One fits all? Introducing soft drinks onto the Portuguese and German market Erasmus Project

Project Title

One fits all? Introducing soft drinks onto the Portuguese and German market

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 2019

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Overcoming skills mismatches (basic/transversal); Entrepreneurial learning – entrepreneurship education

Project Summary

WALTESQUITA BEVERAGES is a German-Portuguese marketing project developed by the Walter-Eucken-Berufskolleg based in Düsseldorf and the secondary school Agrupamento de Escolas Marcelino Mesquita do Cartxon near Lisbon.
In preparation for the exchange, a 3-day workshop was held for the participating teachers in Germany. This ensured that the teachers were on the same or the latest level with regard to digital learning tools, teaching methods and the key topic of “marketing”.
The project was about the development of a non-alcoholic drink and its introduction on the German and Portuguese market. At the beginning of the project, the students took on the roles of young entrepreneurs from the beverage industry who wanted to launch a soft drink for young Germans and Portuguese.

Due to the pandemic, the other planned short-term exchanges in both Portugal and Germany could not take place. In addition, several lockdowns that took place at different times affected the course of the project and the concrete project work. The technical equipment and internet reception at the participating students’ homes also varied greatly. In addition, Covid 19 had a motivational and psychological impact on all participants after only a short time, so we are happy to have achieved results nevertheless. The much praised digitalisation has reached its limits and has shown us how important real contact with people is.
In a first step, the students learned about important aspects of entrepreneurship and basics of marketing, such as the 8 Ps. In order to get to grips with the potential target group, educational videos on personas and Generation Y and Z were created. Afterwards, the students researched the beverage market of the respective country in national groups. In addition, soft drinks typical of the country were sent to the partner country by post. They served as the basis for a taste test with the help of a decision matrix. From this, it was generally derived which characteristics Portuguese and Germans appreciate in their drinks. The knowledge gained from this was used to develop a detailed marketing concept for a concrete product in teams. By sharing the results, the students were able to improve their English language skills – especially in a professional context.

The main priorities of this project were:

1. to develop the students’ basic and cross-cutting skills, with a special focus on entrepreneurship; qualities that are necessary not only to get a job in the labour market, but also in daily life and interaction with others.
2. to foster students’ personal development and create a student-centred learning environment, which in turn helps to prevent school drop-out.
3. to improve students’ digital skills in order to improve their future opportunities in the labour market.
4. to give teachers the opportunity to gain further experience and confidence in developing and assessing competence-based European projects, thus accelerating the modernisation of schools towards competence- and output-oriented teaching and learning.

In addition to the students’ competence enhancement, the long-term benefit of the project is to have found a reliable partner with whom we can exchange ideas in all respects and also carry out future projects.
This was made possible on the one hand by the intensive personal exchange during the teacher workshop in Germany, and on the other hand by the permanent contact via email or video conference during the pandemic.

Project Website

https://twinspace.etwinning.net/106784/home

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 18970 Eur

Project Coordinator

Walter Eucken Berufskolleg – Städtische Schule für Wirtschaft mit Wirtschaftsgymnasium Sekundarstufe II & Country: DE

Project Partners

• Agrupamento de Escolas Marcelino Mesquita do Cartaxo