The Erasmus+ KA202 project, in which the secondary school Puerta Bonita (center associated with the FPEmpresa VET Schools Association) is a participant, has held its fourth mobility in St. Gallen (Switzerland). An initiative carried out from May 16 to 20 under the title “Creative Skills 21. Improving teaching and learning of 21st century skills for the creative industry”. The project arises with the aim of providing the participating teachers with tools to work “competences for the 21st century” with their students.

Throughout the project, the students have worked with a problem associated with the UN 2030 Agenda on which they have developed a communicative solution to raise awareness and have prototyped it. To do this, they have worked in multinational and interdisciplinary groups guided by two teachers.

Creative Skills 21 between Madrid and St. Gallen

In order to create a time frame that would achieve the objectives, the mobilities have been grouped by pairs of countries. The first mobility organized in Madrid has suggested the problem to the students, who have analyzed it and, consequently, have outlined the objective and recipient of the message, as well as a solid idea. However, in the second mobility, the idea has been prototyped and presented to experts in the field.

Gender inequality related to access to education and social exclusion was the topic proposed at the first meeting. With that idea, the groups have been able to work in St. Gallen.

On the other hand, the teachers have received training in the 21st century skills “collaborative work”, “problem solving” and “the blended learning methodology”.

“Creative Skills 21” has worked with a group of 50 people from 7 Vocational Training centers in Rotterdam, Ghent, Newcastle, St. Gallen, northern Italy, Jyvaskyla, Lisbon and Madrid. An initiative that has allowed members to create a great network of contacts while they have known the Spanish capital and the Swiss capital of the San Galo district.

You can learn about the extraordinary products made by the student groups, from applications for mobile devices to external marketing actions, on the website www.cs-21.eu and the Instagram profile @creative_skills21

The secondary school Puerta Bonita, a center associated with the FPEmpresa VET Schools Association, has participated in the Erasmus+ KA226 project entitled Digital Online Creativity Education (DOCE). An initiative that arises from the difficulties in the teaching process that arose during the period of the Covid-19 pandemic and in which new strategies have been designed to deal with online learning. In addition, the DOCE project has been coordinated by the Grafisch Lyceum in Rotterdam (The Netherlands) and the secondary school Puerta Bonita has participated together with high schools in the European cities of Jyväskyla (Finland), Newcastle (United Kingdom), Lisbon (Portugal), Ghent ( Belgium), Sankt Gallen (Switzerland) and Verona (Italy).

The Erasmus+ DOCE project has helped teachers to share their own experiences on how they have taught lessons during confinement. A process in which not only theoretical sessions have been organized, but also practical ones telematically. “This exchange of ideas and proposals has allowed all of them to increase their technological and educational updating through the different activities,” said Raúl Martínez, head of studies at the secondary school Puerta Bonita.

This dynamic has contributed to the increase in the collaboration and commitment of the participating institutions through the practice of investigating and exchanging new ways of dealing with digital learning. Likewise, different telematic meetings and one face-to-face meeting have been held in the city of Verona (Italy).

On the other hand, the participating secondary schools and their teachers have established a better contact with the new reality of online learning, creativity and digitization in the field of media and design.

In conclusion, the DOCE project has been an opportunity to transfer knowledge and take advantage of synergies in the development of digital content as prototypes that can be used by other teachers and schools.