CENTRES

CENTRES (Creative Entrepreneurship in Schools) project has been funded with support from the European Commission.

This publication reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.

www.centres-eu.org

With the support of the Lifelong Learning Programme of the European Union

“The Youth Club” November and December 2013, Vejle, Denmark 1. Context This pilot was based on the participating schools’ wish to work with entrepreneurship and to develop new ways of working with creative industries. For the two 5th classes (11-12 years old) the project would enhance their knowledge on curriculum issues like knowledge about work life, understanding people’s choice of profession and also more regular subject related matters in Danish, Math and Social Science. 2. Approach This pilot is a concrete example on how younger pupils and three creative partners can work together. The pilot was designed mainly by the teachers and this gave a huge impact in the class room because all parts could see the purpose of the pilot right from the beginning. The teachers contacted the partners, they ensured a close connection with the curriculum and they also arranged final exhibition. All in all a good example of that quality usually follows when engaged teachers plan projects. 3. Rationale As mentioned above the two schools are both experienced entrepreneur schools but have not worked with creative industries previously and this new area could proof to give the schools new views on entrepreneurship education. 4. Pilot Description This pilot came in 5 steps. 1st step was a kick off arrangement were the two classes met the three creative partners: a graphical designer, an indoor decorator and an architect. The pupils were introduced to the core of the three lines of work by the mentors with focus on how an ordinary day looks like if you work in the creative industry. After that the two teachers revealed the plan for the following two weeks. The pupils' task was to design a new youth club for the local community and in two week present it to a group of local teachers, school leaders, municipality people, the mentors and politicians. Half way through the pupils would meet the mentors again and all groups would receive feedback on their work. 2nd step. The classes began their work in the class rooms 3rd step. Both classes had »business meetings« with the three mentors and they all received feedback on their work

CENTRES (Creative Entrepreneurship in Schools) project has been funded with support from the European Commission.

This publication reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.

www.centres-eu.org

With the support of the Lifelong Learning Programme of the European Union

4th step. The pupils adjusted their work and made the final preparations before the big exhibition 5th step. All groups were lined up in the big hall in one of the schools, and each group had 10 minutes to present their idea of how the new youth club should look like. After this session the judges gave written feedback to all groups. This was not a competition and there was no prize for the winners. The prize for all pupils was the valuable feedback they got from the judges. Both on the idea itself and on the actual presentation and this undoubtedly gives both the pupils and the teachers evaluation data they would have gotten if the pilot was formed as a regular contest. About 50 pupils from two schools, two teachers, three mentors participated in this pilot. 5. Impact & Legacy Seen from teachers’ point of view this pilot has brought new perspectives to the collaboration between schools and private businesses here the creative ones. Is has given new ideas for future projects and the fact that the focus was on the pedagogical outcome for the pupils and not on winning a price, gave good quality to the project. 6. Quality This pilot has been underway for quite some time. We have had many meetings but in the end the long preparation period proved to be important. When working with small creative industries there is always a risk that people will prioritise their business to the schools which of course is quite reasonable, but when it happens it gives setback to the project. We experienced this twice but due to the flexibility of teachers and other mentors we managed to cope. But we would like to underline that this is a potential risk in all projects like CENTRES. Seen as a whole this pilot went very well and we think that fact that the teachers were involved in the planning right from the beginning is an important reason. When the teachers see the rationale of the project it is much more likely to become a success. As for the mentors they all joined the project because of interest and not because they were told to by a superior person in their company and it was clear what was expected from them and what they could gain be participating. 7. Insight This pilot showed the importance of bringing teachers into the planning as early as possible. Danish teachers are fairly independent when it comes to planning their class room activities and in choosing what projects to join and what projects not to join. This makes the teachers very critic when new projects are offered to them and they only join if they can see the relevance for their pupils but if they accept they often stay loyal to the project because they now see is as their own and this exactly what happened in this pilot.

CENTRES (Creative Entrepreneurship in Schools) project has been funded with support from the European Commission.

This publication reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.

www.centres-eu.org

With the support of the Lifelong Learning Programme of the European Union

The project period of two weeks was ok and it helped the pupils to stay focused but it is also important to mention that some pupils felt that they have too little time to finish their work. The setup of having an introduction to a new project outside the usual class room environment gave the pupils (and the teachers) a feeling of something important and the presence of the mentors underlined that. Having guests in schools is almost always a success because the pupil-teacher relation is based on a lot of habits and it is difficult for both parts to show new sides of themselves. The pupils were very dedicated in the process and they showed much creativity when presenting their work for the mentors and they used both traditional materials like cardboard and paper both also tablets and laptops. They trained their ability to see the potentials in ideas and put them together to a concept.