GEBOL - Get European Business OnLine. This is the name of a EU education project that brings together partners from seven European countries in a cross-national educational project with representatives from England, the Netherlands, Spain, Germany, Czech Republic, Romania and Bulgaria. The transfer of innovation project is funded as part of the Lifelong Learning Program of the EU-Commission for Education and Culture. Within the project, partners from schools and SME's (small and medium-sized enterprises) will work together to build a website for internet based business purposes.

 

The project is planned and led by Euroface Consulting, a training company from the Czech Republic. As the leader of the project, Katerina Nevralova emphasised, the project aims to build new partnerships between schools and industry partners in each country, especially with regard to the so-called small and medium enterprises (SMEs). Pupils and students, with assistance of their teachers, should help these companies create a websites for some aspect of their business purpose. The use of free and open source software is encouraged to reduce costs and promote open standards.

 

Pupils will benefit from the fact that they have to realize a real task while they get in close contact with companies perhaps through a work experience placement. The advantage for small companies is in finding a cost-effective entry into the Internet business from where they can increase their knowledge. The knowledge of the students can be evaluated, so that they can use evidence from their work to receive a certificate for their achievements with credit towards a certificate in  Open Systems and enterprise which is a version of eskill's National Vocational Qualification for IT Users, the ITQ. 

 

The concept is based on the Google initiative "Get Business Online" and was extended through the aspect of providing a focus for school/business links and opportunities for improved quality in student work expereince with the reward of a recognised qualification that is referenced to the European Qualification Framework and provides credit through the ECVET system.  

 

The GEBOL project started in October 2011 for a 2-years period. Since "Transfer of Innovation" projects in the EU are based on results and outcomes, each partner country has the task of finding SMEs and schools that will participate in the project and support them in doing so.

 

The project is very practical and includes creation of  training materials to be offered in the second half of the project period but schools can start at any time. In particular, the transnational aspect is to show that cross-cultural issues for SMEs may be important. Many SMEs operate export-orientated business within the European Union and beyond.

 

Schools or SME's that are interested in this project should apply:

 

Contact: Ian Lynch

 

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