“Skills4life” addresses the problem of young unemployed people by focusing on transversal skills that are essential to make people “employable” and enable them to find a job not only in their own countries but also in the whole EU. The project also improves important basic competences like linguistic and digital competences.
“Skills4life” project intends to enhance the quality of expected learning outcomes by enriching Foreign languages, Entrepreneurship, Civic courses with innovative tools from the field of the ICT.
In this project we focus on supporting innovative activities that foster the assessment of transversal skills and that promote the use of Content and Language Integrated Learning or reciprocal learning to increase language competences among learners of all ages from various fields of education including those with migrant background.
The exchange of experiences and good practices, the learning activities, the workshops, the joint researches and studies, the educational visits and meetings as well as the actual students’ and teachers’ mobility will lead to an increase in the participation of learning and the motivation for learning, a higher level of education and a high lifelong learning perspective.
The partners of the project noticed that traditional schools are often not attractive enough to the students (it is common pupils drop out of school early) , they do not prepare them for the challenges of 21st century in terms of life in general and in particular for the very demanding job market. This project offers them an open and innovative education – students and teachers also learn outside the classrooms, they use the technologies they already use in daily basis (it is a powerful way to support independent, enquiry-based learning and peer collaboration), students “become” teachers and vice versa, the family is also involved, learning is project-based as well is the motivation to achieve goals.
In this project we also pay attention to the teacher’s profession as the one which is in constant need of development, change. In “Skills4life” we support teachers to aim for high quality teaching, to deal with complex classroom realities and to adopt new methods and tools (by observing, comparing teaching in partners’ countries).
Summary:
We are living in an era of accelerated change that not only concerns technological developments, but also society as a whole. As a consequence, the skills and competences needed for work and life in the 21st century are continuously evolving. It is generally accepted that transversal skills have a profound effect on employability. Unemployment among young people is rampant in the EU. The 2013 unemployment rate for the ages under 25y.o. in the partners’ countries is: Spain-55,7%, Croatia- 50%, Cyprus-38,9%, Portugal-37,7%, Poland -27,2%, France-24,8%, and at a lower level in Austria 10% . Therefore our countries, our schools, our students, their parents need projects whose aim is to increase transversal skills to allow employability among young people.
It becomes more and more obvious that effective training on transversal skills has a tremendous effect on employability and entrepreneurship. This project was developed after teachers/parents in partner’s schools realised the needs of their students/children (it addresses both students -14-19 years old- and teachers in secondary schools) to be better equipped with the above-mentioned skills. At an international level, the free movement of workers within the EU has meant that those with the correct skills are able to find work in any country in Europe.
It is crucial that these transversal skills are identified and shared amongst our European students as this will increase their chances to get a job in other EU countries. It will also develop their cultural understanding of other EU countries, provide them with practical experience of business practices in the EU and the transversal skills that this entails, get the most up to date skills and requirements and provide them with the platform to learn and share their experiences together. Therefore each school will select a local company to collect data through a 10 questions survey. This work will be the main source of information which students will use for the “European Skills4Life Handbook”.
Another reason for this work to be carried out at transnational level is that teachers will have the opportunity to learn about different approaches and multiple perspectives on transversal skills in the curriculum of each partner country and to collaborate with European colleagues on the introduction of innovative tools in the teaching procedure.
In order to fully research and analyse the specific requirements and skills to be shared among our student it is clearly necessary to have an international collaboration between schools. Comparing the data collected from the participating schools will provide practical methods and relevant opinions on the issues of employment skills and the requirements for future European employees.
Transnational cooperation will help both students and teachers to experience the diversity of European culture and the need to maintain its unity. The project will be undertaken across the width of the labour market within the 7 partner countries in order to provide a relevant array of data from the whole of Europe.
Moreover, students will have the opportunity to participate in workshops and debates with students of the different partner countries and to be involved in “face to face” discussions about the present and the future of the EU in terms of employability and entrepreneurship and to visit local companies in their own countries, as well as in partners’ countries.
Goals:
– to develop employability through transversal skills acquisition: 1. Learning to learn; 2. Interpersonal, intercultural and social competences and civic competence; 3. Sense of initiative and entrepreneurship; 4. Cultural expressions
– to provide students with a summary of the skills needed to get a job within the EU through the “European Skills4Life Handbook”
– to maximize the learning potential of students, encouraging self-reflecting and critical thinking on how to use these skills to chart their career path, offering tools that learners may personalize and use for self –promotion
– to develop awareness of the diversity of the local /national/international labor market and employment opportunities, equipping students with research skills and job searching techniques to create innovative tools to support continuous development of learners’ transversal skills, increasing the students’ motivation by encouraging collaboration and experience sharing, fostering creativity and peer assessment
– to support teachers to practice the ability to work in interdisciplinary and multi-national teams with a direct impact on teaching quality by sharing methods, strategies, ideas
– provide practical activities related to international mock interviews, CV and application letter and work in another language.