The idea of the FREEDOM – Free Resourceful Entrepreneurs Experimenting Daringness on the Move project rises out of the analysis of the daily challenges European high schools have to face nowadays.
From our teaching experiences, it emerges that the most widespread deficiency among students aged 14 to 21 is the loss of enthusiasm about their future: they have no dreams to fight for, no dynamic will to challenge their future.
In a society where the youth unemployment rate rose from 15% in 2008 to 23.5% in 2013, students consider the learning experience too obsolete and far from real life and they often find a shelter in virtual worlds: paradoxically, the young are becoming more and more isolated because of those technologies which may open their lives to global society.
It is our project priority to create innovative learning environments where to exploit the same technological tools our students are so fond: once caught their attention, it will become easier to help them develop transversal skills such as entrepreneurship, ICT and multilingualism, as well as the key competences necessary to develop future European citizens able to become main characters of the global society, both in an employed or in a self-employed role.
In particular, the Internet will be the main learning space where students will be stimulated to develop entrepreneurial skills, to think about their future careers according to their inclinations within the following fields of study: Tourism (Romania, College), Commerce (Romania, school with “Second Chance” Program and Roma students), Catering (Netherlands), Web Design (Italy), Advertising and Publicity (Reunion Islands from France), Nursing and Cosmetology (Slovakia), Sound (Denmark), Web Design (Turkey).
International cooperation will focus on the creation of a blended learning environment based on student-centered methodologies: through face to face activities (to be enhanced through 7 meetings from September 2014 to May 2016), online games for e-business simulation and WEB meetings, teachers and involved stakeholders will guide students to develop web entrepreneurial skills, letting them become up-to-date, competitive professionals capable of consciously deciding for the careers best suiting their talents as well as to aspire to financial independence and to increase economic growth.
All activities will be developed and implemented by 120 students, 15 students from each organization, with the supervision of teachers and external experts: visits to successful enterprises, webinars, workshops and conferences on specific market issues will represent work-based activities for all involved staff, through which the following results will be pursued: capacity of educational and vocational guidance, partnerships between schools and local communities, prevention and reduction of early school leaving, fostering of transversal skills, development of a strategic approach to the internationalization of VET cooperation.
Improving multilingualism and ICT will be a priority for final success: the blended learning environment will give students the chance to improve their English and French through a direct use of spoken language in real situations or through weekly web sessions on a shared platform, while ICT will be the operational tool through which to acquire entrepreneurial skills. Such non-formal and informal learning will represent a set of “units” made of learning outcomes to be officially recognized by all involved schools and therefore exploited through the ECVET network. The dissemination activities will aim at sharing all acquired expertise with schools and stakeholders, in order to enable credit transfer and accumulation.
The final goal of our project will be the promotion of learning outcomes linked to the emerging web entrepreneurship, to be easily recognized and exploited throughout European society, in order to guarantee a wider access to job opportunities and mobility.
Indicators of progress will be developed during first contacts to monitor the project over the long and short term, while all activities will be implemented with the support of 6 local enterprises, one for each partners’ field of entrepreneurial activity, and 6-12 local experts on web entrepreneurship.
Developing entrepreneurial and digital skills of the students in order to actively involve them in the local community life and decision-making regarding their career, according to local and european socio-economic reality.
All involved adult staff, both teachers and stakeholders, will work together to improve their own competences within the vision of a lifelong learning process, and all their efforts will be directed to equip students with the entrepreneurial competences required by the globalized world and, of course, exploiting every single moment spent abroad to enhance a common European identity.
In a word, after two years practicing and discovering new market dimensions our students will be Free Resourceful Entrepreneurs Experimenting Daringness on the Move!
