeling of belongingness and opening their personal and professional horizons; “changing the lives and changing the minds” of this generation of Europeans so they can construct a more efficient, more sustainable, fairer and more equitable Europe.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 31630 Eur

Project Coordinator

Institut Miquel Biada & Country: ES

Project Partners

• afChapmangymnasiet