”Spiru Haret” National Computer Science College”
About our project
All six partner schools in the project experience similar needs to develop their students’ entrepreneurship as well as their knowledge of foreign languages, with particular attention to English as the universal language of international communication. It is a normal situation when people want to make money when they start a business. Partner schools however intend to make their students more sensitive to social needs their local societies have. Social Entrepreneurship is a field which is not that well developed and discussed in the countries involved in the project. Here the main goal of the social entrepreneur is not to make profit, but to implement widespread improvements in their society, to solve a social need. Partners believe that their students need to learn from an early age how to care about the others and the society they live in.
In order to improve their ability to solve problems observed in their local societies, partner schools in this project believe that it is a great idea to be able to analyse, compare and possibly to jointly try to solve their problems and build social enterprises. That greatly increases students’ motivation to learn and work in order to achieve their goals. Similarly it influences the teachers assisting them. When one sees the need to learn a language he / she acquires it faster and more effectively. Therefore partners agree that implementing CLIL (Content and Language Integrated Learning) methodology would be desirable here.
It is common that students and teachers use their native language in English classes, which is not an ideal situation. Students’ English level achieved at school is not as good as it would be expected.
Therefore teachers see the need to go for a more aim oriented approach focusing on learning language and vocabulary related to certain content areas. In this way students have to use materials adapted to achieve their goals. All the engaged partners’ common goal is to make students use English and vocabulary related to Entrepreneurship in real life situations.
The possibility to learn and try to solve their local social problems and teach students entrepreneurship at the same time in international company is a driving power of this project. The chance to experience different problems and attitudes towards solving them combined with possibilities to exchange good practices is a great motivation to make a successful project. What is more, all partner schools will be able to include a new English teaching / learning methodology (CLIL) in their schools’ curricula, which will improve their educational effectiveness. Furthermore, participation in this project will facilitate its participating students' situation on labour market after having finished education or it will also allow them to make better choices when deciding on their further education on higher levels. In this way, students will be prepared for a future job, will have a positive attitude towards a career.
Prior to application, representatives of all partners identified a common need which is to increase the professional insertion and to improve the career prospects of students by developing their communication skills in English regarding the social entrepreneurship. The proposed project will achieve these four main objectives:
• to discover, explore and enhance students’ Social Entrepreneurial skills and knowledge
• to promote content and language integrated learning in the field of Social Entrepreneurship and of the English language
• to develop students’ skills, knowledge and the necessary know-how of creating/devising and
running a Social Enterprise
• to improve teachers’ teaching methods using CLIL giving a European dimension to their curricula
They are directly linked to the selected priorities:
• Development of relevant and high-quality skills and competences
• Promoting the acquisition of skills and competences
• Social inclusion
The project will develop and promote the acquisition of skills and competences and combines that with social inclusion. Partner schools believe that it is a great idea to be able to analyse, compare and possibly to jointly try to solve social problems that appear in their local environments. They would like to teach their students how to build social enterprises attempting to deal with the observed problems and they intend to do it on international level teaching English concurrently. In this way they will improve teaching methods applied in their schools, use CLIL and give a European dimension to their curricula. What is more participation in the project allows for a better social inclusion of all schools’ students most of whom face socio economic obstacles. Making the project international and disseminating its results in partner countries and beyond is undoubtedly indispensable way of promotion of skills and competences acquisition.
All project results will be created step by step together with its progress and where possible digitalised and published in the project website. They will be:
• presentations and all connected documents related to market research
• product / service design presentations
• presentations of legal requirements and finances to the business creation
• business plans for every partner’s social enterprises
• lectures and workshops on particular topics of project stages
• informative brochures
• annual e-magazine with information about project activities
• a DVD with key aspects
• a booklet
• a promotional video of the project
Partner schools also expect to create intangible results, which are:
• improving students’ professional English level
• developing tolerance, empathy, global citizenship, the ability to pass over cultural and linguistic barriers
• giving a European dimension to education
• improving teachers’ pedagogy
Partners hope that some of the enterprise ideas may become real ones or some clues for local institutions trying to solve social problems.
In order to improve their ability to solve problems observed in their local societies, partner schools in this project believe that it is a great idea to be able to analyse, compare and possibly to jointly try to solve their problems and build social enterprises. That greatly increases students’ motivation to learn and work in order to achieve their goals. Similarly it influences the teachers assisting them. When one sees the need to learn a language he / she acquires it faster and more effectively. Therefore partners agree that implementing CLIL (Content and Language Integrated Learning) methodology would be desirable here.
It is common that students and teachers use their native language in English classes, which is not an ideal situation. Students’ English level achieved at school is not as good as it would be expected.
Therefore teachers see the need to go for a more aim oriented approach focusing on learning language and vocabulary related to certain content areas. In this way students have to use materials adapted to achieve their goals. All the engaged partners’ common goal is to make students use English and vocabulary related to Entrepreneurship in real life situations.
The possibility to learn and try to solve their local social problems and teach students entrepreneurship at the same time in international company is a driving power of this project. The chance to experience different problems and attitudes towards solving them combined with possibilities to exchange good practices is a great motivation to make a successful project. What is more, all partner schools will be able to include a new English teaching / learning methodology (CLIL) in their schools’ curricula, which will improve their educational effectiveness. Furthermore, participation in this project will facilitate its participating students' situation on labour market after having finished education or it will also allow them to make better choices when deciding on their further education on higher levels. In this way, students will be prepared for a future job, will have a positive attitude towards a career.
Prior to application, representatives of all partners identified a common need which is to increase the professional insertion and to improve the career prospects of students by developing their communication skills in English regarding the social entrepreneurship. The proposed project will achieve these four main objectives:
• to discover, explore and enhance students’ Social Entrepreneurial skills and knowledge
• to promote content and language integrated learning in the field of Social Entrepreneurship and of the English language
• to develop students’ skills, knowledge and the necessary know-how of creating/devising and
running a Social Enterprise
• to improve teachers’ teaching methods using CLIL giving a European dimension to their curricula
They are directly linked to the selected priorities:
• Development of relevant and high-quality skills and competences
• Promoting the acquisition of skills and competences
• Social inclusion
The project will develop and promote the acquisition of skills and competences and combines that with social inclusion. Partner schools believe that it is a great idea to be able to analyse, compare and possibly to jointly try to solve social problems that appear in their local environments. They would like to teach their students how to build social enterprises attempting to deal with the observed problems and they intend to do it on international level teaching English concurrently. In this way they will improve teaching methods applied in their schools, use CLIL and give a European dimension to their curricula. What is more participation in the project allows for a better social inclusion of all schools’ students most of whom face socio economic obstacles. Making the project international and disseminating its results in partner countries and beyond is undoubtedly indispensable way of promotion of skills and competences acquisition.
All project results will be created step by step together with its progress and where possible digitalised and published in the project website. They will be:
• presentations and all connected documents related to market research
• product / service design presentations
• presentations of legal requirements and finances to the business creation
• business plans for every partner’s social enterprises
• lectures and workshops on particular topics of project stages
• informative brochures
• annual e-magazine with information about project activities
• a DVD with key aspects
• a booklet
• a promotional video of the project
Partner schools also expect to create intangible results, which are:
• improving students’ professional English level
• developing tolerance, empathy, global citizenship, the ability to pass over cultural and linguistic barriers
• giving a European dimension to education
• improving teachers’ pedagogy
Partners hope that some of the enterprise ideas may become real ones or some clues for local institutions trying to solve social problems.