School Starters' Hub - Transforming Secondary Schools to Innovation and Creativity Hubs

The main objective of the project is to introduce a new approach, perspective and methodology for creativity, innovation and entrepreneurial skills among students by developing school centers that will successfully connect schools with local communities and will allow students to communicate and collaborate with local businesses and stakeholders.

Nowadays, in most EU school systems, pupils and students find it difficult to make a successful transition from educational institutions to real work. This problem is partly addressed by dual training and apprenticeship systems, and yet, even then, skills and competences related to creativity, innovation and entrepreneurship remain underdeveloped. Due to the fact that schools play a key role in lifelong learning, adequate actions are needed to help improve the quality and effectiveness of school education. As technological and digital changes have a profound impact on modern society and economy, schools must quickly adapt to this new reality by timely incorporating ICT tools and methodologies into their teaching methods.

Project School Starters' Hub aims to help address these challenges by:

• Developing interdisciplinary and interconnected schools, and motivating students to work on activities that enhance their creativity and entrepreneurial skills to meet the needs of both education and society.
• Supporting teachers and school leaders in teaching and learning by implementing an integrated school approach to improve learning outcomes, transversal skills and personal development.
• Improving the management of school education systems so that they become more efficient by opening up to new forms of cooperation between schools, research institutions, enterprises, local and European communities.

The project seeks to introduce a new approach, perspective and methodology for creativity, innovation and entrepreneurial skills among students by developing school hubs that successfully connect schools with local communities and will enable students to communicate and collaborate with local businesses and stakeholders countries. At the same time, these local centers will be connected to a European network that will support them and facilitate cooperation at a transnational level.

To make it possible to achieve all this, the following activities will be emphasized during the implementation of the project:

• Introducing innovative teaching methods and improving the teacher's professional profile.
• Development of hubs (centers) to support the development of schools in the digital age.
• Development of local and transnational centers for cooperation between schools, intermediary organizations (chambers and research institutes) and the business sphere.

Project "School Starters' Hub: Transforming secondary schools into centers of innovation and creativity" is funded by the EU Erasmus+ program and implemented in partnership with 5 other European organizations: POLITEKNIKA IKASTEGIA TXORIERRI - Spain, IDEC - Greece, Emphasys - Cyprus , European Digital Learning Network - Italy, and PLATON - Greece.