Models of Entrepreneurship and volunteering Erasmus Project

Project Title

Models of Entrepreneurship and volunteering

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: Enterprise, industry and SMEs (incl. entrepreneurship); Entrepreneurial learning – entrepreneurship education; Labour market issues incl. career guidance / youth unemployment

Project Summary

In the current project 5 different schools from 5 countries participated. Solski Center Slovenj Gradec, EK Kavalas (School Workshops Centre) in Greece, The Comprehensive School “Don Milani” in Italy, EYÜP İMKB MESLEKİ VE TEKNİK ANADOLU LİSESİ in Turkey, Puka Secondary School in Estonia. The goal of the project was improving students’ skills of entrepreneurship through practical activities. This involves yet again the improving of related skills such as knowledge in English and IT related know-how which in turn opens up more possibilities for presentation and teamwork that help practicing the financial abilities.
The goal was to create an educational film “The Market of Entrepreneurship” with all the five schools working together. During the first meeting we agreed on criteria we had to follow and every school came up with their own business ideas. After that the best ideas were chosen while we took students’ age differences in consideration. After that we held a large project meeting while consulting with the specialists. The film was created successfully and the experience was valuable as every student of all ages learned something about the cultural differences and the process of media creation.
The other goal was the creation of handbook “Successful Steps in Entrepreneurship”. The handbook gives a detailed overview of how to start and lead a company in five different countries. This covers the starting steps and initiation process and also tax system differences while going all the way to business liquidation. Every school had a big opportunity to learn from this as business related vocabulary is very specific and it required necessary research which the specialists helped with. Some of them are from respective agencies and they gave us an overview how the level of unemployment in our five countries are actually quite high. The experience of starting a business during school years is invaluable as that gives students a head start. This idea goes together well with the fact that the year 2017 was the European Year of Entrepreneurship.
The voluntary work each school did before and during each meeting had to be creative. Taking part in sports events, cleaning trash in nature and working in animal shelters was one large part, but there was also a focus on recycling which involved creating art from reusable materials. During these activities schools had to introduce each other what their options are. Every partner school also prepared something creative such as dance act, song, a piece of music or made a handicraft project. Students and teachers did it together. Students from different age groups and cultures realized their wide options of voluntary work and are now able to continue it after the project ends.
Two magazines were created of all the activities which are uploaded on www.puka.edu.ee and on the project’s website. A lot of effort was put into spreading the info and other schools introduced it to other projects too. Estonia currently has no active projects, but we made sure the info spreads in local area and also to nearby larger areas. The specific project corners will remain in schools for visitors to read about and familiarize themselves with the activities. Our school’s museum room will also be updated and added to and it was presented to a competition called “Success and Act”. The excitement of the project is still in air and everyone is asking when the next similar project starts.The title: “A teacher of the year 2018” was attributed to the coordinator of the whole project by local authorities and leading this project was one of the criteria. Students continue to communicate with other schools both in the school and outside and can share their knowledge as schools have also integrated entrepreneurship related studies to their programmes. Their courage to communicate and appear in public have increased which makes them much more confident with managing their time and talking to new people. They are now much more prepared to enter the future job market.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 95105 Eur

Project Coordinator

Puka Secondary School & Country: EE

Project Partners

• EK KAVALAS
• SOLSKI CENTER SLOVENJ GRADEC
• EYUP IMKB MESLEKI VE TEKNIK ANADOLU LISESI
• Istituto Comprensivo Don L. Milani