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Teaching Entrepreneurship in schools: Experiential Approach
Start date: Jun 1, 2015, End date: May 31, 2016 PROJECT  FINISHED 

The students of the consortium of the two daily Vocational Schools (EPAL) and in particular, those of the evening Vocational School of Giannitsa, come from disadvantaged population groups, have low school performance , reduced skills development opportunities and increased dropout rates. They wish to acquire essential educational qualifications to be integrated as individuals and improve socioeconomically. Acquiring business skills enhances the probability of finding a job. The European Commission is committed to the promotion of entrepreneurship education . It is true , however , that the Greek educational system orients the graduates towards finding jobs (How to find a job) but not towards Entrepreneurship (How to make a job).Teaching entrepreneurship finds most teachers unprepared, since they haven’t been trained on relevant issues . The proposal involved the training of teachers οn entrepreneurship in education. This was realized through mobility in two flows of 30 teachers from the consortium of the Evening Vocational School, the 1st and the 2nd Vocational Schools of Giannitsa which are co-located in the same school complex. The training content covered basic knowledge of the theory of entrepreneurship in education, the relationship between the cultural background (culture) and entrepreneurship, teaching subjects and its application in the classroom. The training proposed helped the participants to understand the concept of entrepreneurship in education as a set of key competences for all rather than a narrow understanding on how an enterprise works. In this way teachers will try to cultivate and improve students' business skills in order for them to undertake business initiatives and innovate. The Mobility took place in April 2016, the first flow of 15 teachers from the 9th to the 16th and the second flow from the 16th to the 23rd . Participants are teachers who want to be trained and renew their knowledge so that they can be effective and helpful to their students. Αfter such training on entrepreneurship in education, they wish to be able to provide a way of correlation of education to the labor market and to encourage creativity, reflectivity and initiative capacity of their own students. Besides, this is generally consistent with their interest in lifelong learning. The participants were chosen from a total of approximately 100 teachers serving in the three schools of the consortium, based on criteria such as their involvement in the pedagogical team to prepare the project even from the phase of writing the application, their very good knowledge of English, their organizational skills, their effectiveness when working in groups, their willingness to share their experiences when they return, their skills on ICT, their interest in practicing entrepreneurship programs as well as their participation in school activities and European programs. Before the seminar teachers were informed by the working teams about the content of the educational program and the organizational details. The main activity of mobility focused around the participation in a seminar entitled “Teaching Entrepreneurship in schools: Experiential Approach”, which will last for seven days. Mobility wasn’t limited to theoretical training, but also included experiential activities, short lectures followed by discussions, group work, study of joint approaches to developing entrepreneurial skills, visit to a school where entrepreneurship is taught and monitor teaching in practice as well as visits to an innovative business, highlighting practices that can be applied in our country, to help the transition of young people from unemployment to work. Communication will the host organization goes on after the training activity for dissemination reasons but also due to anything new concerning the field of entrepreneurship in education. One of the expected results is the improvement of the daily educational practice in all courses .Teachers became acquainted with innovative methods and practices on the development of entrepreneurial skills of students to be able to transform many aspects of teaching and learning, encourage and develop entrepreneurship, to improve the professional skills of students and enhance their efficiency both in their professional and in their private life. The relationship between students and teachers will improve significantly and the school community will become more receptive and friendly to industry and business. Participants in the action plan informed their colleagues at school about the content of the training and organizing a relevant training has been predicted for next school year in collaboration with the Department of Secondary Education of Pella. The school websites are updated and there are publications in local blogs concerning both the project and the importance of entrepreneurial skills. A video was also made and published on you tube: https://youtu.be/0FJ158wIBns.
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