Social Inclusion by Volunter and Entrepreneur Activities Erasmus Project

Project Title

Social Inclusion by Volunter and Entrepreneur Activities

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

Project Summary

One of the main problems nowadays is youth unemployment. The main causes are the lack of sufficient financial literacy competences and entrepreneurial skills, poor communication in multicultural teams, deficiency in communication and presentation skills. Developing and improving those skills lead to coping with this global issue when they finish their studies. The second problem we have to deal with in this project is the lack of awareness of the social, economic and ecological issues in our communities.
The main goal of the project was to develop entrepreneurship skills to students from the partner schools and to promote communication and presentation skills or the so called ‘soft skills’. This would help the young people to adapt faster to the real working environment, to fulfil better on the labour market and to have the opportunity to develop their own business, both in their home country and in the project partner countries, too.
We also wanted to make our students face the social realities motivating them for doing voluntary work. We put efforts in cultivating self-awareness towards different people, empathy towards the ones that suffer and a desire to share the value to help each other. That is why volunteering is the second important aim present in our project.
The whole project was based on students aged between 12 and 16. They acted as leaders of the project while their teachers helped, oriented and supervised them.
Initially there were five participant schools but at the end of the project only three remained.
Vilkyčių pagrindinė mokykla – coordinating school which is located in Vilkyciai, Silute region, Lithuania. It is a lower-secondary school which also has pre-school groups. Education in this school is organized in different stages: pre-school (kindergarten) (1-5 years old), pre-school (6 years old), primary (7-10 years old) and basic education (11-16 years old).
Scoala Gimnaziala Tifesti, partner school, is located in Romania, Tifesti, Vrancea county, primary and secondary school.
The Istituto Comprensivo Vasto 1 is the other partner school, located in Abruzzi, Italy, with kindergarten, primary and low secondary school.
To achieve the goal of the project the following activities were organized:
• seminars and training sessions on financial literacy and entrepreneurial skills;
• a competition, called “Business incubator”, during which students, working in groups, generated their business ideas and made presentations of them;
• a film “Business incubator” which presents the entrepreneurial ideas of students and shows the special features and conditions for developing a business idea in each participant country;
• an “Entrepreneurial market”- an international event when students met and presented their entrepreneurial ideas to a jury, consisting of business representatives.
• The final product- a handbook “Successful steps in Entrepreneurship”. This handbook presents all mandatory stages that every entrepreneurial idea goes through from its origin to its fulfilment, giving an account of the specific features of partner countries as well.
• During the international meetings, voluntary initiatives aiming at solving both social and
ecological issues, were organized.

During the project we have succeeded in:
• improving students’ skills in the sphere of cooperation, team work, social relations, intercultural knowledge;
• promoting tolerance, awareness of the social, economic, ecological challenges our society is facing;
• improving students’ entrepreneurial, financial and vocational skills;
• enhancing both students and teachers’ imagination and creativity;
• improving digital competences by developing student’s abilities in the use of ICT;
• learning and practicing expressing oneself in public (through presentations, debates…)
• promoting cooperation between local institutions, other than schools (animal shelters, centre for the elderly, day centres for children);
• improving students’ English communication skills;
• teaching students where to look for information needed in the activities of the project;
• teaching students how to promote a product, their business idea, their country as a touristic destination.
Sustainability is the capacity of the project to continue and use its results beyond the end of the funding period. The project results can then be used and exploited in the longer-term. Not all parts of the project or results may be sustainable and it is important to view dissemination and exploitation as a progression that extends beyond the duration of the project and into the future. Teachers can find the project products on the Internet and use them in their Geography, History, Maths, Economics, English language lessons and for extracurricular activities.
Mobility of teachers: 35
Mobility of students: 47

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 82488,2 Eur

Project Coordinator

Silutes r. Vilkyciu pagrindine mokykla & Country: LT

Project Partners

• Miejskie Gimnazjum nr 2 w Piekarach Slaskich
• Istituto Comprensivo 1 Vasto
• gebiz ortaokulu
• SCOALA GIMNAZIALA TIFESTI