The “ruins” of the past to power Europeans’ future Erasmus Project

Project Title

The “ruins” of the past to power Europeans’ future

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 school education

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2014

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Labour market issues incl. career guidance / youth unemployment; New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses; Overcoming skills mismatches (basic/transversal)

Project Summary

This project’s title is “The “ruins” of the past to power Europeans’ future” and it has been aimed at experimenting a way to contribute to reduce in the next years youth unemployment rates and NEETs – Not in Education, Employment, or Training -.
The project idea was launched by Istituto Superiore Larino, which later became the project coordinator. At the beginning the idea was shared with a past Comenius projects partner and with Italian institutions and soon after published in etwinning website. As a consequence a partnership of schools, local authorities and other organisations has been set and the participants agreed on basing the project on Cultural Heritage investigation in the prospect of job opportunities in the field of sustainable tourism.
The partnership was composed of:
4 different secondary schools from four different countries, Bulgaria, Italy, Poland and Turkey
2 Municipalities
1 Regional Education Department
1 Chamber of Commerce
1 Regional Cultural Heritage Department
1 Non-profit organisation active in supporting teachers and students in teaching/learning process
The general objectives the partnership agreed to pursue are:
1. detailed knowledge of their territories and Cultural Heritage in contrast with the partners’ ones
2. awarness of Cultural Heritage in prospect of job opportunities
3. developing students’ hard and soft skills in subjects not usually included in the ordinary curriculum, such as economics, law, advertisement communication techniques, web-design, film shooting and editing, business start-up (finding a business idea, writing business plans in mixed international groups, launching a crowdfunding campaign)
4. developing high level competence in the language of the project and good competence in the languages of the partner schools
and at least in one of the languages provided by on-line platforms (MYLO or other language platforms)
5. promoting the understanding among European citizens
6. increasing students’ sense of initiative and entrepreneurship
7. using ICT to get information and provide information to specific targets and to accomplish project’s activities and products
8. using EUROPASS to certify ICT competences, languages knowledge and learning/training abroad for students, teachers and other
partners involved
9. having a number of participants in the project undertake quite long periods of learning/teaching/training in partners’ countries
10. experimenting innovative students’ centred teaching methodologies and CLIL lessons
11. improving teachers’ skills in languages, ICT and innovative teaching methodologies
As concerns the activities, besides the ordinary project class work on the agreed topic of investigation and production of materials related to it, the following innovative activities have been performed:
1. enrichment of the ordinary school curriculum with:
– embedded modules on business start-up and Cultural Heritage preservation and valorization
– blended learning of foreign languages, besides English
– job-training for students in the field of tourism
– students’ training on the field of Cultural Heritage valorization and tourism run by local authorities and organizations
– production of Open Educational Resources in epub3 format
– opening of a project website as materials’ repository and project dissemination
– opening of a Web TV to promote both the project and Erasmus+, show project products and promote territories
2. one month exchange of students and teachers in the second year of the project together with the ordinary short-term students exchanges in the first year
3. trasnational project meetings involving representatives of local authorities and organisations
4. dissemination workshops and seminars
The methodologies the partnership agreed on have been: cooperative learning, flipped classroom, CLIL, learning by doing. But to carry out the project the partners agreed on a detailed activities timetable with precise indications on who had to do what, constant communication and collaboration using videoconferencing and mails, uploading of project results on the website and on the project facebook page. At the beginning it was planned to use etwinning platform, but student first and teachers after them found facebook and whatsapp easier to use.
The tangible results produced are those deriving from the activities listed above; the intangible results and impact atteined are innovation, internationalisation and modernization for all the partners involved; cooperation at all levels, increased knowledge of European programmes, promotion of citizens’ active partecipation in society and lifelong learning; improved skills in ICT and foreign languages, greater understanding and appreciation of diversity.
The potential long term benefits we imagine are: the overcome of the mismatch between the skills and competences required by the 21st century society and labour market and the skills and competences the students develop.

Project Website

http://istitutosuperiorelarino.it/euroka2/

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 246390 Eur

Project Coordinator

ISTITUTO SUPERIORE LARINO & Country: IT

Project Partners

• Ataturk Anadolu Lisesi
• Prirodomatematicheska gimnazia “Akademik Nikola Obreshkov” – Burgas
• KAYSERI METROPOLITAN MUNICIPALITY
• Stowarzyszenie Wspierania Edukacji Chrzescijanskiej
• Soprintendenza per i Beni Archeologici del Molise
• Zespol Szkol Katolickich
• Camera di Commercio Industria Artigianato e Agricoltura di Campobasso