 |
COMPARISON
OF BUSINESS POLICIES IN VOCATIONAL EDUCATION AND TRAINING IN EU COUNTRIES
AND ADAPTATION OF GOOD PRACTICES AT VET SCHOOLS AND VET PROVIDERS CO-BUS-VET |
Partners
QUARTER MEDIATION NLNetherlands
Prywatne Centrum Ksztalcenia
Kadr PL-Poland
CENTRO INTEGRADO PUBLICO DE FORMACION PROFESIONAL MISERICORDIA ES-Spain
Institut E-seniors FR-France
D1 Summary
The
objectives and activities of the project CO-BUS-VET address the teachers &
students of economical subjects in VET schools and to trainers & trainees
from VET providers. The learners from VET schools and EU labour
market will develop an entrepreneurial attitude and way of thinking, which will
allow them to find easier a place on the labour
market (e.g. by starting their own business).
The project
intends to create and improve the entrepreneurial competencies of the staff in
VET organizations involved in the project, to realize an exchange of good
practices and to innovate the traditional entrepreneurial education, by making
it more creative, transforming the business information in a didactic method
itself, integrated in the curriculum.
In this
respect, the project will encourage learners to set up their own virtual
companies, getting involved in a real life situation in the labour
market; additionally, they will actively use ICT to understand how an
enterprise works.
In the
schools involved in the project, the entrepreneurship will be included in the
VET didactic work, in order to improve and spread a new vision for the economic
education for today, according to the curriculum and to the needs of actual
economic crisis.
In order to
achieve all these, the partnership will use presentations, debates, workshops,
class assistance and exchanges of good practices in business teaching, within
VET education.
The project
outcomes are: project WEB SITE; project LOGO e-NEWSLETTERS; NETWORK of VIRTUAL
TRAINING FIRMS (in the schools involved in the project); BUSINESS GLOSSARY;
EXHIBITION with the poster proposals & the products of the virtual
companies; DVD with ISBN; DIGITAL BOOKLET with comparative studies; GOOD
PRACTICE EXAMPLES OF BUSINESS TEACHING&TRAINING METHODS.
D3 Project objectives and strategy
The main
goal of CO-BUS-VET is to promote business education culture among our VET
organizations, to help teachers/trainers become familiar to modern European
methods of teaching economical subjects.
CONCRETE
OBJECTIVES:
-To support
teachers&trainers "to use" business
knowledge to improve their teaching skills
-To support
teachers&trainers for vocational guidance of
their students&trainees and to encourage them to
think economically, in order to understand the mechanisms of the free economy
-To help
teachers, trainers, students, trainees to grow personally and professionally,
to develop their creativity and team work spirit
-To help
teachers inspire their students to achieve a healthy business world and to
develop the entrepreneurial behaviour
-To promote
the contact between generations, intercultural experience and exchange between
partners and a better understanding and knowledge of the European linguistic,
cultural and social environment.
SUBJECTS TO
ADDRESS:
Students
are not enough motivated for finalizing the compulsory education, this being
one of the main reasons of drop-outs and the old methods are not good for the
21st century learner. Therefore, they need to know more about: labour market; competition
starting
a firm according to each country legislation; marketing; financial management and
the accounting mechanism; innovation and creativity in business and business
communication.
The teachers&trainers will improve the quality of their
teaching, through the transfer of knowledge between partners, which will help
them be more involved with the students they train, so that students rapidly
enter the labor market or the business sector,for a fair and clean economic world.
APPROACH:
We will
include Business Studies/Management/Marketing/Accounting/Finance Studies into
the regular school curriculum of the schools involved in the project (e.g.Romanian and Latvian partners silent high schools and
of the Turkish high school) and in-service training organized by the VET
providers.
The project
meetings will be organized,in
order to compare different economical teaching experiences. In this respect,
the project meetings include:
presentations; brainstorming sessions; round tables; lectures; workshops;
Internet research; debates; demonstrative lessons in schools or /training
courses for teachers; studies; questionnaires/survey; meeting evaluation;
cultural activities.
D4 Results and outcomes
F Project implementation
https://www.facebook.com/BeingandBecomingFilm
http://www.100000entrepreneurs.com/
http://www.uniondescouveuses.com/
http://france.ashoka.org/jeronimo-calderon
F1 Distribution of tasks
The project
CO-BUS-VET is the result of all participants' involvement, so each organization
will cooperate and interact with the others for the creation of the project
outcomes; participation in the project meetings and in the evaluation and
dissemination process; creating a project section on their websites; making the
reports for their NAs. At the beginning and at the end of project we'll fill in
questionnaires and will make surveys, in order to measure the project progress.
Three times in the 2 year period an e-newsletter will be published.
The project
activities will be conducted both between meetings and during the project meetings, therefore each partner will perform specific
tasks, the distribution of the tasks in the project being the following:
NL:
coordination of the project activities and of the evaluation process;
organization of the KICK-OFF MEETING (Oct 2013); drafting feedback
questionnaires; presentation/workshop with the topic `Training course for VET
specialists: BUSINESS COMMUNICATION`
RO:
coordination the dissemination; initiation of the google
discussion group; presentation "Training firms method"; network
initiation; organization the
INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIOM in RO (June 2015); publishing the DVD with ISBN.
LV:
organization of a PROJECT MEETING (Sept 2014) and a CREATIVE BUSINES WORKSHOP -
for students
TR: PROJECT
MEETING (June 2014); final form of the project POSTER (MATTEML); debate
"ECONOMICAL EFFICIENCY"(MTEGD)
UK:
creation and maintenance of the project website; project LOGO; draft survey
content and final form"THE NEEDS OF BUSINESS
EDUCATION" and finalizing the survey
IT: draft
survey content and final form "LINK SCHOOL-LABOUR MARKET"; project
meeting (Mar.2014); round table "THE ROLE OF ICT IN TEACHING BUSINESS`
PL: final
form of the BUSINESS GLOSARY; 3 newsletters; STUDY- `BUSINESS NEGOTIATION and
its main steps
AU: PROJECT
MEETING (Nov.2014); debate "`PERSONAL AND PROFESSIONAL QUALITIES OF A
SUCCESSFUL BUSINESSMAN"
ES: PROJECT
MEETING (Mar.2015); workshop `HOW TO BE A SUCCESSFUL BUSINESSMAN`
FR: PROJECT
MEETING and EXHIBITION (June 2015); round table for the managers/ directors of
the partners' organizations NEW APPROACHES AND SOLUTIONS IN ENTREPRENEURIAL EDUCATION IN EUROPE`.
Additionally,
each VET schools will initiate a project corner, will create VIRTUAL TRAINING
FIRMS in the school, will be part of the virtual network and will take part in
the contest for the creation of the project POSTER.
F2 Cooperation and communication
The project
will represent a major opportunity of lifelong learning for all teachers /
trainers involved in the partnership, and all of them will all learn something
from each other, because they come from
very different areas each of them, not only geographically but also business
teaching and training.
The
partnership will represent an effective cooperation based on honesty and active
involvement, because all partners will have to share to the other colleagues their own
experience of teaching business.
The project
coordinator must pay attention at all times and to inform all other
organizations whenever a new topic appears.
Each
partner organization will organize a project meeting and/or will take part in a
meeting organizes by the other project partners and will achieve the synergy
among the participants in all the activities that they will coordinate. These
"face-to-face" project meetings should be the main way of
communication for the team, with the aim to strength the cooperation of the
partnership and to update everyone with the news and the use in teaching
business.
Before each
meeting, the host organization of the next project meeting will announce the
meetings' agenda, per day, activities, will organize the logistics
(accommodation, meals, local travel) and at the end of
the meeting will make the minute in which to record all events, decisions and
conclusions.
The
managers of VET high schools and VET provider organizations will be able to
exchange best practices in business education' management, to improve the
attitude and quality of social atmosphere of their organizations.
English
will be the communication language of the project.
The Internet
will be mainly used for communication through regular e-mail, by initiating a
discussion group in which all partners will participate, and Internet will be
used for conferences between meetings (e.g. Skype /Yahoo). The electronic
communications will be used for project meetings and ICT technology will be
used for the all digital products.
Another
mean of communication both within the project and outside, will be the
Newsletter, which will present the general nformation
about project achievements and actions. And finally, another way of
communication will be web pages / web site of the partners/ project.
We will not
give up, obviously, the traditional modes of communication - telephone, fax or
regular mail, to eventually improve the quality of messages.
F3 Participants‘ involvement
All
institutions in the project are in different contexts involved in training
activities (initial or continuous). They deal with the target group of students
and young people (a big part of them being unemployed).
Although
the project is mainly aimed at teachers&trainers
to improve their economy and business teaching methods, and only as a
consequence will address the subjects of learning (students/trainees), the
learners will be involved in all phases of the project, since at first, in all
planning, implementation and evaluation for the entire period of the
partnership.
In the
CO-BUS-VET the partners will have specific tasks, depending on their profile,
but they will perform also common tasks (see F1). If possible, organizations
will organize demo training courses for teachers and trainers specific in order
to improve business delivery (e.g. the Dutch partner intents to prepare and
provide a course "Business communication" for teachers and trainers
in VET, focused on the issues of entrepreneurial education).
Teachers&trainers will have a dual role in the project: as counsellors
for their students&trainees, but also as learners
who wish to learn more and become more successful in teaching economics and
business.
Teachers
will participate in courses and project meeting, will contribute to the project
through the exchange of knowledge and best practices and will be the
ambassadors of their institutions for the other European partners.
All
participating staff of the partner institutions are
already directly involved into project planning and development. After the
kick-off meeting, the relevant staff will organize focused workshops on
detailed project planning, sharing concrete tasks for activities - implementation,
communication, dissemination, monitoring and evaluation.
Evaluation
and expectations questionnaires will be completed during the project so teachers&trainers and their students&trainees will be able to assess the quality of
partnership and of the project outcomes.
The most
experienced partners in European projects will advise the new ones, in order to
avoid problems or conflicts.
A possible
result of this partnership will be to deepen the project work and issues by
applying for a new project in the "Erasmus for all", to be able to
transfer results and develop targeted strategies for the involvement of
Entrepreneurial Education in different institutions of Vocational Education and
Training in Europe.
F4 Integration into outgoing activities
Students&trainees of our direct or silent partners, will be involved in completing
questionnaires, evaluation sheets and in developing learning activities by
virtual training firms, which will be effectively included in the curriculum.
The training firms will be established and will work directly on being lead by
students; the students will organize the virtual companies in functional compartmentslike real companies; will choose to work in
departments, but over a year, in rotation, will work in all compartments; will
have the opportunity to see what they like more to do and what suits them for a
better career decision.
The
students will be responsible and accountable,they will learn to calculate economic indicators,to identify sources of business financing,to acquire awareness of market and product,to establish the correct professional
relationships, to prepare accounting documents under the laws of his country
and to build their own entrepreneurial skills. All theoretical notions will be
within the classes of Management, Finance,Marketing,Accounting
concepts that will enhance in the virtual transactions of their firms. In all
virtual training firms, the students will participate in workshops for
creativity and innovation,that
will further prepare them for the business' world.
Following
the exchange of best practices in the project,teachers&trainers will reinvent themselves and
will seek the most effective methods of education and training of their students,the presentation of the business world as an
intelligible and understandable mechanism to be taught especially practical and
less theoretical. Teachers will present their curricula more attractively,interactive,by
stimulating their student’s entrepreneurial skills,communication,
team work, socializing and behavior in a competitive business environment.
In the same
time, the partners will raise awareness towards the issues within their
institutions and encourage their teachers and trainers to use innovative
methods and to promote entrepreneurship in their everyday training activities,as a solution for a
better integration of the young people on the labour
market. Project outcomes,methods
and materials will be made achievable for all staff members (website) and can
easily be adapted in the every day activities of each
organization. Some of the approaches can be used without any special strategy,simply by using some of
the project’s methods,results and findings in own
training measures.
F5 Evaluation
Project
evaluation will help to the achievement of coherence and will be done once the
project activities start and will finish when the project ends, after the last
activity.
Each
partner will appoint a team made up both of teachers/trainers &
students/trainees and/or managers, who will analyze the assessment, after each
activity, will monitor the progress of the project, noting whether the actions
taken and the actions planned coincides, and whether the project objectives are
met.
The teachers&trainers involved in the project will
regularly assess the activities and the skills,knowledge,competences, abilities,attitudes
their learners have gathered.
At the
beginning of the project an expectation questionnaire will be filled in by the
participants, to better know what are the needs of those
involved in the project in order to adapt our activities; at the end, a
feedback questionnaire will show if we met the expectations.
Since parts
of the project will be integrated in the curriculum,school headmasters will evaluate periodically the
following:
• if the project had an impact on the curricula
• if the skills of the staff were achieved greater levels
• if the staff involved are motivated to expand their
knowledge
• if the project helped the participants to achieve the
European dimension
For the
evaluation we will use:questionnaires;
interviews; “face to face”discussions at project
meetings and discussions between the project meetings.
The
evaluation will be both qualitative (p roject
content, project progress, satisfaction levels and strong points) and
quantitative (number of learners involved, number of teachers&trainers
involved, number of media appearances etc).
We will
issue specific evaluation forms, common to all partners:
• project meeting evaluations,
• partnership evaluation,
• assessment of implementation of partnership by each partner,
• a mutual
evaluation in cascade,in which partner 2 will
evaluate the activity of partner 1,partner 3 will evaluate partner 2 and so on,
each partner being at the end of each project year assessed and evaluator in
the same time and it will be an external and more reliable, objective and
therefore more competent evaluation.
At the end
of the partnership, we will establish a valorization plan in to get feedback
from each partner about the follow-up of the project (e.g. evaluation from the
NA, results of new way of teaching, new European projects, activities to spread
the results after the project period).
F6 Dissemination and use of results
The
dissemination is an on-going activity; it will start as soon as the project
will be approved, by announcement and project presentation in the organizations
involved in the project and in the local communities, and will continue with a three levels dissemination in the project life:
IN THE
PARTICIPATING ORGANISATION:
-After
improving their knowledge on economics, business and entrepreneurship, teachers&trainers will share their experience with
their learners by approaching them and improving communication of the teaching
staff, as well as improving their pedagogical work efficiency.
-The teachers&trainers involved in CO-BUS-VET will become a
source of inspiration for their colleagues, who will see the multiple benefits
of European projects. In this way, they will find the achievement of the
trained professional and educational accomplishments.
- An E -
Folio, with structured information twill be created
in schools with the aim to allow upgrading and updating lessons, so everybody
we will be able to use all integrated curricular lessons in the future;
- The most
successful results of the project will be conducted directly in the training
situation, in front of the learners who will mostly benefit from the
professional progress of their teachers&trainers.
IN THE
LOCAL COMMUNITY
-dissemination
meetings will be organized, with the participation of local/regional organizations
and information about the project outcomes and activities will be given;
-support
will be offered to colleagues from other organizations to implement such
projects;
-the
project web site will be maintained for at least one year after the project
ends, in order to inspire and guide anyone who wants to approach the subject;
-public
meetings and round tables will be organized and press articles will be
published by project partners in the project time and after it ends;
-in the
last project meeting the outcomes will be presented; the meeting will include
also an exhibition with the learners' works and the posters;
-the
partner from RO will organize an international symposium and will publish the
best practices on a DVD with ISBN.
IN THE
WIDER LIFELONG LEARNING COMMUNITY:
-the web
site and the newsletters will inspire everybody who might be interested in the
topics to track activity on their own institution, so everybody can have the
opportunity to track the progress of the project, to inspire, awaken their
mimetic attitude, imitate our effort and to come up with innovative ideas.
G2 Work program
