On the 15th December 2020 students from 12 schools presented their projects at the Proactive Training online awards ceremony. Entrepreneurship education, creativity, leadership: students aged 11 to 19 years old took part in a programme of career guidance, self-awareness and the creation of new ideas and products together with their teachers and companies from the Apulia region. As well as being broadcast live on Facebook, the event was also filmed and covered by the local TV-channel Telenorba on the programme Comò.
The health emergency did not prevent the students from continuing their work despite the closures of schools and many businesses. The Sim-Imprese (a business simulation project for lower secondary school classes) and the Imprese in Classe from 6 high schools produced videos documenting their teamwork with classmates and teachers, which together with advice from local businesspeople, resulted in real, fully-fledged business plans and product prototypes.
Watch the video presentation of the school projects on Youtube!
A lower-secondary school class designed a babysitting and playroom service in a beauty and wellness centre. An upper-secondary school designed an app to remind infirm and especially elderly people when it is time to refill their medications.
Pupils from another school put their imagination to work creating labels for bottles collected from a well-known winery. A class from an agricultural technical institute planned actions to improve the export of olive oil from a cooperative oil mill. One lower-secondary school envisioned a restaurant where people could choose the ingredients for their dinner from the company's own vegetable garden, while another group designed an app to both quantify and prevent food waste.
Many of the ideas and projects focused in particular on environmental issues, confirmation that the green economy is an important issue for secondary school students. Appreciation of the local region and its products also appears to be central, as does the awareness of seeking solutions to social issues (projects to help families with children, the elderly).
Already back in June last year the preliminary results, which were also presented in a live radio and video broadcast on Radio Panetti, amazed the public with their spirit of initiative and creativity of the ideas proposed by the students.
The three winning schools received a monetary prize to further develop the winning projects and the skills of the students. The most important criteria for awarding the prizes were innovation, sustainability and communication skills. The panel of external experts selected the following winners:
IISS Don Tonino Bello, Lecce, for Impresa in Classe, who alongside the Ferilli Eyewear company developed sunglasses made from an innovative and sustainable material: hemp.
Istituto Comprensivo Giovanni Paolo II-S.M. De Marinis, Bari, for Simulimpresa, awarded for the professionally produced news video presenting the business ideas of the Sim-imprese.
In addition to the awards from the expert panel, there was also a people's award, decided by an online vote:
Istituto Comprensivo Giovanni 23. Palagiano, Taranto, for Simulimpresa, awarded for the quality of the video and for entrepreneurial projects, all of which focused on the use of organic ingredients (organic cosmetics) as well as organic materials (textile production).
On the panel of experts were: Daniele Manni, entrepreneurship teacher at the "Galilei-Costa-Scarambone" Secondary School Institute in Lecce, winner of the Global Teacher Award; Francesco Schettini, Co-founder of Spazio 13, startupper; Piero Anselmi, founder and CEO of the events and communication agency Mood.
A second edition of Proactive Training is planned for 2021-2022 in 16 schools across the Apulia region.
This project was made possible by funding from the Apulia Regional administration.
Participating schools (lower-secondary schools):
I.C. Don Milani Ungaretti, Bari
I.C. Giovanni Paolo II-De Marinis, Bari
I.I.S.S. Panetti-Pitagora, Bari
S.M.S. Ascanio Grandi, Lecce
I.C. Jannuzzi-Di Donna, Andria (BT)
I.C. Giovanni XXIII, Palagiano (TA)
I.C. Losapio-San Filippo Neri, Gioia del Colle (BA)
Participating Schools (upper-secondary Schools)
I.I.S.S. Antonietta De Pace, Lecce
I.I.S.S. Gigante-Caramia, Locorotondo-Alberobello (BA)
I.I.S.S. Don Tonino Bello, Tricase (LE)
L.S. Leonardo da Vinci, Bisceglie (BT)
I.I.S.S. Marco Polo, Bari
