The decision to initiate this project originates in the problems and impacts resulting of the socioeconomic and (un)employment crisis for students and younger adults affecting European countries in different ways.

The four participating schools are:

• Colegio Divina Pastora, Spain. (This is the coordinating school).

• Staicele Primary School, Latvia.

• Colegiul Național ”Costache Negruzzi”, Romania.

• Uulu Primary School, Estonia.

Three participating schools are located in rural regions and one of them in an urban area; so they have different characteristics and conditions but face similar problems: loss of (old) industries and inhabitants, the lack, more or less, of new ones like services or production, the necessity to develop new labour fields. By showing how every school prepares its students for their specific labour market, the other partners will learn to improve their own methods. With the project, we will install closer partnerships between schools and enterprises.

Thinking about the needs of our schools, we consider that skills and competences are basics which schools should teach. Quite often, students don’t know which skills are needed for their future working life. Before choosing their later profession, students have to learn what is important, what will be needed, which skills have to develop. After interviewing some local companies to know what they expect from their future workers, they told us as a conclusion that they would like us, schools, to teach more social skills (for example, to be polite with other people, to be honest, to be on time at their work, etc.).

Finally, there is an important group of students who are not interested towards the studies at school or continuing their further education to get higher qualification; they only want to finish school, with or without qualifications, work and earn money. This is something really difficult at the moment due to the lack of jobs and, by doing this, they won't be able to adapt themselves to the difficulties they may face in the future in the labour market. We would like to show our students how important is to finish school and to prepare themselves for a good job.

WORK PROCESS

Students will work in groups. We will use an interactive, communicative and active methodology.

Technology will be present in the different activities and throughout the whole project, due to the benefits it offers.

The project will be developed and planned together; the participating countries will do the project simultaneously; the used methodology is the same in every country, and it will be carried out by all schools.

To prepare the project, all schools will offer and organize meetings/seminars concerning intercultural cooperation, integration and communication.