Üzleti kompetenciák erősítése online együttműködéssel a Kárpát-medencében

<< Background >>Expanzió Kft. has been dealing with educational innovation for a long time, but until now it has primarily approached the topic with a researcher and consultant approach. The new application form (KA-210-VET) was suitable for us to enter the Erasmus+ program as a coordinating organization, which has been an attractive option for us for a long time. Previously, Expanzió Kft. participated in EU programs, but not as a coordinator. We based the application on the need that the labor market and the multinational companies operating in Central and Eastern Europe also require competences that are different from before: transversal skills, such as socialization and cooperation competences, digital competences, problem-solving ability, communication, etc., came to the fore. These competences are especially important in vocational training, since many people - one way or another - become entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurial competencies are based on these transversal competencies, so the program includes their development. In addition, the development and enrichment of the pedagogical methodological culture was also a priority aspect when developing the application.<< Objectives >>By implementing the project, our goal was for the three partner institutions to gain new knowledge that is not necessarily created during everyday work: project education, strengthening the role of mentors, cooperation, network learning in an international environment. In addition, given that we implemented the project online, we also expected the development of digital competences and the conscious use of the experiences gained during the coronavirus epidemic from the project. At the student level, we expected the development of entrepreneurial competences from the preparation of the founding materials and business plans of the 9 student enterprises. At the organizational level, by incorporating the experiences from the successful implementation of the project, we hoped for a more efficient organizational operation, in addition to the fact that the image of the institutions will also rise with the successful international projects. In the case of the Hungarian institution, the experience is spread through the sharing of knowledge within the Vocational Training Center, while the results of the other two institutions are spread through cooperation at the county level.<< Implementation >>In the project, student businesses were established by sharing knowledge between mentors. With the support of their mentor, the teams developed the plans for the student business, and, where applicable, their marketing materials, products, and services. The coordinating organization provided the project management and monitoring, as well as defined the professional content and carried out the measurements at the beginning, during and at the end of the project. We summarized the experiences in a long manual supporting the adaptation of the project's methodology. The mentors consulted online every two weeks about the current processes. The mentors could request support from the professional management of the project, as well as technical support from the coordinating organization. Unlike the plans (that the implementation of the project will only take place online), the epidemic situation made it possible to meet in person in mid-September 2022, the need for which was clearly determined by the majority of the students. After the online presentation, the students also physically prepared their presentations at the professional day, which became an effective dissemination event (Szolnok TV and newspaper reported on the project).<< Results >>Concrete outputs of the project: presentations of student enterprises, database of intermediate measurements, project documents, adaptation manual, implementation of a professional day. The concrete, tangible outputs were different for each student team, with regard to pedagogical autonomy. Despite the overload of the colleagues, they tried to implement each project step on time with their own approach. Considering that the schools also have some business knowledge teaching according to the timetable, the colleagues had to coordinate this with the project; the mentors were free to decide on this as well. One of the most important results of the project is the adaptation manual. With its' help we want to achieve two goals: spreading the methodology of competence development through the creation of student enterprises in vocational training and at other levels of education, and in addition, supporting other international projects created with a similar goal with the experience. The results at the individual learning level stand out from the data of the monitoring measurements: the participating students evaluated their own abilities more positively compared to control groups. The mentors also gained a lot of innovative experiences.