The purpose of FREEDOM project is to develop an entrepreneurial mindset – with a special attention to the emerging web market across multiple countries – among students, teachers and all involved stakeholders in the following areas: tourism, healthy catering, web design, advertising and publicity, nursing and cosmetology, sound effects.
It will be our priority to create innovative blended learning environments where to exploit contemporary technological tools to help our students develop transversal skills such as ICT and multilingualism, as well as the key competences necessary to become future European citizens main characters of the global society, both in an employed or in a self-employed role.
Involved teachers will acquire themselves – and disseminate as well – a clear vision on how entrepreneurial strategies can become a horizontal approach throughout the whole study programme, to be implemented even by means of non-formal learning environments based on the new technologies and social media.
The involved students will be furnished the right skills and knoweledge to become future citizens aware of one’s own capabilities, able of taking the risk and making significant committments to create a new business or set up an existing one. In their turn, students will become peer tutors within an entrepreneurship school agenda to be implemented in the 5 years following the end of the FREEDOM project.
All activities will promote learning outcomes to be easily recognized within the ECVET and EQAVET systems and the Europass network as well (with a special attention to the “European Skills Passport” from Europass Network).
Participants stakeholders will be invovled in partnership, traineeship and supporting activities aiming at strengthening the possibilities for lifelong learning, fostering collaborations between the school system and the outside enterprises, promoting the geographical mobility of individuals.
After selecting 15 students (among which at least 7 disadvantaged ones) aged 14-19 from each partner school, on an online entrepreneurship game the partner schools will establish simulated enterprises having business items based on their fields of study and students’ preferences.
The 8 virtual training enterprises will work in a „European Entrepreneurship Club” for 2 school years, during which virtual goods or services will be created and promoted through dedicated online stores and webpages.
Thrughout the project, students and teachers will benefit from the course entitled „E-business & Internet Marketing”: 40 hours in a blended learning environment where students and teachers will be supported by local or national experts and successful entrepreneurs, who will furnish their personal knoweledge and expertise.
The course will be included in the curricula offer of involved schools and will become a MOOC available on the school webpages and on all the project dissemination web tools.
Since november 2014, traineeship activities will be activated with each country’s local enterprises: groups of 3-5 students at a time will train in local businesses linked to the school field of study, drawing up a business plan for them and getting involved in activities such as „employee of the firm” and „manager for a day”. While training in real enterprises, students will write on the „European Business Fair”, a shared blog where to highlight their personal experiences and to promote each hosting enterprise with the help of a picture album.
All the 2 years project experiences, both the virtual and the real ones, will be reported in a school magazine as well as on the FREEDOM Project website. The originality and quality of overall produced materials will be evaluated by a competent jury, including representatives of local authorities and people who already have expertise or businesses in the area, where the most viable business plan, the most interactive blog of exercise firm and the most attractive promotional materials will be awarded (each school will have to find find inner respurces or outside sponsors for guaranteeing money prizes to the winners: the choice of an economical award will give a different „taste” to the simulated competition among students, letting them better understand the economical value of comittment and risk taking).
All “FREEDOM” project outcomes will be spread through a detailed dissemination plan and supervised by the partner school leaders, through an agenda of events monitoring to what extent project activities will be implemeted compared with what initially planned.
After two years practicing and discovering new market dimensions, our students will be Free Resourceful Entrepreneurs Experimenting Daringness on the Move, becoming promoters themselves of that entrepreneurial mindset necessary to face the challenges of changing European society.