Young Entrepreneurs on Start! Erasmus Project

Project Title

Young Entrepreneurs on Start!

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 2015

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Enterprise, industry and SMEs (incl. entrepreneurship); Entrepreneurial learning – entrepreneurship education; Labour market issues incl. career guidance / youth unemployment

Project Summary

The Erasmus+ project “Young Entrepreneurs on Start!” was conducted in the partnership of five secondary schools from Poland, Greece, Spain, Slovakia and Germany, with help, cooperation and expertise from local companies, entrepreneurs and trainers. The aim of the project was to cooperate and share the learning and teaching knowledge and experiences in the field of entrepreneurship and thus, to help students enter the European and national labour markets equipped with competences and skills obtained during their work at the learning, teaching and training events (workshops, lectures, seminars, plenary sessions, mock job interviews and roleplaying real-life situations conducted by entrepreneurs and experts on the subjects). Our project focused on promoting entrepreneurship, sense of initiative, creativity and managing skills among its participants, to sufficiently equip them with necessary knowledge and skills, preparing them for their working life and requirements of the labour market.
The project was designed for a two year period, while we cooperated both personally and virtually in order to reach our objectives. Project participants took part in 4 learning, teaching and training events, focused on 4 main subtopics:
C1 – Germany, 01.2016 – Creating a businessplan. Participants learned how to create a viable businessplan, through workshops, lectures and international groupwork, being coached by real-life entrepreneurs and experts on the topic. After that they prepared their own businessplans, presented it publicly and received feedback/critique from experts.
C2 – Greece, 06.2016 – Teamwork ad teambuilding. Participants learned how to build proper relationships, especially in a workplace, and how to establish healthy group dynamics through a series of lectures, workshops, seminars and role-playing.
C3 – Slovakia, 10.2016 – Human resources. Participants learned how to use international employment tools (Europass CV, covering letter etc.) and how to prepare for a successful job interview They went through recruitment processes in various local companies, submitting their job applications, taking part in mock job interviews and receiving feedback and constructive criticism.
C4 – Spain, 02.2017 – Marketing. Participants learned the teory and practice of a successful marketing campaign of a product or a venture, particularly focusing on online marketing. They created marketing plans and tools for their own enterprises under guidance from experts in the subject and presented them, receiving feedback.
During the whole project, the participants had opportunity to study on the given topics, to practice their foreign language skills, to work in mixed teams as well as to learn from and visit local businesses and entrepreneurs and to derive from their knowledge and experience. In every participating school we created a Young Entrepreneurs’ Club, where the students and teachers worked together and studied on the project topics, teaching other project participants. The Clubs closely cooperated using all the possible ways of communication (social networks, online calls, project website).
There were also two transnational project meetings for the coordinators held during the project duration. They reviewed the general schedule of the project, clarified the evaluation criteria for the implementation and assessment of the project, its final products and the contribution of the project to the students’ key competences.
Thanks to international cooperation, project participants were able to widen their knowledge and horizons in the field of entrepreneurship, not only with the theoretical background but also with practical experience in this field. Through their cross-country cooperation and personal experience of the real businesses, the students and teachers benefitted from the participation at the project, not to mention the cultural and cross-cultural awareness that enabled them to broaden their minds and capabilities, as well as their performance, communication and language skills. The project was beneficial for the teaching staff, who shared good practices and improved their skills in teaching project-related subjects and foreign language competences. Also entrepreneurs and businesses involved in the project had a chance to present themselves internationally and test their training procedures/resources management. Many local educational and cultural organizations took part in project activities ( e.g Entrepreneurship Days organized in partner schools) and were targets of dissemination activities, receiving project’s tangible outputs.
The tangible outputs of our project were: A Guidebook for Young Entrepreneurs, Multilingual Dictionary of Entrepreneurship Terms, lesson plans covering project’s topics, instructional presentations, main project website with all the information about the project and its outputs, posters, videos, other promotional materials, photos, meeting reports, evaluation report etc.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 114270 Eur

Project Coordinator

Zespol Szkol Ogolnoksztalcacych & Country: PL

Project Partners

• Hermann Hesse Gymnasium
• Institut Guillem Catà
• 2o GENIKO LYKEIO NEAS IONIAS MAGNISIAS
• Ozel SANKO Koleji
• Súkromná obchodná akadémia