The project “Creative Rural Empowerment And Thinking Innovative Villages and Ecosystems through Cacao” - CREATIVE CACAO will be implemented by 7 different organizations from 6 countries, (DE, IT, FR, Colombia, Brazil, Bolivia) over the course of 18 months, starting on August 2018.It responds to the following challenges: rising levels of unemployment, promotion of sustainable, smart, inclusive growth and participatory processes among youth and the general migration trend from rural areas to urban ones. The main objectives are:• To provide youth with technical cooperation, innovation, and specialized knowledge on Cacao• To conceive and promote sustainable rural communities taking advantage of their assets, attracting and retaining businesses and residents of all ages, particularly youth, and ensuring that economic development results in lasting improvements, making a critical connection between economic competitiveness, agricultural and quality of life : Re-Thinking Villages It relies on the following activities:• Int’l Training in Brazil (28 participants). Topics: Agriculture and rural life as mean of re-integration into the society; Youth in global participation democratic processes; Re-Thinking Villages idea and ways of implementation.• Int’l Training in Colombia (28 participants). Topics: Cocoa production; The challenges and threats for cocoa producers; Cocoa marketing systems in cocoa producing countries; Good agricultural practices and sustainable farming; Evolution and economics of cocoa processing, quality aspects, characteristics and analysis of cocoa beans.• Int’l Training in Italy (28 participants). Topics: cocoa trade, focusing on developing awareness, knowledge, and skills; Sustainability and traceability developments in the cocoa supply chain; Understand chocolate chemistry and flavour as well as the ingredients and processes that contribute to taste; Understand the processes and machinery needed to turn dried cocoa beans into chocolate• Job Shadowing in Bolivia (6 participants) with the aim of involving relevant actors from youth work, education, politics, administration and businesses, promoting wider take up of results and outcomes. The project foresees three main dissemination activities: the Conference in Colombia, the Int’l Forum in Italy and the event in Bolivia, during which the outputs will be presented, 1) motivational and educational media production (social marketing, advocacy tool and educative entertainment); 2) academic and technical publications.The partners will integrate good practices derived from this project and the new skills developed in existing and planned offers for young people and youth workers. The trained youth workers will act in their local communities as multipliers helping to create an enabling environment, that genuinely assists young people in creating own business, in finding better or new employment opportunities and in becoming promoter of innovative rural villages and ecosystems.

"“VALUE EUROPE – CREATING AN INTERNATIONAL RESPONSIBLE EVENT FOR LOCAL COMMUNITY” BACKGROUND OF PROJECTIn our prior KA2 projects, the students have studied entrepreneurship and successfully created & implemented pop-up restaurants in each participating country. This new project “Value Europe” has some similarities to our previous projects (as the practices found to be good in the previous projects remain), but the main objectives are all new: in this project, we want to give back to communities & municipalities by giving them the opportunity to present themselves to local residents by organizing an event directed at the local schools’ students together with their teachers. MAIN OBJECTIVES1. PLAN and CREATE a “responsible event” in each participating country.2. CREATE an event by brainstorming ideas for events that were suitable for the operating environment, drawing up a feasible plan and budget, networking and finding suitable partners for cooperation, communicating information and informing about the event, implementing the event and evaluating the success of the event.3. CREATE and PRODUCE a handbook in English to study Event Production in vocational education.4. UNITE European vocational curriculums of participating vocational schools (Finland, Spain, Italy) – to the extent that is possible - with an Event Production unit (15 ECTS). 5. DECREASE the threshold of vocational students to continue studies at Universities of Applied Sciences6. DISSEMINATE knowledge about studying Event Production in this fun, international and innovative way in vocational schools and, finally, DISSEMINATE and PROMOTE the new handbook ""Finding Value in Events – Event Production in Vocational Education” produced during the project. 7. PROVIDE an opportunity for local businesses to introduce themselves to the public8. GIVE BACK to the local community by inviting one or two local schools - e.g. the school’s 9th graders - to participate in the event which addresses the values, opportunities and businesses found in the local communityPARTNERSIn this project we have 6 participating educational institutions from 3 different countries. 1. Perho Culinary, Tourism and Business College, Finland 2. Haaga-Helia Univerisity of Applied Sciences, Finland 3. Col·legi Badalonés, Spain 4. Istituto di Istruzione Superiore “De Amicis”, Italy 5. Estudis d’Hoteleria i Turisme CETT, Spain 6. Istituto Professionale per I Servizi Alberghieri e della Restarazione “Luigi Carnacina”, ItalyDESCRIPTION OF ACTIVITIES AND PARTICIPANTSDuring the project three WORKSHOP weeks are organized:Participants/workshop: 28 students and 12 teachers = 40 participantsWorkshop 1, Finland 05/2021Workshop 2, Spain 12/2021Workshop 3, Italy 05/2022ACTIONDuring this project students become experienced learners of planning and setting up a responsible event aimed at the surrounding community and selected high schools. In each workshop an event is set up in one of the participating countries. The aim of the event is to increase all the participants’ valuation of the surroundings including culture, the nature, the neighbourhood, and people. The participating students gain valuable knowledge on Event Production.1. PLAN - In this project a handbook will be created on an eLearning platform. The planning will be conducted in virtual meetings.2. EVALUATE PLANS – in a survey3. CREATE THE FINAL PLAN FOR THE EVENT – document the plan in the handbook4. RUN – During the workshop the students establish and run an event for 1 day5. ASSESS – Success of the event is evaluated in final presentations and students’evaluation discussions6. DISSEMINATE - The learning process is documented in the handbook, which is also published as an ebook including video material.RESULTSAs a result of the project, an English-language handbook ""Finding Value in Events – Event Production in Vocational Education” is published in addition to an ebook. Both will be available online on the internet pages of the partner schools.The vocational school students will credit (to the extent that is possible): 15 ECTS for completing the Event Production unit. The final number of ECTS is to be decided by the school and is dependent on the performance of the student and the possibilities in the student’s curriculum.The students of the University of Applied Sciences will credit 5 + 4 ECTS for completing following studies: Team Leading and Creating Experience Events. Again, depending on the performance of the student, it is possible to vary the final number of ECTS credited.IMPACT AND LONG-TERM BENEFITSThe project will increase the participants’ internationalization, understanding and tolerance towards others. The participants learn from each other how to produce an event in different countries, thus getting new ideas and information for organizing their own events in the future. Teachers share their knowledge and skills and become fluent users of virtual meeting technology."

Background of the Project Appreciation of entrepreneurship in education does not only mean that vocational schools should educate future entrepreneurs. It is very important to educate entrepreneurial skills and attitude to vocational students in order to succeed also in general working life. Young vocational students fulfill many of entrepreneurial characteristics, but still there are lot to do to encourage young professionals to start new companies and succeed with them. Objectives of the projectThe main objectives of the project were following: 1) To create a new international, inspiring, practical and encouraging pedagogical model to learn entrepreneurship in vocational education 2) Get students to learn entrepreneurship by establishing international pop up restaurant 3) Increase the knowhow of culinary and food culture between different European cultures While achieving the main objectives we permanently aimed to: a. increase the cooperation of schools and students who have different main subject of studies in order to enable their future cooperation in business opportunities b. to increase the international cooperation of business and schools in order to let students to learn entrepreneurial skills and behavior from business professionals in business environment and enable business professional to get future employees from different countries c. to enable restaurant entrepreneurs from different countries to start new cooperation with each other in order to develop their skills and knowledge. Profile of participantsIn this project participating vocational schools represented fields of business studies (Helmi, Mercuria (Finland), Badalona (Spain) and restaurant services (Perho (Finland), Bardolino (Italy), Riga (Latvia). Also restaurant entrepreneurs from Finland, Spain and Latvia participated the project. Activities and methodologyDuring this project we established pop up restaurant (open 2 days) in Helsinki Finland (01/2015), Badalona Spain (05/2015), Riga Latvia (01/2016) and Bardolino Italy (05/2016). In addition to three restaurant services schools Perho, Bardolino, Riga, also three business schools Helmi, Mercuria, Badalona and restaurant entrepreneurs from all participating cities participated in this project. Workshops started from Helsinki, Finland where students established a pop up restaurant named “Mare Nostrum” during the project week (Workshop 1). Cuisine was Spanish specialities made by cook students and restaurant entrepreneurs from all participating countries and served by waiter students. Pop up restaurant “Mare Nostrum” was marketed by business students of participating countries. This same concept was done in Spain (Workshop 2), Latvia (Workshop 3) and Italy (Workshop 4). Students with guidance of restaurant entrepreneurs and teachers did a) planning b) establishing c) marketing d) selling e) evaluating of four pop up restaurants in four countries during the project. During the project we created a new international, inspiring, practical and encouraging pedagogical model to learn entrepreneurship in vocational education. In each workshop participated: 5 students and 2 teachers from each school and 1 restaurant entrepreneur/from Finland, Spain and Latvia (in total in each workshop: 30 students, 12 teachers and 3 restaurant entrepreneurs). Results, envisaged impacts and potential longer term benefitsTangible results 1. New international pop up curriculum model to study entrepreneurship 2. Pop up companies were established - students will be/were entrepreneursDirect impacts on students, teachers, company representatives, administrators, restaurant customers, partner schools. Intangible results of the project were:3. Increased knowhow of culinary and food culture between different European cultures (direct impact on all participants) 4. Increased national and international co-operation of schools and students who have different main subject of studies (Direct impact on students) 5. Increased the international cooperation of business and schools (direct impact on students, teachers, schools, company representatives) 6. Enabled restaurant entrepreneurs from different countries to start new cooperation with each other (direct impact on company representatives) 7. VET teachers learned new skills (direct impact on teachers) 8. (As a broader objective this project will impact the unemployment rate) (direct impact on students). This were not able to measure and verify. During this project young people were inspired and encouraged to show their entrepreneurial skills and test what was it like to be an entrepreneur. As longer term benefit students who participated this project became more willing to be entrepreneurs as they got positive experience on it.A PowerPoint presentation was made of the project results. The presentation can be viewed on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JOyELMnz4ss

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.

Context/background of the projectThe aim of EC action plan for Entrepreneurship 2020 is to ease the creation of new businesses and to create a much more supportive environment for existing entrepreneurs to thrive and grow. In this project we answer directly to EC´s intervention propositions:1) Entrepreneurial education and training to support growth and business creation and 2) Dynamising the culture of entrepreneurship in Europe: nurturing the new generation of entrepreneurs.Investing in entrepreneurship education is one of the highest return investments Europe can make. Surveys suggest that between 15% and 20% of students who participate in a mini-company program in secondary school will later start their own company.The previous KA2 project “Kick off to Entrepreneurship with Pop-up Company” (2014-1-FI01-KA202-000875) was selected as a Success Story and as a Good Practice Example by the European Commission.Objectives;1) CREATE a new inspiring, practical and DIGITAL eLEARNING ORIENTED PEDAGOGICAL MODEL - eLEARNING WITH POP UP COMPANY MODULE - in English to learn entrepreneurship in vocational education2) CREATE REAL Street food pop up restaurant in Finland, Spain, Italy and Latvia.3) UNITE European vocational curriculums of participating schools with new Working as Entrepreneur module (15 ECTS).4) DISSEMINATE new PEDAGOGICAL MODEL TO STUDY ENTREPRENEURSHIP to new countries outside Europe (incl. e.g. Jordania) with the use of filming the whole concept and inviting observers to pop up restaurants.Number and profile of participating organisations;The participating organizations were 9 vocational schools in 4 countries representing fields of BUSINESS STUDIES; Perho and Mercuria (Finland), Badalones (Spain), De Amicis (Italy), Jēkabpils (Latvia) and RESTAURANT SERVICES; Perho (Finland), CETT (Spain), IPSAR Luigi Carnacina (Italy) and Riga (Latvia). There was also a restaurant entrepreneur from each country participating in the project as a mentor.Description of undertaken main activities;During the project Working at a Company study module (15 ECTS) in eLearning format in English was created. The first Transnational project meeting to start the project took place in Helsinki in September 2016.Four workshops were organized and four real pop up restaurants were established in the four participating countries.Workshop 1 in Finland: Teurastamo Christmas market in December 2016 (Helsinki)Workshop 2 in Spain: Palo Alto market in May 2017 (Barcelona)Workshop 3 in Latvia: Christmas market in December 2017 (Riga)Workshop 4 in Italy: Chiaretto rose wine festival in May/June 2018 (Bardolino)The final dissemination seminar was organized in Helsinki in May 2018 and 50 stake holders were invited to participate in the seminar. Results and impact attained;During the project all business and culinary students studied Working at a Company study module (15 ECTS) in eLearning format in English. Students learned to setting up and running a successful pop-up restaurant and they gained valuable knowledge on entrepreneurship during the learning process. The learning process included two main methods; Working at a Company study module (15 ECTS) in eLearning format and establishing a real pop up restaurant in practice during the workshop week abroad. The activities were carried out in co-operation with restaurant entrepreneurs.In each workshop a pop-up restaurant was set up in one of the participating countries with about 30 students and their 10 teachers working together for the success of the restaurant. A total of four pop-up restaurants were set up in the four countries. Over 100 students were involved in the project during the 2 years.