SUSTAINABILITY IN THE RURAL AREAS

"To tackle the common problem of marginalizaton in European rural areas and to address the need of those societies for a highly skilled, competent and flexible workforce, guaranteeing social inclusion, sustainable use of regional resources and environmental protection, the SITRA project (Sustainability In The Rural Areas) represented a new and exciting approach towards VET with the means of innovative development of innovation and entrepreneurship competences, sustainability in teaching and learning and business know-how. The aim of SITRA was to develop a dedicated, dynamic and interactive educational model, an entrepreneurial camp teaching method, including all the three pillars of sustainability: social, economic and environmental aspects. SITRA aimed at developing an IEE-VET curricula in the form of a Digital Handbook, based on real case studies from the World of Work in the form of workshops for teachers and transnational innovation and entrepreneurial camps for students, where we combined formal, informal and non-formal educational methods, resulting in an innovative teaching and learning module for teachers, students and rural areas in Europe, joining together education, working life and government as the ""Golden Triangle"". The results envisaged related all to positive impacts on the social, economic and political situation of the marginalized rural areas involved in the activities. Long term beneficiaries in the project were rural and regional communities and pupils, companies and social partners within those communities. The main objectives of the SITRA project were the following: - To increase students’ competences through active and creative learning. - To provide education to foster the needs of rural communities in order to enhance their competitiveness and entrepreneurial skills. - To sustain environmental development in rural communities. - To elevate the status of vocational training through innovation and entrepreneurial education (IEE). - To develop VET business partnerships aimed at promoting work-based learning in rural areas. The Icelandic coordinating school, Fjölbrautaskólinn í Garðabæ (FG), a general upper secondary school with a focus on IEE skills, here defined as VET, created the partnership together with four VET-schools in Norway, Netherlands, Germany and Finland and the University of Latvia, foreseeing the Teachers' Training, each bringing a specific expertise into the project. Within SITRA, five entrepreneurial camps for students were organized and held in Norway, Netherlands, Iceland, Finland and Germany, At least total of ten students, at least two from each country, joined each camp, where their main task was to solve a problem, presented from the project's associated ""silent"" partners from the World of Work. At the same time, at least total of ten teachers/educational staff, at least two from each country, coached the students' camps as well as they joined workshops where experts, professors and researchers from University of Latvia played an important role in Teachers' Training program, presenting a new innovation and entrepreneurial education (IEE) approach, multicultural education and entrepreneurial skills to the teachers and coaching them towards the camp-method, integrating the ""Golden Triangle"" - education, working life and government - as well as presenting essential and desirable policy recommendations to governmental bodies and supervising the intellectual output of an IEE-VET Curricula/Digital Handbook (OER) with case studies and methods for the benefit of rural development in Europe. The impact of SITRA involved critical and creative thinking to give teachers and students the ability to interpret and take part in reconstructing their society; sustainable development of rural entrepreneurship in rural areas; recognition of VET as a high quality educative system facilitating youth employment and finally a better and higher cooperation at European level on IEE within a VET perspective. Long term beneficiaries in the project are rural and regional European communities. The greater impact is aimed to be beyond the project in the dissemination process when a wider range of participants will be reached in the partners' countries and throughout Europe through a dedicated Awareness Raising, Promotion and Dissemination Plan, as a part of the project management and implementation, to guarantee the achievement of the project's objectives and to secure the sustainability of the project. The ultimate Open Educational Resources (OER), in the form of a an IEE-VET curricula/Digital Handbook with case studies, methods and policy recommendations will be the main tool for dissemination activities as our network will continue to grow beyond the funding period of SITRA. Open Educational Resource (OER) can be found on the Project Result Platform and project's website: https://sitra903026725.wordpress.com/"