Work and Life – at home and abroad Erasmus Project

Project Title

Work and Life – at home and abroad

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: Enterprise, industry and SMEs (incl. entrepreneurship); Cultural heritage/European Year of Cultural Heritage; Intercultural/intergenerational education and (lifelong)learning

Project Summary

Nowadays, the term work-life-balance has become a hot topic in the face of an increasingly digital and global work environment. However, there has always been a mutual influence of work on life and vice versa. This can also be seen on a big scale rather than just individually. Therefore, looking at a region, one often finds that its most prominent economic branch(es) mold its infrastructure, the daily schedule of the population, social networks and hierarchies and sometimes its international relations. During our earlier project we experienced that the three regions, Gronau, Murcia and Vinstra, are quite different when it comes to economic structures and how they shaped and still shape the local life.
In the project at hand students aged 15-18 explore and compare these economic and cultural landscapes through research and by visiting archaeological or historical sites as well as current businesses in short-term student exchanges. During these visits the students shall keep video diaries in which they include information on e.g. daily schedules, interference of work and family life (and measures against this), infrastructural needs and effects. The perceived situations shall then be compared to situations in the home country of the students and discussed in terms of merits, disadvantages and possible challenges for international cooperations. As a result, our students gain insight into the internal European trade on an individual and regional level and understand the importance of European culture and economy. While the trips to historical and archaeological sites provide information about the economical and cultural development of a region, the company explorations enable the students to test in which aspects these developments can still be perceived today. By keeping a video log, the students have a clear focus during the trips and also provide valuable information for other project participants. The videos produced can be used in preparation for the next visit to another country as well as a learning opportunity for those students who didn’t get the chance to travel.
Over the course of the project three short-term student exchanges of 7 days – one in each participating organization – will take place and in each exchange 20 students are going to travel. However, through the publication of the participants’ video logs and in-School presentations of the results, the Project will reach a much larger audience and raise awareness of what unites us and what enriches us as European Union in terms of recent and historical influences between economy and culture.
Finally, the video logs as well as the operational knowledge gained through the project will help the participating organizations to improve their curricula and school concepts regarding the acquisition of working life skills and interdisciplinary learning as well as the usage of media to document student results.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 79104 Eur

Project Coordinator

Kooperative Gesamtschule Gronau (Leine) & Country: DE

Project Partners

• Vinstra vidaregåande skule
• P.E.I González Valverde S.L.L