Preparing citizens of the future: developing students’ life skills

Promoting daily living and social skills

Essential Life Skills was funded by Erasmus+ and aimed to equip teenage students with important life skills and key competences, to prepare them for a successful, self-efficient adulthood. The three main areas of life skills the project focused on were: daily living skills, personal/social skills, and occupational skills. The project’s outputs include a guidebook designed for students, teachers and parents; lesson plans to teach certain life skills; and short videos showing practices and activities used. The project was conducted by a partnership of secondary schools from Poland, Greece, Italy, Lithuania and Slovakia, and was selected as a Good Practice example.

Image: ELS - Essential Life Skills | Facebook

Nutrition and healthy habits

European Pedagogics and Nutrition 2020, funded by Erasmus+ and selected as a Good Practice example, is about the pedagogical approach to nutrition in elementary education. The project partners developed a new teaching method based on self-directed learning, aiming to raise students’ positive awareness of healthy eating. Nutrition was addressed in different ways and participating schools "fertilised" each other through joint learning and teaching. The activities consisted of experimentation, household practice and implementation in the elementary sector. Check out the project blog for information about the activities, and other results on the Erasmus+ website.

Image: Erasmus+ project card | Erasmus+ (europa.eu)

Learning economics, mathematics, languages and arts – at the same time

The Erasmus+ funded project The art of Economics, the economy of Arts had a true interdisciplinary approach: it focused on teaching economics and mathematics using the CLIL methodology (Content and Language Integrated Learning) complemented with artistic activities. The practical activities included, for example, job shadowing, auctions, statistics and budget management, and working in international groups to foster teamwork and practise foreign languages. The Arts element was addressed through cross- and extra-curricular activities, such as creating mini-plays in English, designing board games and gamebooks, performing together, building musical instruments, or learning handicraft. The project also pursued close collaboration with the local community by making classes open and collaborating with local banks and financial institutions. The project produced a publication (English version pp. 26-149). The partnership was made up of five middle schools from Poland, Romania, Turkey, Italy and Latvia, and it was selected as a Good Practice example.

Image: Erasmus+ project card | Erasmus+ (europa.eu)

Skills for independent living

The Workshop of Special Vocational Education and Training (EEEEK) in Kalymnos is a special education unit under the Dodecanese Secondary Education Directorate (Greece), running since 2002. The EEEEK courses and classes are adapted to the specific requirements and possibilities of the students. Special education teachers give lessons on general subjects, such as languages and mathematics, while an experiential course also helps the students to develop autonomy so they can live within the community independently. Students also get to learn about topics such as gardening and organic farming, as well as skills for the tourism sector, which will reopen shortly.

Image: ΕΕΕΕΚ Καλύμνου | Facebook