CONTEXT The Erasmus+ experience includes a partnership between five countries all across Europe. These schools aspire to create an experience that allows their students to gain professional experience, personal development, opportunities to utilize critical and creative thinking, and an entrepreneurial mindset that they can utilize to assist their communities.Of the partnering schools, two have vocational profiles (PL and IT) and the other three schools have general education profiles (MK, RO and TR). By having a variety of profiles represented, the Erasmus+ experience will be even more meaningful because it will expose students to different methods of entrepreneurship. While the countries taking part in these projects are all part of the EU TR is candidate country. Each country is diverse and represents a unique social and economic experience that contains different needs and interests. Therefore, making the Erasmus+ experience not only an appealing initiative, but a rewarding one as well. PARTICIPANTS The Erasmus+ experience addresses a specific group of students. The group is composed of 500 high school students aged 15-18 years old. Of the 500 students involved, only 100 of these students will be directly involved in the exchanges. The involvement in the exchanges can be in the form of participants or as hosts for the other students. To maintain a level of stability in the projects, each country will send five students to attend each exchange, which allows 20 students overall to be involved in each initiative. These projects are gender inclusive and both boys and girls are allowed and encouraged to participate. Additionally, 30% of students in the group of students come from challenged backgrounds, low-income families, or dismembered families. OBJECTIVES The objective of the project is to facilitate an opportunity for students from various EU countries a chance to collaborate to achieve a common goal. But there are five specific objectives: 1. Provideparticipants with the prospect of getting acquainted with new cultures and allow for cultural exchange through gaining intercultural competence. 2. To contribute to the entrepreneurial mindset of the students by allowing them to develop joint business ideas that will provide a smoother transition to the world of business. 3. To promote soft skills and improve the professional development of the students through the promotion of critical thinking, communication, analytical thought processing, and creativity, which will improve their transition to the work force. 4. To enhance the self-confidence of students while managing unfamiliar contexts and language skills 5. To collaborate and transfer the best practices across European schools to other schools to improve the European dimension of education. MAIN ACTIVITIES The exchanges are meant to achieve the desired objectives through five main student exchanges. These activities are meant to allow students to meet other students from around the EU, learn more about local economies, meet various entrepreneurs, and visit businesses in the local area. The aim of the project is to allow students to collaborate and create innovative business ideas that are tailored for the local economies in the partner schools. The business ideas will then be adapted for the student’s own local needs. Each exchange will include a different topic to address specific areas and are as follows: 1. C1 - Macedonian economy and startups in IT 2. C2 – Romanian economy and startups in agriculture 3. C3 – Polish economy and startups in small scale manufacturing enterprises 4. C4 – Turkish economy and startups in the beauty industry 5. C5 – Italian economy and startups in outdoor activities and sports RESULTS The end of the exchanges will result in local economy presentations made by the five partner countries, student-made brochures regarding businesses in the local area, 20 startup business ideas and plans created by students in multicultural teams, business plan evaluation forms finalized by entrepreneurs, workshop materials, testimonials from students, evaluations from the initial stage and final stages of the project, feedback and self-assessment forms, a “Business ideas for students” project brochure, website for the project, eTwinning space, 137 Europass mobility documents and certificates of attendance, and five reports from the interim and final stages of the project. The project will have an impact on the participating schools on various levels including: - human resources development - development of partnerships with local businesses - expansion and development of institutional and personal collaboration between European countries - promotion of the schools in local communities as well as in European communities