The project idea was developed as part of the cooperation between Bildung im Ausland, Hemut Schmidt Schule and ROC van Twente. These institutions work together on mobility projects since years - now we want to widen our cooperation and put a new focus on the pedagogical work. With the background of digital learning having more and more influence on the way of teaching and learning we wanted to see how this challenge is faced in schools and teaching institutions abroad, learn from the tools and methods our colleagues use in other countries and gat to know the pros and cons of new technologies. Moreover teaching entrepreneurship is a topic that the institutions involved deal with - there is even an international project that is run by three of the partners since years. That is why the idea of this partnership project was to combine digital learning, entrepreneurship and internationalization - all of them highly important topics to prepare young people to their work life and to become self dependent, self reflected, digitally qualified and open minded persons.The objective of this strategic partnership is to compare, reflect and learn on the way how the partners teach and train regarding entrepreneurship and how they use digital media in their work. Moreover this project aims to integrate entrepreneurship as a field where you have to teach key competences such as independence, self-reliance and self-initiative and - of course - foreign languages. On the one hand we would like to foster digital competence of teachers, trainers and students by exchanging and using different tools, methods and software. Also with the help of the project we want the students to improve and practice their English skills in real life situations as well as their communicating and presentation skills, to foster openness and to improve their team work skills. On the other hand also teachers are asked to exchange in a foreign language, to work with colleagues with different systems and ways of teaching - that means that also the teachers and trainers will be asked to show tolerance, open mindness and flexibility. There are five partners involved in the project and of each partner there are two experts in charge of the project. Moreover we plan two student mobilities with 24 students per flow - 48 students in total will have the possibility to take part in the project and to learn digital competence and entrepreneurship as part of an international exchange.During the project period the students will work on establishing their own Start Up. They will have to use different digital tools and methods to communicate with each other and to prepare their results to present them on transnational exchange meetings. Here the students will meet each other face to face and they will have to present their results, compare and discuss them with their international colleagues. In face to face situations they learn how to interact with other students, how to present themselves, recognize similarities and differences in working and living and simply get to know each other.The whole process will be accompanied by transnational project meetings where the experts exchange on their teaching methods, get to know new tools and software and evaluate the process of their students. As a result of the project we expect a reflection on the use of digital media in training situations as well as in teaching entrepreneurship. Also we want to learn about different ways of teaching and training and make the students feel the use and impact of digital media with regards to their training. This is part of their preparation to their further working life. Furthermore with we aim to improve communication and speaking abilities, creative thinking, team work and knowledge of the international labour market not only with a focus to the students but to the teaching staff as well. The impact of the project is to review existing teaching and training methods, to work on new curricula and to integrate digital methods and tools in daily teaching situations. On a long term basis our aim is to make web based learning a part of teaching and training but with the awareness to pros and cons of this technique. Everybody using digital tools has to do this as a competent, reflected user - this applies for teachers as well as for students.

"<< Objectives >>The project Growing New Sustainable Networks (GNSN) aims to enable international mobility to a wide range of students and to implement crosscultural experience to the curricula of VET. As a result of the project we would like to present a manual that combines all the important steps as well as competences that are needed to provide high quality and sustainable mobilities in VET.<< Implementation >>With the development of a module ""International mobility"" we want to implement Internationalization to the curricula of the schools training courses. We offer a tool to teachers and trainers that enables everybody to provide work experiences abroad. Thus we help to make VET more attractive and competitive in comparison to higher education.<< Results >>The result of the project is a module that can be integrated to VET in a wide range of institutions. This module will help providing international work experience and prepare VET students to the need of the global labor market. The participating institutions will have access to a wider international network of VET providers (including companies) that they will use for their courses back home. Finally the knowledge on VET systems abroad will help to prepare students to international careers."

"The project ""Plastic(s)kills"" is neatly connected to slowenian EU- commissioners Janez Potocnik initiative of incentivating the legal possibilities towards a prohibition of plastic bags in the EU member states. The title of the project refers to the claim of forbidding plastic bags in accordance with its motto ""plastic kills"", while it also indicates the technical and intellectual ""skills"" to be developed during the project. These are determined in artistic and creative fields (""plastic arts"", exhibitions) in the promotion of media skills (research, internet, web- design, event organization, public relation, etc.) and in the area of knowledge on the topic of ""plastic waste"" (research and reading skills) caused by plastic bags. Furthermore the project intends to improve the language skills of the participants (communication with native speakers).The aim of the project is to promote public awareness and evoke a change of consumers behaviour concerning the use of plastic bags. The target groups are pupils, school communities, primary schools and the local and national societies.The primary product is an exhibition of 10-15 informative panels dedicated to the desasterous effects on the environment caused by using plastic bags but also on the history, esthetic aspects, production and the significance of plastic bags for industry and commerce. This exhibition will be produced in different languages to be employed in each of the partner countries. The inauguration of the exhibition during the last meeting will be supported by a cultural and informative fringe event. This event contains a round table discussion with participants of the industry, politicians and ecological activists/organizations, a fashion show, an exhibition of plastic bags, fotos, a documentary movie on the project. All other activities of the project, which are realized in four meetings and the time between those meetings, lead to this final event and its primary product. They are based on two aspects:First the research on all aspects (industrial, commercial, environmental, artistical) of the plastic bag and the production of informative material and texts and secondly the realization of events and activities to inform and include the target groups concerning a more responsable use of the plastic bag and to support a possible prohibition in the member states.The project aims to increase the ecological conscience of its participants and their target groups and incentivate in particular the interest and personal engagement of pupils whiche oppose to classical forms of learning.The practical, actual and realistic topic as well as the teaching methods (pupils as environmental experts, pupils as activists, pupils as event organizers, pupils as PR- managers) promises a high level of personal envolvement. The teachers role also changes to that of an assistant and organizer and sometimes observer. The pupils from Germany, Hungary, Slovenia, Czech Repuplic, Turkey and Croatia share one mission, that of changing the consumers attitude of using too many plastic bags and to support the EU initiative of Janez Potocnik. By doing that they will overcome intercultural differences and strengthen their european identity."

<< Background >>We introduce a few citations from the relevant documents of the European Union related to its digital strategy:The last years and the covid-19 pandemic highlighted the importance for European society. Digital technologies bring with them new ways to learn, entertain, work, explore and fulfill ambitions. However, there are still many challenges associated with the move to a digital world that need to be addressed. Over the next decade - the digital decade - the EU’s vision is for a digital world that empowers people and businesses, and that is shaped around a human-centred, sustainable and more prosperous approach. The digital compass sets out objectives to achieve the EU’s vision for the digital future. It uses the four points of the compass to identify the main goals to reach over the next decade. One of these four points is a digitally skilled population and highly skilled digital professionals. (Shaping Europe’s digital future - https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/policies/digital-compass).Human capital in ICT is a driving force for digital and digital-enabled innovations and may be considered as crucial for the competitiveness of modern-day economies. Although this segment of the labour market is quite small in absolute terms, ICT employment was relatively resistant to the cyclical nature of economic events during the most recent decade for which data are available.In its New Skills Agenda for Europe, the Commission asked all Member States to develop national digital skills strategies by mid-2017 and to set up national coalitions to support their implementation. It aims to enhance the digital skills of (1) citizens – developing digital skills to enable all citizens to be active in our digital society (digitally fluent citizens); (2) the labour force – developing digital skills for the digital economy, e.g. upskilling and reskilling workers and job-seekers; actions on career advice and guidance; (3) ICT professionals – developing high-level digital skills for ICT professionals in all industry sectors, and (4) education providers – transforming the teaching and learning of digital skills in a lifelong learning perspective, including the training of teachers.The demand for high-tech skills is on a solid growth track. The number of IT practitioners was predicted to grow from 8 million in 2015 to almost 8.7 million in 2020 in the EU28. The estimate from January 2017 of the gap between demand and supply is 500,000 in 2020. This gap comes in part from a number of IT educated professionals coming out of Higher Education (HE) and Vocational Training (VET). Under the main scenario, 240,000 graduates from IT related HE programmes and VET schemes keep entering the labour market per year, plus also more than 100,000 new IT practitioners without such a formal degree (i.e., “lateral entries”). (http://eskills-scale.eu/news/single-view/the-high-tech-skills-gap-in-europe-will-reach-500000-in-2025-with-a-strong-polarisation-of-skills-needed.html)The facts introduced above clearly describe the need for ICT specialists in the EU. In our project, we would like to address this need.We would like to address this need by developing a new way of teaching programming. Namely, object oriented programming. “The role of programming in computer science is similar to that of practical work in other sciences – it provides motivation and a context within which ideas are brought to life.”Besides the motivation derived from the different sources of the EU, we can mention the other needs that shall be covered with our project proposal:We can see a decreasing number of students interested in STEM study programmes at high schools in the last years. We need to motivate the students. We need to show them that STEM and especially programming is not difficult to study.The only persons that can high school students convince about this fact are their own teachers of STEM and programming courses.<< Objectives >>Our project is focused on high school teachers - our primary target group. Based on interviews with the university teachers from project organisations, there is a gap in understanding basic programming principles, especially in the case of object oriented programming (OOP). It is very important that high school teacher understand what is OOP about. Unfortunately, we know cases when the teacher does not understand the programming principles correctly. This has an influence on students’ education and student perception of programming. We conducted a survey among students of project organisations (high schools). The survey results show that the students often think that STEM subjects and programming are too difficult and they are not interested in them. Unfortunately, it is the result of incorrect teaching by the high school teacher. We would like to avoid these cases with our project.We will prepare an overview of current methods, methodologies, concepts in programming for high school teachers. We will prepare the syllabus and guides (textbooks + online content). We will prepare educational materials for future teachers when necessary.Team of scientists and experts from the participating universities has a wide range of expertise, scientific and professional interests and achievements. Thus, the main and unique mission of this international team could be to empower the curriculum and results of the projects aimed for students and the teachers learning and teaching OOP by means of game development with knowledge and skills related to development process and collaboration in real and virtual environments. The project results with our expertise could be empowered by the following:* Agile methods and tools in development - The team of students developing a simple game and learning object-oriented programming could be organized in a scrum team, and could use the tools for collaboration in such an agile team. In this way, students would have fun working on the project as well as acquire an additional skill very valuable for future employment.* Communication (tools) for teams - In addition to development (i.e. hard) skills in object-oriented programming and game development, the real-life teams struggle with the lack of soft skills related to communication. With the help of state-of-the art theory and adequate tools, the teams of students and teachers would be empowered with soft skills and knowledge on use of tools necessary for successful collaboration and communication in real and virtual environments.* Innovation in teaching methods - The expected resulting framework of learning object-oriented programming through game development, enriched with introduction of agile and collaborative practices in the development process would be based and built upon several different very popular teaching methods and approaches such as project-based learning, agile learning, collaborative/peer learning, active learning, learning by doing, problem-based learning and game-based learning.<< Implementation >>Expected project activities:* four transnational project meetings (Zilina, Ivanec, Pardubice, Ivanjica)* one educational activity for teachers from high schools - learning, teaching and training activity (Dresden)* five multiplier events (Zilina, Zagreb, Pardubice, Belgrade, Dresden)* five project results<< Results >>Our project consortium defined five project results and related outcomes:PR1 - Analysis of current state & identification of gaps in (teaching) programmingPR2 - Learning design with new core idea of (teaching) programmingPR3- Developing of new curriculum for (teaching) programmingPR4 - Materials for teachers - transfer of experience for current and future teachersPR5 - Proposal of new curriculum for accreditation bodies in the secondary levelThese project results will enable deeply understant current situation of curricula for programming courses of high schools in five European countries - Croatia, Czech Republic, Germany, Serbia and Slovakia. University teachers from the same countries will prepare an analysis of gaps in teaching programming in their countries. Based on this, new and innovative learning design for teaching programming will be defined in cooperation with high school teachers. Parallelly, the university teachers from three participating organisations (the University of Zilina, the University of Zagreb, the University of Belgrade) will create a new core idea of teaching programming based on their own national educational concepts. The new core idea of teaching programming will be the important starting point for developing of new curriculum for teaching programming. The selected learning design will be implemented as well. Based on the common agreement of the partner organisations and associated partners, the development of a new generation of educational materials for high school teachers should be started. These materials will include modern textbooks and supporting material (worksheets, examples, methodology). All educational materials will be published on the e-learning portal with free access that will be enabled after registration. The last very important activity will be cooperation on proposals of new curricula for teaching programming to be able to accredite and recognise them in countries of the project partners.