GIMNAZJUM NR5 IM. ARKADEGO FIEDLERA- POLAND

GIMNAZJUM NR5 IM. ARKADEGO FIEDLERA- POLAND

OGRES TEHNIKUMS- LATVIA

     Ogre Technicalschool (hereinafter - OT) hasexistedsincethe 2011 year  1st September, themergerofthreenationalprofessionaleducationalinstitutionsandarelocatedin Ogre, 40 km fromcapitalcityRiga. Sincethe 2013 year  1st September OT hasobtainedvocationalschoolsCompetenceCentre status. OT offers to acquiretwenty-onesecondaryvocationaleducationprogramsintenareas: forestry, woodtechnology, electronics, tourismandleisureorganization, foodtechnology, textileproduction, art (creativeindustries), computerscience, administrativework, cateringservices. Also OT providesvocationalprogramsaftersecondaryeducationinfiveareas: electronics, computerscience, administrativework , forestrymachinery’s operator,advertisingdesign. Atthemoment OT enrolling 1055 students (16 – 20 yearsold)andworking 118 teachers.

OT students participateingeneraleducationsubjectscontests, republic-wideprofessionalcompetitionsandexhibitions, includingbusinessplancompetitionswithinwhichpresentsitselfas a young, skilled, knowledgeableandcompetitive students, achievingexcellentresults.

To getinternationalexperience, OT activelyinvolvedintheEuropeanUnionprojectimplementation: Ingeneral, implementedmorethan 30 projects (EuropeanSocialFund, EuropeanRegionalDevelopmentFund , theclimatechangefinancialinstrument , LeonardodaVinci , Comenius , Grundtvig , localgovernmentprojectsandexchange). WithLifelonglearningprograms OT areworkingintwodirections - OT provideslearnerspracticeandoffer OT andotherLatvianvocationaleducationteachers to gainexperienceoutsidetheLatvianborder, improvingthesyllabuscontent, developingguidancematerialcreatinganadvancedlearningenvironmentandraisingprestigeofvocationaleducation. Sincethe 2005th yearmorethan 150 students and 50 teachershadpracticalexperiencegainedbygoinginmobility to Italy, Malta, Portugal, France (Martinique), Spain, Bulgaria, Turkey, England, Austria, Germany, Poland, Lithuania , Finland, Sweden, GreeceandotherEuropeancountries.

LICEUL TEORETIC "MIRCEA ELIADE" LUPENI- ROMANIA

 The Romanian schoolislocated in Lupeni. Ourstudents come fromtwotowns, Lupeni and Uricani, which are located in the Jiu Valley. Thisis a disadvantagedareawith a highlevel of unemployment, economicallyandsociallyisolated. The areawas an industrial one. Miningwas a nationalpriority, andbothtownshavedevelopedmainlybased on theminingindustry . The populationhasincreasedvisiblyduetomigrationfromdifferent rural areas of the country. Currently, manymines are closed, andpeoplecanhardlyfindotherjobs, thissituationgenerating a number of important social problems.

Ourschooltriestoprovidealternativesandsolutionstoourstudents, toinvolvethemactively in building theirownfuture, tohelpthem create a brightcareerthrougheducationandknowledge.

Ourschoolhas 650 studentsaged 14-19, whobenefitfromfacilitiessuch as: 2 Informaticslaboratories, 21 classrooms, labs for foreignlanguages, Chemistry, Physics, Biology, Mathematics, History, Geography, library, sportshall. The profiles of ourhighschool are dividedinto Realistic andHumanprofiles, theformeroneincludingspecializationssuch as Mathematics-Informaticswith intensive English teachingand Natural Sciences, whilethelatterspecializesstudentsinto Social Sciences. 

Ourmaingoalistoimprovethecommunicationskills of ourstudents,toshareandlearnmanythingstogetherwithourpartnersfromthecountries of Europe.

DALUM ACADEMY OF AGRICULTURAL BUSINESS- DENMARK

Dalum Agricultural College is one of Denmark’s largest and oldest agricultural colleges – today a modern international college for further agricultural education with proud traditions and a historical atmosphere.

Dalum Agricultural College was founded in 1886 as a continuation of the famous principal Christen Kold, who built Dalum High School at the same place in 1862. The original premises of Christen Kold are still being used at the college – together with quite modern educational areas.

Dalum Agricultural College has discreetly preserved the essence of the Danish high school both in the historical buildings but also in the environment of the college, which is influenced by a large accommodation and boarding department.

Today, Dalum Agricultural College is a modern business college in line with business colleges within other professions, where young people have a vocational education. In Denmark all education is free of charge, the colleges receive subsidies from the Government to the progress of the college, to the teachers’ salaries etc. Only, if the students want to stay at the college, they must pay for it, themselves.

The colleges are independent, but supported by the Government, such as Dalum Agricultural College. The college has a popularly elected board who appoints the management of the college. Within the limits imposed by the Ministry of Education, the management can arrange the educational line and use the educational methods which it finds most suitable for the actual lessons.

The students, who start at a business college, have finished 9 or 10 years obligatory compulsory education in the Danish folkeskole/school. After this, they can choose a vocational education at a business college, or they can choose an upper-secondary education with a view to starting at the university.

The agricultural education is such a vocational education, which is characteristic by its alternate between theoretical lessons at the college and practical lessons at approved farmings. In this way there are no practical lessons at the colleges.

At Dalum Agricultural College, all the modules of the agricultural education are represented, so the college offers a basic course which is a qualification for the agricultural education, and two main courses, which are obligatory in the education as farmer.

As characteristic of the agriculture in Denmark, it has its completely own management education which is divided into three modules. These modules you can study at Dalum Agricultural College, too, it is the education as production manager, which is the first module in the educational course. The second module, which depends on your participation in the first module, is farming manager, and finally you can be agrarian economist, if you also study the third and last module in the education.

Beyond this, the college offers a two-year-old academy education for advisers, teachers and other persons who want employment in the service trade within the area of agriculture. The education is called farming technologist and is offered in a cooperation with a large commercial college in town.

Dalum Agricultural College is with its 250 students, the largest college of its kind in Denmark.

Dalum Agricultural College has about 25 permanent teachers and a total staff of 65 employees – i.a. a rather big culinary department, which takes care of the large activity of meeting and conference.

Dalum Agricultural College has two departments. At Faaborg, the college’s department for the start of the agricultural education is situated – it is students between 16-20 years old. The department of Odense has only the further agricultural students, typically between 22-25 years old. At the department of Odense, there is grown-up study environment, and candidates are qualified for all fields of activities within the agricultural trade worldwide. Dalum Agricultural College is internationally informed and receives and is sending out students all over the world.

Beyond about 250 agricultural students, it is also possible for the college in an exciting and different way to have a course and conference department, where it is possible to accommodate about 70 participants in meeting, and up to 600 guests can hold conferences. The participants can use the new-built Competence Centre including all modern facilities, and at the same time they can enjoy the historical atmosphere from the time of Kold. In this way, Dalum Agricultural College today is an exciting cross field between country and town, which has a professional accession to activities of meeting and conference for all people.

AHMET SARI ANADOLU LISESI- TURKEY

Ahmet Sarı High School  is a general high school founded in 2004.(located İlkadım(city center) /Samsun/Turkey ) Since 2012, admission is based on the standardized high school entrance exam developed by the Ministry of National Education.Our 9th grade (15-16 years old) students have 6 or 8 hours English  weekly and basic subjects (maths,chemistry,literature,p.e,geography,physics).  10th grade students(16-17 years old) have 4 hours english lesson and subjects can change they choose them..Some of them mainly have  maths,some of them mainly have language lessons and social studies(history,geography, etc..) and we form the classes according to their choices. but our former students entered the school without enrance exam (11th and 12th grade students) have little english. We prepare them university enterance exam.

Number of teachers: 44

Number of students: 516

web : http://asl.meb.k12.tr/

TAMSALU GYMNASIUM- ESTONIA

amsalu Gymnasium is a comprehensive secondary school in North Estonia. The curriculum of our school focuses on subjects such as foreign languages (English, Russian, and German ), Art, Music, History, Geography, Chemistry, Biology, Physics, Physical Education, Maths, the Estonian language and literature, Psychology( Human Studies, Family Studies), Technical Drawing, Civics and Citizenship Education, Career Education, Economic and Business Studies, National Defence . In grade 11 the students have to do a research project. In preparation of this project in grade 10 all students follow a course fixed in our curriculum called Bases of Inquiry.

 A number of students in the school catchment area are bilingual, which means they speak Russian as their mother tongue and use Estonian as the language of communication and instruction at school.

Tamsalu Gymnasium has an outstanding repertoire with regard to literature, modern foreign languages, art, and choral singing. The school has a 46-year-old tradition of organising song and dance festivals held each spring. In addition, the school has excellent sports facilities and the local sports centre together with the swimming pool, walking and jogging trails and ski tracks is the main attraction among the sports facilities of Tamsalu.

For more information about Tamsalu go http://www.tamsalu.ee/eng/

GENERAL SECONDARY SCHOOL ANGEL KARALIYCHEV- BULGARIA

   General Secondary School “Angel Karaliychev” is located in the town of Strazhitsa which is near the historical city of Veliko Turnovo. It is a small town (about 5000 citizens) with administrative functions. The town is a centre of municipality consisting of above 20 villages which means the main source of living is the agriculture.

The school is the biggest in the area and has students from the town and the neighbouring villages. At present the number of our pupils is about 700 aged 7 - 19. It is a general secondary one which means the students learn all the general subjects and in that way get ready to apply to any university. For the high school students we created a special profile specialised in English and ICT.

We have a quite colourful mixture of pupils. Some belong to different ethnic groups (Roma, Turks), and others are with special educational needs and take extra classes with professionals. There are also students from the local orphanage. For these children our school provides regular psychological consultation. We also have very talented students who take part in national and international contests in different fields- arts, music, literature, sports, and science, and win prizes. The school is in the centre of the cultural life of the municipality and it is involved in all events organized by the local community.

There are many sports events which take part in the school’s sports hall. There is a literary club which meets the student with contemporary writers and takes part in many literary competitions.

The aim of our school is to expand students’ outlook, to show them that being different is something good. We are trying to give them all necessary knowledge to become self-confident and open themselves to the world.

We are not a five-star school but we do all our best to give good education to our students.

 For more information : http://soustrajica.com

Project summary

Choose Your Future  is a project focused on cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices between schools. The project covers a variety of topics which link to: labor market issues incl. career guidance , youth unemployment; early school leaving, combating failure in education; entrepreneurial learning - entrepreneurship education.

The most relevant priorities addressed by the project are as follows: promoting the take-up of practical entrepreneurial experiences in education, training and youth work and young people's social inclusion and well-being.

     The objectives of the project are to build entrepreneurial skills, raise students’ awareness of their character and abilities, to improve their IT skills while working on various projects, to raise attainment of under-achieving students, to get to know the labor market and broaden their horizons about the variety of jobs available as well as to learn more about the jobs in the area. It is also meant to equip  students with knowledge about the specifics of different jobs by job shadowing and interviews. What is more, the project aims to raise the quality of career counseling by improving students’ self-evaluation skills and their ability to assess their suitability for a particular job,to raise students’ awareness of the demands, requirements, problems and offers of the European labor market, to develop the English language and assimilation skills at all schools. The project also helps to build and develop the so- called 21st century skills (critical thinking, problem solving, research practices, creativity, artistry, curiosity, imagination, innovation, personal expression, planning, self-discipline, adaptability, initiative, leadership, teamwork, ICT literacy, entrepreneurship).

     There are 7 schools participating in the project, Angel Karaliychev Secondary school from Bulgaria is acting as the coordinator. The partner schools are Dalum Academy of Agricultural Business (Denmark), Ogres Tehnikums (Latvia), Tamsalu Gymnasium (Estonia), Gimnazjum Nr5 im. Arkadego Fiedlera (Poland), AHMET SARI ANADOLU LISESI (Turkey) and Liceul Teoretic "MIRCEA ELIADE" Lupeni (Romania).  5 participating schools provide general secondary education, 2 participants belong to the category of vocational educational establishments.

     A general approach throughout the project is to turn the whole process into practical and mutual learning by implementing active conscious use of Bloom’s 6 Taxonomy (Knowledge – Comprehension – Application – Analysis – Synthesis – Evaluation). 

     During the project the main tools for communication for partners will be the Internet:  e-mails, video conferences, Facebook project page, Skype and other messengers. There will be 7 project meetings in total- 3 during the first year of cooperation and 4-during the second one. In order to achieve the aims of the project a variety of activities will be scheduled. Students will take part in training activities in order to get skills for successful implementation of the key tasks and sharing experiences in the given field as well. These trainings will be held in 5 of the participating schools throughout the 2-year period of cooperation. 

     In addition, students will be engaged in a number of other activities:  creating a project logo, research in order to find out why people work and creating collages using the means of Art and IT technologies,  a research on the 16 career clusters and choose a job they can perform,  job shadowing  and a diary of their experience, street interviews to find out people's experiences and attitudes towards different jobs and overall career prospects,  conferences with former graduates, research and learn about jobs that are disappearing but still needed and present the results in presentations,  a video diary about the jobs available in their regions,  organize charitable bazaars on different occasions,  create posters for the national days of professions and will reveal what their dream job is.

     The work on the project will lead to u number of results and outcomes: exhibitions of family job trees, blogs, video-diaries and presentations (job- shadowing,  the top 5 most wanted jobs in the partner countries in terms of social position, income, prospects, responsibilities, disappearing jobs that are still needed ), a book and an i-book of collages and essays of the students about their dream jobs, exhibitions of posters , video interviews, conferences with former graduates, video diaries of the jobs available in their towns,- charitable bazaars,  displays of posters for the national days of jobs in the Erasmus+ corner.

The project will developing links between the schools and local business and will produce 5 Online open courses.

Project description

Many young people leave school prematurely, which leads to increasing levels of unemployment, particularly among young people. A strong correlation between education and the chance of employment make us believe that by improving learning possibilities (Strong and well-performing education), career knowledge  (e.g. by counseling) and training and youth (learning) systems, it will be possible to help deal with the issues.  Relevant skills and knowledge will help students to master the challenges at the labor market and within the competitive economy.

In order for this project to proceed, all seven schools have discussed and negotiated the overall objectives an impact that we wish to attain from this as follows:

• tobuilt entrepreneurial skills in the participating students;

• to develop practical skills of using ICT technology out of school curricular;

• to raise awareness of the importance of healthy lifestyle;

• to raise students’ awareness of their character and abilities and help them to choose their educational path in order to combat early school leaving or dropping out of school;

• to raise attainment of under-achieving students;

• to get to know the labor market and broaden their horizons concerning the variety of jobs available;

• to learn more about the jobs in the area;

• to enable students to learn about the specifics of different jobs by job shadowing and interviews;

• to raise the quality of career counseling by improving students’ self-evaluation skills and their ability to assess their suitability for a particular job;

• to help students become aware of job prospects for the next decade – job needed and jobs disappearing;

• to raise students’ awareness of the demands, requirements, problems and offers of the European labor market;

• to develop the English language and assimilation skills at all schools;

• to build and develop the so- called 21st century skills:

1. Critical thinking, problem solving, reasoning;

2. Research practices;

3.Creativity, artistry, curiosity, imagination, innovation, personal expression;

4. Self-direction, planning, self-discipline, adaptability, initiative;

5.Leadership, teamwork, collaboration, cooperation;

6.Information and communication technology (ITC) literacy, media and Internet literacy;

7.Economic literacy, entrepreneurship;

A general approach to turn this rationale into practical and mutual learning is to implement active conscious use of Bloom's 6 levels (Knowledge – Recall or locate information; Comprehension – Understand learned facts; Application – Apply what has been learned to new situations; Analysis – “Take apart” information to examine different parts; Synthesis – Create or invent something; bring together more than one idea; Evaluation – Consider evidence to support conclusions). We want actively to implement learning at the higher levels. The combined effort to produce and use Online learning within the curriculum is intended to realize this aim.