The concept of "The World is My Oyster" was born out of the realisation that it is difficult for our students to anticipate the future and particularly their future career and jobs. That's why we wanted to make them realise that one of the aims of their school education is to give them the best tools to find a job that will really fulfill them. However, considering their ages - from 9 to 16 years old - we decided we couldn't just launch them in work experiences abroad as they will do later, we hope, but that we needed to prepare them, without missing any step, to this future enriching experience.
Part 1 : A European project, what for?
Thus, we will start with a first part dedicated to the discovery of Europe and the European institutions, to make them realise that the labour market is not a national market any more but that they must consider the whole European Union as the place where they will work.
Before the mobility in Strasbourg, using digital tablets or I-Pads, the students from each school will prepare a presentation of their country on Thinglink, they will develop their ICT, History ,Geography and Languages skills.
A contest could take place whose results will be given during the mobility : creating a logo for the project.
During the mobility : the presentations will be shown to their partners in Strasbourg where they will meet at the end of the period. Strasbourg has been chosen as the first meeting point because we wanted to show our students the Capital of Europe and all its European institutions . Moreover, our project including two schools located in the same town, we thought it would not be relevant to organise two mobilities there; that's why, even if we wanted to stay in France, we chose the Alsatian city.
Insisting on collaboration will be a governing principle all along our project. In Strasbourg, our students will realise that our project was made possible because of the collaboration of 28 European countries which decided to unite. We will divide the students into international teams and organise simple collaborative activities so that the students get to know each other and understand the need for cooperation and collaboration.
There, the participants will vote for the best logo for the project, they will visit the European Parliament, the Parlementarium and the European Quarter.
This first activity is to be considered as the launch of “The World is My Oyster”, because it will take place at the beginning of the two-year period of the project. We really want our students to understand the meaning of the European Union, first because we want them to know what the Erasmus+ programme is, and secondly because the topic of our project is to be developed in Europe. This part could have been entitled “Europe is My Oyster”.
Consequently, the students will learn about Europe, its history, how the EU was created and expanded over the years. They will meet students from the other partner schools, develop their language skills, learn to collaborate and they will come back to their respective schools to launch the project there.
Part 2 : Who am I?
In the second part, the students will do some little "introspection" wondering who they are, what their interests are, describing their personality, in other words they will learn to discover themselves before discovering their European partners.
That’s why, before the meeting in A Coruña, Spain, on a Padlet, using class Ipads or digital tablets, the students from our different schools will post a description of themselves. It would be a good way to start exchanging with their foreign friends. They could do a word cloud portrait too with Tagxedo for instance. They could also do a kind of self-portrait on video or using Genial.ly or Canva. Skills will be developed in the following subjects : English, Digital Skills, Art…
A contest could take place whose results will be given during the mobility : drawing a self-portait.
During the meeting, we will put children in groups e.g. one person from each country for a group of 4. All children will have to help each member of their group discover their perfect job. 1) Psychometric testing - i.e. online testing that tells you your perfect job. 2) Create a questionnaire together about personality, aspirations, strengths, weaknesses etc. 3) Create a fact file about each member of group.
A visit to the Casa-Museo Picasso in A Coruña, could also help the students to understand the importance of childhood experience in the choice of one's future job : indeed, even if this part of Picasso's life is not well known, it certainly was in A Coruña that he started painting.
The participants will develop their speaking and writing skills in English, they will meet students from the other partner schools, they will develop their digital and their collaborative skills.
They will learn about the other students’ interests, qualities and personal traits. And they will learn to overcome prejudices.
At the same time they will discover Spanish culture.
Part 3 : Jobs in my country and in Europe.
In the third part, they will discover jobs in Europe : the jobs that children dream of doing, the traditional jobs that are tending towards disappearance, the jobs reserved to migrants...
Before the mobility, they will make surveys to find out how jobs could be classified (traditional/jobs of the future, attractive /non-attractive ...). They will, in international teams, collaborate online to create job cards giving information such as studies, salary, working times, etymology of the job’s name. They will make little films about the traditional jobs to be found in each partner school's region and also focus on the jobs of the future and their requirements.
A contest could take place whose results will be given during the mobility : creating an advertisement for one of the jobs mentioned in the research above. The best one will be awarded.
Then during the meeting in Volos, Greece, in groups, the ambassadors would create an infographic using venngage.com or infogram.com regarding a different element of the research above for each group. Afterwards using the fact files created during the former meeting in Spain, they would act as a job centre matching the students with their ideal job.
A Greek person could intervene to speak about the job he/she is doing.
The participants will develop their speaking and writing skills in English, they will meet students from the other partner schools, they will develop their digital and their collaborative skills.
They will develop their knowledge about jobs.
They will discover Greek culture.
Part 4 : How can I get a job?
The fourth part will answer the question "How do I get a job?" in other words, where do I see job offers, how do I write an application letter, a CV, how do I meet professsionals...
Before the mobility in Kidderminster, in the UK, our students will apply for a job. Each student having his fact file and his job card, will apply for a job and all the application forms and the CVs will be posted online to the team in charge of the job offer concerned.
A contest could take place whose results will be given during the mobility : creating original/funny job offers or offers for jobs of the future.
Then during the mobility, job interviews will take place. A jury will watch them and decide which person will get the job.
Other activities can include activities that are sometimes done at interviews to show other skills - logic, languages or even an ‘in-tray’ activity which are very popular in England. (The in-tray exercise is an assessment activity that’s widely used by employers to measure candidates’ suitability for a job. It’s a business simulation where you play a member of staff who has to deal with the workload of a typical day. )
The participants will develop their speaking and writing skills in English, they will meet students from the other partner schools, they will develop their digital and their collaborative skills.
They will learn to write a CV, a cover letter, how to act and behave at a job interview.
They will learn about British culture.
Part 5 : How can I make myself more employable?
Eventually, in the fifth part of the project, the question will be "How do I make myself more employable?"This part of the project would help children to realise that there is more to getting a job than just qualifications and that volunteerism will make them understand some of the real value of work which is that it will help them become better human beings.
Before the mobility in Ecueillé, France, each child involved will take on a certain challenge like
-volunteering : for instance, they could spend a day cleaning up their town, help at old people’s home, create an organization at school like a time bank, to help the other students during their free time.
-improving their language skills : (in English, French, Spanish or even in Greek) they could use memrise/ duolingo/ quizlet and practise on a regular basis so as to improve their skills. At the end, they would receive their Europass Language Passport assessing their level according to the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (abbreviated as CEFR).For example, we would expect our students aged 15 to reach the A2 level in English.
-learning a new skill : they could learn coding , how to touch type, prepare their "Attestation de Sécurité Routière"/ Compulsory Basic Training about road safety.
A contest could take place whose results will be given during the mobility : In teams, students will choose an organization or a cause to defend and they will decide on the actions to do to raise money.
Once in France, the ambassadors will present the different actions and there will be votes to decide on the best group challenge taking into account the relevance of the action, the sum of money raised and the collaborative work.
Then, organised in international teams, the ambassadors will participate in Ecueillé and its surroundings to a shorter group challenge where they will help a cause : one group could go to the old people's home to teach them a few words in their languages, another could go to the nursery school and teach little children traditional songs from their countries, a third group could go to the library...etc.
Participating in these activities will develop the participants’ language skills (they will mainly use English to communicate in groups but they will also use French when they are at the old people’s home or at the nursery school), their collaborative output (they will have to work together, to decide on what to do together, to cooperate...) and also their humane and altruistic qualities (which will be of great value in their future career even if they are not easily measurable).
They will learn about French culture.
We have decided to include younger pupils as well as older ones in " The World is My Oyster"so as to see how children consider jobs when they are little and how this idea changes as they get older. Two of the schools of our project, Heathfield Knoll School in England and Colegio Santo Domingo in Spain, host primary school children. For that reason, Ecole Primaire François Rabelais in Ecueillé (France)has been added to the project, allowing to strengthen the links with Collège Calmette et Guérin located in Ecueillé as well. The Music School of Volos in Greece will give us the opportunity to have older students too.
Although we were keen on developing key competences, we also thought that through the activities with their foreign friends, through teamwork, they would develop their language competences, their digital skills and their collaborating abilities.
Being able to do this project would allow our students to develop all these skills, they would be prepared to become European citizens ready to consider Europe and the world ‘as their oysters’. This project will offer them the opportunity to meet other European students and work in partnership with them to achieve greater things than they could ever achieve alone.
So why not take this journey to the world of jobs, careers, professions...all together?