Entrepreneurship Education and European Exchange Erasmus Project

Project Title

Entrepreneurship Education and European Exchange

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 vocational education and training

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2015

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Creativity and culture; Entrepreneurial learning – entrepreneurship education; International cooperation, international relations, development cooperation

Project Summary

This project addressed the current European concern that our VET courses do not currently fulfil their need to be labour-market orientated. As the world changes rapidly, students’ future professions are as yet undefined and likely created between sectors, we sought to modernise our systems to allow us to share, combine and transfer new skills (both old and new). It is also essential that our future professionals are capable of working collaboratively across multiple creative diciplines and have life-long learning skills. We investigated the labour market to identify and address each partner’s needs, in order to become more entrepreneurial in our wider approach to VET, ensuring that our learning institutions developed a culture of entrepreneurship and innovation within their curriculum delivery.

We set the following objectives for the project:
TSC
To inform international policy reform in the College and continue to build strategic relationships with local business market
Inform direction of the VET learning curriculum for the preservation of VET in FE and to increase number of students with international work experience
Inform the writing of a new HNC and HND course within the department to include business and enterprise learning
IKATA
Implement new curriculum that allows the student to benefit from working cross-departmentally to modernise learning and anticipate the changes of the labour market
Continue to grow international mobilities and self-confidence in using English for both students and staff
ISA
Develop English language speaking skills to fulfil job interview needs of students (all students must undergo many job interviews in English) and the teaching capabilities of staff, growing self-confidence in using English for both students and staff.
Implement a Europass recognition system in to the school.
On a whole, we wished to prepare students for the needs of future working life by:
Improving their linguistic, cultural, social, communication, co-operation and entrepreneurial skills and encouraging their sense of initiative and self-confidence
Making visible all possible employment and higher education options across Europe
Encouraging all to work across disciplines, combining and adapting skills in a new way to produce innovative and creative work.

The project beneffited 78 students/staff directly and 434 indirectly and was available for applications from students studying or staff teaching across level 3 courses in Applied Arts, Graphic Design, Jewellery, Fashion & Textile Design and 3D Product Design. We also made provision to support any students with social obstacles, cultural differences and educational difficulties.

The activities we undertook consisted of;
• 3 Blended mobility of VET learners
• 1 Short-term joint staff training
• ‘Survival phrases’ on Social Media Platforms
• Social Media collaboration via Facebook
• ISA staff teaching in CLIL
• Student post-mobility PowerPoint presentations
• Project exhibition and dissemination events
During the project strong partnerships were formed within our international team. We increased the progression opportunities available to students and staff and enriched curriculum delivery, maximising curricula content by introducing entrepreneurship education though live briefs providing employability opportunities and instill an entrepreneurial approach to their work. Staff are able to consolidate and confidently introduce effective entrepreneurial learning methodologies in the classroom.
Results and impact attained
Our outcomes included;
• Provided high quality staff professional development for implementation/ adaptation of the TOY entrepreneurship education model.
• Accumulated evaluative presentations of the project for dissemination and future reference.
• Provided each participant with a Europass mobility document.
• Populated a Facebook page full of project content (activity and post feed of written learning threads, photo’s, video’s, links to resources, etc.)
• Exhibited the outcomes of each workshop and disseminated our findings to teaching, staff, learners and stakeholders.
• Developed a project website
• Improved linguistic, cultural and social skills, digital competence, professional vocabulary and confidence in using conversational English.
• Implemented live projects and provided work experience to learners.
In the long term, all organisations will become a more attractive place to study VET, reflected by the higher grades and successes achieved by the course students and in some cases, the development of courses and curricula content. We will expand and evolve the capabilities of students, staff and their organisations to compete in an ever changing, innovative and dynamic labour market.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 71300 Eur

Project Coordinator

THE SHEFFIELD COLLEGE & Country: UK

Project Partners

• Sastamalan koulutuskuntayhtymä
• Liceo Artistico statale di Porta Romana e Sesto Fiorentino