Practice makes perfect Erasmus Project

Project Title

Practice makes perfect

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 2020

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Entrepreneurial learning – entrepreneurship education; Intercultural/intergenerational education and (lifelong)learning; International cooperation, international relations, development cooperation

Project Summary

CONTEXT
Our partnership of five completely different and far away countries has been created out of the desire of all the schools involved to contribute more significantly to the personal and professional development of their students, improving their critical and creative thinking, promoting an entrepreneurial mindset that will serve them and their communities in the future years. In a century in which creativity, innovation, critical thinking and digital competences are the key to success, we consider it our mission to guide and support students in acquiring them.
3 of the schools have vocational profiles –MK, CZ and PL, while the other 2 have a general education profile. This will make the Erasmus+ experience even more meaningful, by providing us with different approaches to entrepreneurship. We will gain an insight into local economies and needs and our students will collaborate in order to meet those needs. Although we are part of the EU, we come from diverse places where we will encounter different social and economic contexts, different needs and interests. This makes this opportunity even more rewarding and appealing.

PARTICIPANTS
Through this initiative, we address a target group of 500 students aged 15-18, including both boys and girls, 30% of whom come from challenged backgrounds, low-income families or dismembered families.
100 students aged 15-18 will be directly involved in the exchanges, as participants, and as host students. There will be 5 students and 2 accompanying teachers from each country who will attend each exchange, which means 20 students and 8 teachers per school and overall 100 students and 40 teachers will have been attended to exchange meetings.

OBJECTIVES
1. to enable the participants to get acquainted with new cultures and develop their intercultural competence
2. to develop students’ entrepreneurial mindset by providing them with the context for developing joint business ideas, thus improving the transition to the business world
3. to improve the soft skills of students in order to facilitate their professional development – critical and analytical thinking, communication, creativity etc., thus improving their transition to the world of work
4.to improve students’ self-confidence in unfamiliar contexts and their language skills
5. to improve the school’s European dimension through collaboration with other schools and transfer of best practices

MAIN ACTIVITIES
We have planned 5 student exchanges in this project, during which students will meet their peers, learn about specifics of local economies, meet entrepreneurs and visit local businesses. The practical side consists of students’ collaborative work in order to produce innovative business ideas suitable for the local economies of the partner schools which will then be adapted to students’ own local needs.
The topics of the exchanges are:
1. C1 – Spanish economy and startups in agriculture
2. C2 – Polish economy and startups in PL
3. C3 – Macedonia economy and startups in small scale manufacturing enterprises
4. C4 – Turkish economy and startups in the beauty industry
5. C5 – Czech Nation economy and startups in outdoor activities and sports

RESULTS
The results consist of: presentations about local economies in the 5 partner countries, student-made brochures about local businesses, 20 startup business ideas and business plans developed by multicultural teams of students, evaluation forms for business plans completed by entrepreneurs, workshop materials, students’ testimonials, initial and final evaluation, feedback forms, self-assessment forms, project brochure “Business ideas for students”, project website, eTwinning space, 137 Europass mobility documents and certificates of attendance, 5 interim reports and final reports.
The outcomes consist of an increased capacity of students to integrate professionally in the field of business and work, increased competence of school educators to facilitate the transition of students to the world of work/business and the increased relevance of schools for the 21st century needs.

IMPACT
The project will impact the school on different levels:
– development of human resources
– development of partnerships with local businesses
– development of European collaboration at the institutional and personal levels.
– promotion of the schools in local communities and European communities
– strengthened relationship with local authorities
– improvement of the project management capacity of all partner schools
– promotion of the school as a key factor in the professional guidance of students

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 149400 Eur

Project Coordinator

Stredni odborna skola podnikani a obchodu, spol. s r. o. & Country: CZ

Project Partners

• COLEGIO SAN JOSE DE LA MONTAÑA, COOP. V.
• Opshtinsko sredno tehnichko uculishte GOSTIVAR Gostivar
• Pazar Fen Lisesi
• Zespol Szkol Zawodowych i Licealnych w Zgorzelcu