Let’s think about our future working life Erasmus Project

Project Title

Let’s think about our future working life

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 2018

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Cooperation between educational institutions and business; Early School Leaving / combating failure in education; Key Competences (incl. mathematics and literacy) – basic skills

Project Summary

In 2018, considering the situation of economic crisis and unemployability afecting students leaving the educational system with poor academic level, we decided to design a project that could help our students reflect on the importance of continuing with their training and education, a project that could help our students to consider the different possibilities they may have after finishing the compulsory education. And this was the beginning of the present Erasmus+ KA229 project.
We have contributed to the promotion and acquisition of skills and competences of participants, to support schools to tackle early school leaving and disadvantage, and to strengthen the profile of teachers. All participants have been able to improve their communicative skills using the English language; this project has been addressed to all kind of students in general, and to the students facing different difficulties in particular. Taking part in this Erasmus+ project has provided important recognition for teachers and an incredible opportunity to learn from teachers in other countries. We have also gone through all the proposed focuses, that were: the specific promotion of knowledge the pupils need for their later work life; the awareness of different ways to solve problems; the development of social competences, self-confidence and initiative; the promotion of their willingness for lifelong learning; to be enabled and prepared to overcome the challenges of the labour market; the development of basic competences.
Our project has represented and important element for the cohesion of schools. Students know more about the characteristics of a project like this; they know the difficulties and value the effort done by teachers. The participating students and their families value the opportunities offered and are thankful for having taken part. The project has also strengthened the relationship between schools and families. The four schools already had a close connection with different local entities; but, with the project, this relationship is now even better and stronger. We have new bonds with more local companies, and we have included some workshops and meetings in our curriculums. For the teachers, it has been really significant the relationship with colleagues from other countries. It has been an interesting way of learning how things are done in other European schools and working together for a project that has broadened students’ horizones.
The most significant difficulty was the Covid-19 crisis. The transnational activity in Romania happened on the first week March 2020. All the activities under this mobility were carried out as designed. But everything changed when it finished; schools were closed all around Europe and students were sent home. The transnational activity in Spain,
planned for May 2020 could not be developed. We asked for an extension of the project, thinking that we could finally develop it sometime during the school year 2020/2021.
But it wasn’t possible, and we had to organize a virtual mobility in May 2021, adapting the activities to this new environment.
For the dissemination of results, we have used different means: The project web page; articles and interviews published in the different local press , televisions and radios;
meetings and seminars with students and colleagues from other schools; the project newspaper and ebook. We also used different social networks, like Facebook and Instagram, where different videos, posters, and pictures were published. Wee also used the eTwinning platform, so that participants could keep in contact and publish the activities done at a local level.
About the impact on students, all the students increased their motivation towards their own academic life: they were strongly motivated to participate and they developed competential and significant learnings; they increased their communication skills using the English language; they also increased their respect and interest towards the cultural differences in Europe; they went out from their comfort zone; some of them showed an increasing interest towards developing or complementing their studies in different
countries of the European Union; improvement of their own self-image, since they were able to look for information, analyze it, make proposals, come to agreements and solve problems.
Regarding the impact on teachers, this European project has helped our schools strengthen our teams, since we had to work together to organize the different activities in the project; the participating teachers could practice and improve their communicative competence in English; for the teachers, it also represented going out of our comfort zone,
since we faced new challenges and gave them different solutions; it has given us the possibility of establishing strong connections with other European schools and colleagues, what will give us the possibility of developing new European projects.

Project Website

http://sites.google.com/view/ourfutureworkinglife

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 77654,24 Eur

Project Coordinator

Colegio Divina Pastora & Country: ES

Project Partners

• STAICELES pamatskola
• Uulu Põhikool
• Colegiul National “Costache Negruzzi”