Earn project
About the project
The Earn project has been initiated with the intention and goal to improve vocational education and implementation of students’ training and apprenticeships in stonemasonry.
The lead partner in this project is the Secondary School of Civil Engineering, Geodesy and Environmental Protection. Partners in the project are, besides Stonemasonry School from Pučišća: School Center S. Kosovel Sežana, Associations C.F.P. Cnos-Fap San Zeno Verona, OOZ Sežana, SDGZ-URES Trieste and CEDRA Split.
The main objective of the project is to improve professional competencies in stonemasonry. During the course of the project, educational contents and teaching methods in Croatia, Italy and Slovenia were compared. Significant differences in these systems were undoubtedly an issue that occurred in a work process, but ultimately, they complement each other helping students to improve their competences, and us to look upon this within the broader context related to understanding the labor market needs, stonemason’s products and services.
This project has resulted in a handbook for all the stakeholders in the stonemason training process: students, teachers, employers. It is a project-based learning workbook, but also provides instructions for the most successful and concrete communication between stakeholders. We are very proud of the norms of stonemasonry products we have developed, which are based on usual practice and experience of our craft masters and project partners. During the course of the project, the idea of founding the student cooperative “Kapitel” appeared, which eventually came to realization.
Project goals
- exchange of knowledge and best practices among partners
- build new strategic partnerships between employers (Sežana, Split. Trieste) and schools (Verona, Ljubljana, Brač, Sežana)
- strengthen the impact on employers who provide practical training
- upgrade existing partnerships for cooperation with similar organizations in other countries expanding the cooperation with new partners
- building and implementation of a new model of practical teaching “Competency-based learning”
- acquiring of new skills and competencies for teachers and employers
- acquiring new practical and useful knowledge for faster students’ response and engagement after classes
- growing interest of young people in the stonemasonry profession
- increasing corporate interest among young people
Planned project objectives
- creation of a new strategic partnership between Slovenia, Italy, Croatia (schools and chambers)
- establishment of an expert team
- establishing a new model of practical training with an emphasis on practical and market-oriented skills. The new model of practical training for work will be based on a greater role of involving the employer in the implementation of practical training of students
- study visits; 3 study visits with joint meetings will be held so that the project partners can be personally introduced and acquainted with practical training in stonemasonry profession, innovative approaches, school experiences when it comes to cooperation with employers, familiarization with the current situation in the country related to stone industry
- handbook for a new model of practical training for jobs showing the best partners’ practice in projects
- prepare demonstration articles and project promotion. All project partners will inform target groups and other stakeholders about undertaken public activities as well as the final results of the project
The project ended with a final conference held in the multifunctional classroom of “Klesarska škola”.
The conference was attended by dear friends and business partners of the “Klesarska škola” School: representatives of “Jadrankamen”, employees of COM-ADRIA, Faculty of Civil Engineering, Architecture and Geodesy Split, principals of Brač primary and secondary schools, representatives of craftsmen and entrepreneurs in the stonemasonry manufacturing industry.
The 2nd grade students, J./ F. Marjanović, held an educational presentation under the mentorship of a practical teacher Denis Nižetić, on how to keep a work diary, this being a mandatory document as of this academic year. The diary is being used to monitor works of students and to approach the vocational content interdisciplinary. As a result, students should be able to determine the price of each of their work in stone separately, make a cost estimate and prepare a tender. In addition, they need to know how to present and sell their product. Tamara Plastić, the school Headmistress, then spoke about the project goals of the and the future plans for the school.
