Česká verze


Upper Secondary School of Chemistry Pardubice

A Star is Born – Erasmus+ KA220

Erasmus+ KA220

A Star is Born: empowering creative arts talents through competitions and with online tools

Duration:  01.11.2021 – 31.10.2023

Project number: 2021-1-CZ01-KA220-VET-000028063

Partners:

Project summary

Four partner VET schools from the Czech Republic, Slovenia, Lithuania and Latvia have joined their interest and motivation to work in the „A Star is Born: empowering creative art talents through competitions and with online tools“ project. The main idea for this project came out considering these aspects:

  • the need of collaborative initiative in exchanging good practice and educational tools for VET teachers who supports creative art students, prepares them for competitions, develops their talents and seeks to reach good results
  • the need for collaboration in Europe facing the significant challenges in youth employment
  • the importance of building students‘ digital skills as well as the ability to prepare and compete in the local, national and international labor market
  • the need to create more opportunities for students from disadvantaged backgrounds to take part in hairdressing competitions
  • the need to improve the image of VET qualification as attractive and appealing to young people

Exploiting the potential of different approaches on preparation of art students for competitions and developing digital skills can best be achieved through strategic partnership of European VET organizations who specialize in creative study programs and have an interest in developing students‘ talent and their professional skills. The project should be carried out transnationally because the intended results could not be achieved in isolation and reach the planned results. Project corresponds strongly to identified priorities at internal strategies, regional, national and European policies.

The European Skills Agenda clearly shows how important it is to develop students‘ personal and professional skills in order to be adaptable in a competitive labor market (transversal skills). A Star is Born project will also foster digital skills development of teachers and students.

Our project will be one of the key solutions for 21st century challenges. Youth unemployment was already and during the coming up economic crisis will increase as a challenge in the whole Europe and beyond. Schools are playing a crucial role in the preparation of young talents to be competitive in the local, national and international labor market. Teachers and students are in need to be equipped with digital tools and increase their ability to solve problems with relevance and. novelty which is a creativity. A Star is Born project partners have diverse experience in preparing students for competitions. Lithuanian partner has quite good system in supporting students; Latvian – has extensive experience in taking part in competitions; Czech – mainly national competitions, but in Slovenia there are no national competitions for hairdressers. Therefore, there is a gap between partner countries in this area. All partners want to share experience and improve student’s talent development. One of the main focuses will be to empower creative art students with high levels of skills that are needed to achieve high results not only at the national level, but international one as well.

Combination of key elements will be covered within our project:

Talent development + Creativity + Digital skills

 The main project objectives:

  • to motivate students to be active in learning process and to equip them with skill sets to help them to be successful in their future jobs, to become responsible citizens and attractive for international labor market
  • to empower talented creative art students no matter their background
  • to increase students‘ digital skills – to enhance knowledge and expertise of teachers
  • to enforce creative and critical thinking and to promote fair competition
  • to motivate students to take responsibility of their learning and self-evaluating
  • to support the creation of international competitions for hairdressers

Project greatly supports Erasmus+ program objectives for VET schools in a way to help realize the full potential of teachers and students by the use of new ways of learning, technology and digital tools. Creation of competitions is part of skills development agendas in Europe as well.

 In order to achieve these objectives partners have planned:

– 1 teachers training which will bring teachers who are working with creative art students, on career guidance, support and motivation of students. It will be essential to exchange good practice in cooperative learning methods, to find creative ways of working with students and to support them in the preparation for competitions, to prepare them to work in multicultural teams, to exchange experience in talent development approaches.

– 4 student exchanges will include international competitions where multicultural teams of students will work online before each mobility (blended). Preparation of their professional digital portfolio will be part of their training during the mobility.

– 1 Guide for teachers – A Star is Born will be developed and showcase gathered best practice about student preparation for competitions, digital tools for students professional portfolio creation and practical experience in organizing international competitions for creative art students.

– Local events will be organized in each partner school.

The implemented activities will be a part of schools‘ internationalization strategy that will ensure continuation of work on „A Star is Born“ project objectives. Shared experience and presented project outputs in the community and other organizations will ensure the awareness of importance of talent development, digital skills development, preparation for competitions, creativity and impact of trained teachers in quality of education.

Kick off meeting in Czech Republic (Pardubice)

1-2.02.2022 Pardubice, SPSCH Pardubice

Even during challenging times we have managed to meet in person and start our project more officially. Of course, December and January were already busy with online meetings and discussions. 

Kick off meeting in Pardubice – at SPSCH Pardubice – invited partners from Latvia, Lithuania and Slovenia to join in discussion about further steps for the project preparation. It was really great to break the ice with new partners and meet old ones. We reviewed project activities, discussed upcoming mobilities. Partners got to know more about SPSCH Pardubice and most importantly all participants could network and get to know each other. This input will ensure smooth project implementation. 

As discussions were active and full of questions and opinions, we can see that each partner is very keen on implementing this project on a high level. We can see that even now teachers are gaining useful knowledge and this will continue. We are all eager to create great opportunities for students to learn a lot and strengthen their position in the future labor market. 

Concluded activities

  • 9-11.03.2022 – C1 – Staff training (CZ)
  • 9-13.05.2022 – C2 – Blended learners mobility – Competition (LT)
  • 21-25.11.2022 – C3 – Blended learners mobility – Competition (LV)
  • 17-21.04.2023 – C4 – Blended learners mobility – Competition (SI)
  • 15-26.05.2023 – C5 – Blended learners mobility – Competition (CZ)

Presentations of students team work preparation for the competition:

Group A

Group B

Group C

Group D

A Star is Born Guide for teachers

This A Star is Born Guide is prepared for trainers/teachers of creative art students to present good practice on how partners reviewed experience on students‘ preparation for skills competition, how to support them, how to use digital tools to prepare professional portfolios. This Guide presents brief insights of international competitions that were organized in each partner organization (Czech Republic, Slovenia, Lithuania, Latvia). Inspiration can also be transferred for other educators.

Download required version:

If you are interested in collaboration in similar topics, you are welcome to reach out to us.