ContextThe global economy has been transformed by the Internet in the last two decades. In the developed world, there has been a shift towards a post-industrial model of employment, where factory work and routine office work is routinely outsourced or automated by robots and software. The career path of 21st-century careers allows us to create our own job opportunities by freelancing, testing out our ideas by building our digital brands, getting creative with our talent development and how we create value for other people.Our students become professionals in their fields but, most of the times, encounter difficulties in identifying job opportunities, especially since some of our areas are predominantly poor and lack career opportunities. The job markets have now been digitalized and unless we adapt soon, we will find it increasingly difficult to catch up. Given these circumstances, we believe that the time has come for us, secondary and VET schools, to upgrade our approach to the newest trends in job-related skills.Project's Objectives1. To enable students and teachers to exchange practices and experiences in the VET field2. To improve students’ 21st century job skills – learning, literacy and life skills3. To create the context for students to apply the acquired skills4. To increase students’ ability to identify career opportunities and boost students’ employability 5. To improve language, ICT and professional skills6. To develop intercultural competence, tolerance and respect for other culturesParticipantsStudents and teachers will participate directly in the project. The target group we are addressing is made up of approximately 600 students aged 15-18. They are on the point of graduation at the end of the project and we will be better able to observe the impact on them as a result. The students we target are all training in different professional fields and we aim to design all activities so that they apply to all of them irrespective of their specialization. From this group, we will select a number of 114 students at the level of the partnership (22/23 per country) who will attend the exchanges, accompanied by 39 teachers.ActivitiesMainly carried out during 1-week workshops/exchanges in each of the participating countries:C1 - Developing learning skills for students (LV, NOVEMBER 2020)C2 - Developing literacy skills for students (SRB, MARCH 2021)C3 - Developing life skills for students (PT, MAY 2021)C4 - Job seeking and job applications in the field (IT, NOVEMBER 2021)C5 – Start-up business (TR, APRIL 2022)ResultsThe project is going to have a series of results – tangible and intangible. The intangible results refer to students’ acquisition and development of knowledge, skills and abilities, improved cooperation among schools in European states which can result in future project initiatives and collaborations.Tangible results:- Workshop written output related to activities meant to develop sets of skills. There will be 5 such sets of workshop materials, one produced during each exchange. These materials will be published and made available online, for other schools to use. They will also be used in our schools with other students in future years- Step-by-step guide to boost employability of graduate students- Presentations of job market trends in each countries- Presentation of online tools and lists of search engines for the identification of job opportunities in all partner countries- Pictures from the events- Reports of the transnational meetings- Project dissemination tools- Promotion materials- Presentations of schoolsImpact The partner schools will have visible benefits from the participation in this project. First of all, we will expand our VET network and be able to exchange practices and experiences with similar institutions all over Europe. This will help us improve our approaches to teaching, our practices and methodologies, in such a way so as to obtain optimal results. We will exchange experiences related to Erasmus+ projects for students, will learn about the results of partners from previous projects which will help us in current activities with students. We will therefore be able to establish long-term cooperation. We will enlarge our material basis and our international dimension. We shall use the materials developed within the partnership with future generations of students and share them with other schools in our areas. We will therefore be better equipped to bridge the gap between school life and work life.

This strategic partnership focuses on prejudice and its negative effects in education. The project will deal with the topic in term of its cause and effects, execute research into school environment, include students (male-female) teachers, parents, social environment, media and will produce an output book with challenges and solutions to prevent prejudice. The idea arose from the fact that societies are strongly prejudiced and that the education systems, which are a subsystem of the societies they serve, reproduce the values and culture of those societies without challenging their possible limitations on the life opportunities and experiences of their pupils. Stereotypes places unhealthy demands on individuals who inhibit their natural talents and interests from developing, and consequently limit economic progress and prevent social cohesion.SCOPEThe differences between us are essential to humanity. They are a circumstance of birth and should not become a source of conflict or hatred. The latest events on the European social stage show us that we are still victims of some deeply rooted mentalities according to which we evaluate human beings belonging to different cultural groups based on some ready-made appreciations which have no connection with the reality. We are all unique and different from each other, but this is a reason for celebration rather than conflict. We believe that all people deserve respect, irrespective of skin colour, religious beliefs and practices, descendance or ideas. If people understand that, we will be able to live in harmony, respect and acceptance.Objectives- to combat hate speech and hate behaviour inside schools;- to increase social awareness , tolerance, empathy for the immigrants and refugees- to destroy stereotypes and raise awareness about the risks they cause- to improve the know-how related to tackling the issues of stereotyping and discrimination inside schools- to promote the active involvement of students in the social life on the topic of stereotyping and discrimination- to strengthen the relationship between schools and local NGOs who are addressing the same issuesParticipantsThe project addresses to a target group who are 15-18 years old. We believe that this is a critical age, when the risk is higher for them to develop long-lasting negative attitudes towards other people based on stereotypical thinking and discrimination.The project also addresses teachers in our schools, school counsellors and psychologists who will turn the project results into long term practices at local levels.Main activitiesWe have planned 4 student exchanges and one Joint Staff:C1– Joint Staff will be at the beginning of the project to widen project move and plan entire action.C2 - Stereotypical thinking and discrimination: common stereotypes related to nationalities; direct, indirect, multiplediscrimination; forms of discrimination and their effects - xenophobia, homophobia, transphobia.C3 - Gender and racial equality: common gender and racial stereotypes and their effects; ways of combating them.C4 - Religious equality: common stereotypes related to religions and religious beliefs; effects of such stereotypes; analysisof cases in which stereotypes and discrimination against religions had terrible consequencesC5- Stereotypical thinking and discrimination in schools - how can we address and solve these issues?Results and impactThrough our project the five partners intend to create both short-term and long-term tangible and intangible results and to achieve the biggest possible impact to future projects and policy processes such as leading students to overcome stereotypes, setting up the project website in order to provide continuous access to the general information of the project activities, progress and results, writing newspaper reports and creating on-site panels or leaflets to inform non-specialist audience about the project’s background and main results, arranging a multiplier event, communication.The results we are expected: - increasing awareness of the democratic values of the EU, increasing desire to participate actively in local campaigns against discrimination, better intercultural awareness, communication and dialogue; increased social awareness, tolerance, empathy for the immigrants and refugees; improved knowledge of the concepts of stereotyping and discrimination and the areas in which they can manifest, the dangers they bring about; improved English skills, data manipulation, critical thinking skills, improved team work abilities (developed in local activities and transnational exchanges)