As we saw the declining school results of the students, we decided to look for the solutions: how would it be possible to motivate them in a more effective way using tools that they know, use and methods that they regard useful for their future, and the ones which have developing effects on them. We want our students to be successful in their school work and later on the labour market. In order to reach this goal they will need not only more knowledge but also the necessary skills and competences of high level. The starting point for us was the general opinion that today’s teenagers are not interested in anything, they are not motivated and are indifferent. We carried out surveys and the results were partly against these stereotypes, and at the same time, they determined the way of solving the problem. It turned out that students are interested in IT, foreign languages and the world surrounding them. On the other hand they cannot be successful in the traditional subjects, and experiencing the smallest failure they give up, which leads to losing their self-confidence and another failure. We should show them a way out of this vicious circle. Our school is specialized in IT and economics. We regarded it as a basis and decided to fund a fictitious enterprise which is run by students, and which has international dimension. We could find partners: a Croatian, a Greek and a Turkish school. Everybody will fund their own company with a similar profile, and these companies will merge with each other as a big company. The profiles of these companies are determined by the results of the surveys carried out in their own school and they determine the activities as well. The enterprises will produce „products” and they will distribute them. Knowledge will be products that will be made by students in digitalized form, in interactive way, exceeding the frames of the school subjects. It will not simply be digitalizing the teaching materials of the school-books, but writing materials in the given topics by the students and the teachers. They can be used in classes by their creators-and others, and in this way we can involve students in the creating and the teaching process. As a result, a knowledge base will be created that is accessible, can be enlarged and used. The elements of the knowledge base are the units of the teaching materials, which cover a logical unit per each-they are not Wikipedia headwords-, and which are suitable for using in a class, in group or pair work or individually. They will also be good for study circles for talented or low skilled students. Creating these teaching material units and applying them will encourage students to obtain knowledge independently, where the chance of failure is less. The teaching units will be made in English, which will be useful for their English studies, and also, these materials will be accessible for the partners, and in the long run, for any European school. It can be really effective only in teamwork, because low-skilled students can join in the work, which can help them gain skills of higher levels. The tools of the activities will be smart phones (computers), which students always keep by them. During the common work they will obtain knowledge and skills which will help them to get a real sense of achievement. Those who buy a product (=obtain it) can convert it into school grades. The buyers-who are not the members of the company-may feel like creating new units, and in this way they can join the company as new colleagues. We determined the topics in a way that they should be connected to the most possible subjects. Our aim is not to work up the topics with scientific fastidiousness and in deepness. We want the students to carry out activities which they do with pleasure, where they feel they are important, where they can learn from each other and they can be successful, and which is really useful for them. They will gain serious knowledge in the given topics-and also in IT and English language, and also they can get to know the world of enterprises. With the help of these activities the teachers will play another role as usual: instead of transmitting the knowledge their organising-directing role will be more important. That is why teachers’ training will be so much emphasized in the project. During the project the companies will be funded and run, and by the end of the project teaching materials will be made ready which will be accessible by anyone-for personal use, as an idea, or for a new national or international cooperation with the help of the common webpage. Methodological handouts will also be prepared for the ready teaching material units to help those who will build this activity in their everyday work. As all our activities are framed with funding a big international company by joining the partners’ enterprises, and because of the type of our products we named our company, and also our project,as Knowledge Base International Ltd.

"Our world has turned to a small village with the developing technology. As a result of the technological revolution, interaction between individuals and communities has increased all over the World. In this way, a common denominator is formed on the basis of different lifestyles, and in a sense, a global culture and accumulation emerged. The increase ofinformation-exchange among countries paved the way for global values. Today, with the age of science and technology, the development and spread of communication accelerated the growth of global culture. Such a world requires people to live with different cultures.People are now interested in other languages, literatures, histories, geographies, music, dances and want to learn them. They want to communicate with other people, develop friendship, develop the sense of empathy, get to know different lifestyles.Today, these actions are mostly carried out with virtual relationships in social media.It is almost impossible to return to the world and live on its own in the process of globalization.Cultures necessarily interact with each other.People are interested in foreign languages, songs, dances, local clothing, food and historical sites. Briefly, they want to make cultural empathy.One of the educational objectives of the European Union is ""to raise individuals with a shared cultural heritage awareness"".The greatest responsibility in the transfer and preservation of cultural heritage to new generations is on teachers and schools, who play role in educating conscious students.According to the Eurobarometer report published by the European Union, the vast majority of participants agree that the European Cultural Heritage should be taught in schools.This project includes ""Social and Educational Value of the European Cultural Map"".Under the coordination of Poland; in partnership with Portugal, Turkey and Crotia; this project briefly aimed to achieve the following goals:a- To make people feel different emotions by embodying cultural empathy.b- To develop European awareness by learning different richness of the cultures of European Union countries.c- Motivating students for lifelong learning with innovative and entertaining methods and techniques, and teaching the importance of school in this process.d- To demonstrate that respect for cultural diversity, tolerance, dialogue and cooperation are the best guarantee of peace and security at the international level within the framework of mutual understanding.e- Enabling students to improve their presentation skills and do team work.f- To provide students gaining various skills such as interpreting, analyzing and evaluating cultural information.g- To give the sense of belonging to the European Union.h- To develop consciousness and awareness of learning foreign language in the participants.This project titled ""Cultural Empathy"", which will last for 24 months, aims ""Change of Practices"".2 accompanying teachersand 6 students aged 13-18 will attendthe project mobility from each country.This project includes the following activities to achieve the above mentioned objectives:1-Animation of a Traditional Folk Story in English on Stage.2-A Traditional Song Performance.3-Traditional Folk Dance Performance.4-Historical, Touristic and Artistic Trips.5-Institution and Family Visits.6-Local Market, Shopping Center, Cafe, Restaurant, Exhibition Visits.7-Photograph Exhibition.8-Creating a Culture Stand.Whether the project goals have been reached will be evaluated through various questionnaires, analysis, assessment and acquisition forms, tests and eTwinning online meetings.With this project, the participants;1-Recognize the European cultural heritage diversity,2-Will be able to look at cultural diversity with respect and tolerance,3-Will play an active role in the protection of cultural heritage,4-Will improve their foreign language skills,5-Would synthesize different cultural information,6-They will be motivated for lifelong learning.This project will contribute the following to the development of schools in the long term briefly:1-It will give an international identity.2-Schools' interest in cultural heritage will increase and they will be exemplary in this regard.3-Cooperation will be established with other institutions and countries.4-Schools will motivate their students for lifelong learning by applying the fun and innovative educational methods they will acquire.5-It will contribute to raising conscious, new generation of relevant citizens who can realize the need to protect the common cultural heritage."

Education in schools is mostly done at cognitive level and mostly cognitive behaviours are gained. Young people in our schools have very different cognitive characteristics, different interests and abilities. For this reason, activities outside the classroom are vital as well as the variety of teaching methods to be applied during the lessons.Students who like to spend time outdoors will arrange school gardens as they wish and use materials that we consider as waste. In this way, they will both have to find more creative solutions and gain awareness about today's urgent issues such as production-consumption-recycling. To do this, they will first analyse school gardens, plan what they can do for the design of the space, what materials they can use, and from whom they can help with to provide these materials. They will provide interviews with relevant teachers to provide knowledge. They will share tasks for everything to be done and include their parents as well as all the school staff.In the light of all this information, we need a focus on out-of-school activities, We should give students the opportunity to organize their own living spaces to enable young people to know and question themselves, to feel the pleasure of not harming others and the environment, to make life meaningful and beautiful, to create a space where they can give themselves body, spiritual and physical sense, and thus to love their school.We have been inspired by three ET 2020 objectives:- Make lifelong learning and mobility a reality- Improve the quality and efficiency of education and training- Enhance creativity and innovation, including entrepreneurship, at all levels of education and trainingAs 5 partner countries, we have set our goal to approach recycling with art and make education applicable to real life and enjoyable.Essential objectives of our project are:raising awareness about recycling and waste materials, our depleted natural resourcespreventing young people from spending more time than necessary in the face of technological tools and to enable them to communicate with nature and peopleby enjoying the pleasure of being beneficial to the environment, producing, and finding creative solutions by evaluating everythingensuring young people help each other and communicate with environmental institutions while determining and supplying waste materialsbeing aware of the surrounding living beings, willing to protect themcomprehending the importance of the main elements such as soil, water, air and the plants, animals, other creatures and human beings that are intertwined with usgetting more energy instead of tension caused by hunger for successstrengthening students' communication with peoplemaking the school culture attractive for studentsreinforcing the culture of the school institutionensuring the students enhance being self-confidentincreasing school attendance rate by making students enjoy the school environmentunderstanding the importance of cultural integration, language learning, broadening the horizon100 students and 40 teachers will participate in international visits. 300 students will directly participate in the activities to be performed locally. At least 1000 people will be actively involved in the project, together with those who will indirectly participate in activities and dissemination from surrounding schools and local institutions.Our main activities will be,using art in recycling, recycling activities, collecting waste materials, classifying old objects, painting and shaping old materials and waste, producing new materials from waste, designing school gardens with waste materials, preparing presentation about our country and waste policyIn order to implement the activities such as researching, classifying, shaping, painting, reusing, garden redesigning with waste and old products;Active learning, learning by doing, case studies, cooperation, observations, checklists and portfolios will be the main methodology of the project.Results and Outputs will be,Project Corner, exhibition of the products, Booklets, Video albums of the renewable waste in each country, Video albums of materials renewed by artPosters, Questionnaires before-after mobility, Logo Contest, Project Website, A mini multilingual Recycling dictionary (digital), 2021 and 2022 Recycling Art Calendar, Facebook Group, YouTube Account, eTwinning Project.Our project will continue its effect for a long time with its dissemination activities such as Video albums on YouTube, Project Website multilingual Recycling dictionary (digital), 2021 and 2022 Recycling Art Calendar Facebook Group, YouTube Account, eTwinning Project. Moreover, the outputs to be produces (new school garden designs, exhibition, reproduced items) will make the project both visible and effective over the years.

Nowadays, it is essential to find a transition from learning facts to acquiring real life skills which will prepare young people for life and motivate to study. The schools involved in the project were with a different experience in developing entrepreneurial skills in young people and in approaches to career education. The schools worked on a cooperation model together: school – municipality council - entrepreneurs. An important aspect – students while participating in project activities investigated entrepreneurship environment and job market. The project intended to involve all subject teachers, not only economics and social science teachers, as entrepreneurial skills are developed in various situations and every teacher can contribute. Project aims: - To work out the themes for the business basics related to the skills of the young people and their interests based on the entrepreneurial skill development, to prevent dropping out of school because of out-dated methodologies. - To work out innovative pedagogical approach creating students` self-assessment system adopted into the formal education process. The main result – informal study tool – learning platform on Moodle with a certification possibility „Entrepreneurship skill development possibilities in young people”. The Project uniteed students and teachers from 5 countries – Latvia, Romania, Turkey, Spain and Croatia. The target group – young people, aged 15 – 19. Study materials are available in 6 languages – Latvian, Spanish, Romanian, Turkish, Croatian and English.For the convenience of users there is a link from the project website www.epps.lv to the e-platform - Learning Moodle http://www.epps.lv/moodle/ ..

"Our modern way of life has endangered social links; an ageing population and poverty make the situation worse. In some countries, the situation is quite alarming: 1 older adult out of 4 suffers from social exclusion (INSEE, France). Among these people, 300 000 are in a state of ""social death"". A British Red Cross reseach in 2016 also showed that 32% of 16-24 years old people felt lonely. Loneliness is one of the most pressing public health issues in Europe. It creates a lack of understanding between older and younger people and fear among generations, then ageism.As teachers mainly working in health and social vocational schools, we are eager to build a youth-led intergenerational project that connects. Therefore, our motivation for this project is to promote inclusive societies through art and social fairness as recommended by Europe and national social plans of partners:""Promoting Erasmus+ among every generation by offering activities of education and exchanges of experiences to seniors with view to building and adding solidity to the European identity"" (Erasmus+ priority). Our project includes 25 participants aged 12-18 mostly coming from families with low incomes. They rarely have access to culture, are often deprived of open mindedness and lack of interest in learning foreign languages. As a result, vocational students often don't see the point to carry on studies. This Erasmus+ project is the only opportunity they will have to travel abroad, to broaden their horizons and open their mind to common European values and heritage. Co-working with peers and elderly people through chosen artistic activities and scholastic tasks will encourage them to speak English and become more confident. Writing a Handbook of Good Practices will enable them to analyze and assess their professional activities. Pupils will improve their professional and social skills (patience, perseverance, communication, flexibility), share their work and develop cooperating strategies. Therefore, the collaborative work (artistic workshops) and youth-led activities will imply every student increasing the sense of pride, motivation and will draw a better picture of their future jobs. Students will implement their artistic activities during each mobility with various workshops in retirement houses. Such a rewarding experience will create a positive and quality learning environment. Teachers and students' relationships will also improve. The primary benefits of doing intergenerational work is the power of connecting the strengths of older adults and youth in making a difference in each other's lives, as well as that of the community.Social inclusion and networking is at the core of our project. We really hope that this project will benefit the elderly people by stimulating their creativity, fighting against loneliness, improving well-being. Teachers involved are highly motivated to improve their ability to communicate in English and to develop new and innovative teaching methods or materials. Sharing views of different countries on a VET field will provide new teaching strategies. The variety of the schools involved will add a greater value to the project. On a long term basis, this project will increase the involvement in community of educational institutions.Project status reports and schedules will be written for each mobility to keep everyone on the same page by keeping them updated. Communication and interaction between participants will be assured before the mobilities through a Twinspace devoted to the project. The partners of the project agree on the team effort such a project recquires and a genuine communication will take place.Before each mobility, the hosting country will prepare a planning of the activities and skills to be developed (shared curriculum and European key competences). Assessment grids will also be created. The project activities during mobilities will follow the scheme below:1) Aging sensitivity and empathy training to fight age prejudices.2) Artistic theoretical input and practical workshops sessions (artists and museums). Project-based learning.3) Co-working with peers : creating artistic workshops for the elderly people with recycled materials / use of ICT (virtual art gallery) / creation of materials. We will enhance pro-active involvement. Sharing good social-care practices.4) Immersion in a senior centre : youth-led animations.6) Evaluation of the of the short term impacts. Each team will gather materials in order to write a ""Handbook of good practices"" which will be released at the end of the project. It will help schools, students teachers, social carers to build other intergenerational projects.Our results, the Handbook of Good Practices written by the pupils and our teaching resources will be transferred through EPRP and on Open Education Europa Portal to ensure sutainability of the project. Finally, EUROPASS (and ECVT if possible) documents will be used as recognition of mobility."