About uKids

About Ukids 

UKids (Youth Start Social Entrepreneurship Programme for Kids) is an Erasmus+ project (09/2017-08/2020) in which six countries (Austria, Denmark, Finland, Hungary, the Netherlands and Portugal) create and research 'Social Entrepreneurial' lessons for elementary schools and teacher training programmes.

Project aims

Social Entrepreneurship Education aims to teach children skills, knowledge and an attitude that makes them able to improve their lives. This includes entrepreneurship, learning about sustainable development goals (UN), responsibility, autonomy, creativity, curiosity, and taking the initiative.

The project aim is to enshrine (Social) Entrepreneurship Education in a sustainable way in the teaching and blended learning programmes of the educational institutions of the six participating countries: as part of the education and training of primary school teachers at universities and in the partnering primary schools.

The way the Social Entrepreneurial lessons are taught is by giving students a real social problem that they must solve together. This must be a challenge where the students are respectful to each other. There are three components to social entrepreneurship education. Core entrepreneurial education is focused on using ideas to solve problems. The entrepreneurial culture that surrounds it aims to create a culture in which people actively use Social Entrepreneurial skills. The last component, entrepreneurial civic education, aims to improve the way people take on social challenges and how they take on responsibility.

The project builds upon the results of the Erasmus+ Programme Policy Experimentation project “Youth Start Entrepreneurial Challenges”. In the context of UKids, parts of the existing Youth Start Entrepreneurial Challenges Programme are further developed, and new forms of teaching and learning about Social Entrepreneurship are established.

An action research approach forms the scientific basis of the project. The scientific articles from the partners of the project are published  in the journal „Social Entrepreneurship Education“ by the UNESCO Chair "Interplay of Tradition and Innovation in Education for Sustainable Development (ESD)" at the Daugavpils University, Lettland. 

What are the achievements of UKids that build upon the results of the Youth Start Programme?

We use the Global Sustainable Development Goals and Challenges to empower students.

Six existing Challenges of the Youth Start Entrepreneurial Challenges Programme for primary school levels were further developed, modified, and adapted in four countries (Finland, Denmark, Netherlands, and Hungary).

For the 3rd class A1 Idea Challenge: Creating Value
  A1 Empathy Challenge: My feelings, your feelings: Giraffe Language
  A1 Storytelling Challenge: Creative Writing 1
For the 4th class A1 Idea Challenge: Get your Ideas Moving Forward!
  A1 Be A YES Challenge: Concentrate on the things which are good for you!
  A1 Trash Value Challenge: Recycling adds Value – New Creations from the Rubbish Bin

 

Two new Challenges were created and translated into seven languages (German, English, Finish, Danish, Dutch, Portuguese, and Hungarian):

For the 3rd class A1 My Community Challenge: Solving Problems Together (= The WILMA inventors’ workshop)
For the 4th class A1 Lemonade Stand Challenge: Selling is Fun! (= Market Day)
  • Video clips explaining the eight Challenges were created and translated into the six project languages and English.
  • All of the 23 Youth Start video clips explaining the Activate & Concentrate exercises were translated into the six project languages.
  • All of the eight Youth Start video clips on Mindfulness were translated into the six project languages.

The teaching materials and video clips are available here: http://www.youthstart.eu/en/terms/

Note: The complete and tested materials will become available upon completion of the project (31/08/2020).