Erasmus+
Erasmus+ youth exchange took place in Elniakampis, Lithuania, between 22nd – 31st October, 2022 and was organized by a local organization Asociacija “Keliauk pirmyn”. The project gathered 40 participants and 8 group leaders from 4 different countries: Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia and Estonia for a 10-day adventure. It was a miraculous experience for all, even the facilitators and organisers themselves. The goal of the project was to familiarize the participants with digital education, namely robotics and increase relevant competences to seek employment or to become entrepreneurs in this field. The Erasmus+ project "Race To Employment" consisted of facing the problem of low employability in youth and inspire young people’s active involvement in entrepreneurial activities by developing skills in robotics and
raising awareness of this field as a solution for employment and self-employment. Objectives of the project were to present the participants to the robotics field of digital education by constructing fully functioning RC cars from start to finish; to raise the awareness of the participants and their communities to the opportunities that digital competences, namely robotics, can bring to their future employment; and to foster and improve the necessary competences and know-how for participants to consider seeking employment, self-employment and actively engage in entrepreneurial activities in the field of robotics. With the motivation and dedication of the participants the objectives of the project were fully reached and even exceeded the expectations. The participants got introduced to the Erasmus+ programme and its’ opportunities, the 8 key competences and the Youthpass certificate, entrepreneurship and robotics situations in each participating country, they managed to find similarities and differences between the ones, they got introduced to robotics, safety with robotics, basics of electric circuits, electric motors, Arduino universe, various sensors and shields, basic commands and coding, they created their first microcontrolled circuit, scrapped optical drives by doing which they also kept the green course of reusing, planned the remote controlling motors, assembled and tested their RC cars, and the best part is that they did all this using non-formal education methods! The participants also visited Vilnius during the study visit, interacted with the local youth, introduced them to our project and the Erasmus+ programme. What is more, they interacted with the entrepreneurial businesses
from the capital city that specialized or were associated to the robotics by taking short interviews! That was a really great day. The project was crowned with the public event – The Race – during which the participants were racing the RC cars that they constructed in three different competitions: drag race, off-road race and beauty competition. The race had three different winners in these competitions. The participants were very happy to successfully fulfil the race. It was a great experience for all, and the testimonials written by the participants themselves is a living proof of that. They experienced interculturality at its best, found friends for life and learned so much more than the framework of this project. They were the reason for such a success of the project and the organisers are very thankful for each one who participated. We would also like to thank to the facilitators of the project who led the way through the learning process and helped along the way. We cannot wait to see our participants in the future and see how their paths turned towards entrepreneurship and robotics!
Asociacija “Keliauk pirmyn", 2022.