Project priorities:

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The aim of this project is that students refuse the image imposed on them in our society above all during the economic crisis when they have serveral difficulties to find a job. Nowadays, Europe offers to the young people the possibilities to study abroad and finding a job in another European country, this project tries to help them in this way. 

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It is our wish to encourage them to fight for good jobs and equal opportunities in the labour market while they are still studying and find good practises to help/counsel young people to manage their everyday life. Through different activities and motivation in which they can develop their basic social and professional skills, they will be able to influence parents, patronal entities, local and regional authorities and other decisive entities.

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This project  wants to contribute to facilitate the relationship between family and school, focusing on the education and formation/training of youth.  Encouraging the participation of the students in education, labour market and  society;  exchanging and comparing good practices in terms of integration politics and  activities within the EU and establishing an international network between partners having experience in this area are the issues of this project.

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Description:

There are currently more than five million unemployed young people in the European Union (EU), which means that one in five young person on the labour market cannot find a job. 

 

The project will help secondary school students to improve their ability to make decisions about their continuation of studies in terms of their future employment expectations, focused on the subsequent successful inclusion in the labour market. 

 

It is becoming harder for young people to find work in the context of rising unemployment. In some EU countries, the rate of youth unemployment (age 15-24) has already reached more than 50 %, according to Eurostat. Statistics also show that the percentage of unemployed youth is roughly double of the national unemployment rates (ie. Spain's unemployment rate was 26 %, with youth unemployment of 55 % in 2013). 

 

Although unemployment is high, many job places remain vacant. This situation points to labour market mismatches in the EU. The agenda for new skills and jobs proposes developing and acquiring skills that are relevant to the labour market. To improve young people’s access to the labour market, Member States are also requested to encourage self-employment of young people so that they create their own companies. To achieve this, students must acquire entrepreneurial skills to become competitive and succeed on the labour market, becoming part of the solution and not part of the problem. 

 

On the other hand, many young people lack the knowledge or even courage in how to be part of the European labour market, to find employment in other European countries. To an extent, this can be attributed to the lack of cultural understanding and proper language skills, which becomes a barrier when seeking employment abroad.

 

Today the labour market is global, both in Europe and in the World. Finding a dialogue between students and teachers in different countries, to learn about civil and social values and also keep an open mind to reassess our own way of teaching in a foreign language, will help us find ways for students to become more entrepreneurial and start taking over the initiative. Focusing on partners' "school to work transition process" each partner institution will have the opportunity to reflect about the importance of a professional and technical education and on how to involve local employers in the educational process. Comparisons among the different partners' good practices will constitute the added value of the project.

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Each school can bring different experiences and knowledges:

 

Institut Tarragona is located in a very important chemical industrial area, the most important in Spain and one of the most important in the south of Europe, where several students find a job when they finish their degree. Our school is preparing our students to go to university, specially the local one, URV, known because of the reputation of the chemistry faculty. Even ICIQ (Institut of Chemical Research of Catalonia) have important links with the university. Our school has been the coordinator school in a Comenius programme between 2012-2013, so the teachers, students and parents know this kind of projects and all the advantages that this kind of projects can contribute to improve the skills of the students and teachers who take part in it. Even there are some teachers who have taken part in European projects in other schools, so our staff have the enough experience to deal with this project. But the percentage of youth unemployment in Spain (around 50%) doesn't give our students enough motivation to find a job, including the school drop-off rate, so with this project we will give them some tools and ideas to improve their chances to get a job in the future. 

 

For Istituto Superiore "Lorenzo Federici  the creation of the transnational approach is an innovative aspect because the Italian school has been dealing with relationships with the working world at a local level  for few years and it  is eager to compare its strategies and  good practices with other partners at a European level in order to optimize the school approach in the development  of better outcomes for youth in the longer run, by equipping them with relevant skills and removing barriers to their employment. Our area has been experiencing a wide gap between the worlds of education and work. With this project we aim to encourage employers to expand internship progamme and to strengthen our school syllabus with activities supporting vocational training and preparing our students for the world of work. 

 

Levanger videregående skole this Erasmus + project is going to be a continuation and follow up to the ongoing Comenius project which will be completed this school year. In the project "European Teenagers beyond the economic Crisis" we have been working with questions connected to youth unemployment in the participating countries. This is particularly essential for Norwegian students, considering that Norway is not an EU member. 

Due to Norway’s low unemployment rate, it has not been that necessary for students at general studies to focus on entrepreneurial skills. Our aim with this project is to implement a more practical approach in general studies. By this, we wish to stimulate the students’ creativity, innovational competence and motivation. Moreover, we are planning to establish a cooperation with our region’s innovation centers. One of these is Siva, which is a public enterprise owned by The Norwegian Ministry of Trade and Fisheries. Siva facilitates innovation and develops knowledge and startup environments, and connect them to regional, national and international networks. 

 

SPSSB Ljubljana as VET organisation, prepares students to enter the labour market within their professional field. The school counselor provides counseling and mentoring on further education and/or a particular profession. School has successfully worked on mobility projects for ten years, focusing on acquisition of key competences, learning about other EU countries culture and language. Consequently, the number of foreign students coming to the school is rising noticeably each year. Despite the efforts, some students still have low self-esteem/opinion about their competences and find it hard to express themselves, or recognize what they are capable of and good at. Furthermore, the present economic situation does not recognize their potential for a promising future career. They are thus becoming disinterested and unmotivated for work. The given project offers Slovenian teachers and students a chance to find a way to further develop and improve current activities. School would also like to establish a more reciprocal relationship between employers and school, enabling them the most effective and easy transition to work.

 

Gymnasium Marne offers vocational studies and is running a special class called "comepetences for life" in order to prepare the students for the labour market. Elaborating this important branch, we increasingly connect with companies in the surroundings. Learning from the other vocational school partners we can enhance and intensify our collaboration with companies and the labour market in general.

The teachers involved in the project have either  been working in other European or international projects like Comenius or eTwinning as individual and class exchanges, or need to gain new experiences which they can attribute to  a cultural level or in promoting practical trainings.