In the week September 27 – October 3 the EU team from the Croatian organization Ekonomska klinika hosted the implementation of the project activities for the Erasmus+ project Soften Your Skills. 25 young people from 5 European countries took part in this youth exchange, and in addition to the Republic of Croatia, they include Bulgaria, Northern Macedonia, the Czech Republic and Lithuania. This project is designed to introduce young people to soft skills and practice and ways of improving them. The project lasted 7 days in which interesting topics such as business ethics, business etiquette, non-verbal communication, negotiation, personal SWOT analysis, constructive criticism and creative collaboration were addressed. In each of the activities participants had to give their contribution to the topics in that way sharing their viewpoints and enriching the intercultural experience.
Business ethics, business etiquette and non-verbal communication gave the participants knowledge on how to behave in a work place, what is acceptable and what is not, how to get better chances of finding a job and how to use simple techniques in making themselves more presentable and making them stand out. The personal SWOT analysis gave them a different introspective view of their strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats and if used well can help them plan their future and use the opportunities and strengths they have to tackle weakness and threats. The participants were also encouraged to give constructive criticism and they were given examples from everyday life in which they had to find a best way to give constructive criticism. The creative collaboration was the introduction into the last topic as participants were divided into teams and had to brainstorm their own business ideas. The last topic combined previously acquired knowledge in a pitch, and this topic was presented to by Ivan Krajinović in front Printee, which is an example of successful pitch that led to substantial funding making it possible for him and his team to create a business from scratch. The participants were divided into groups in which they were able to develop interesting and innovative business ideas and offer us excellent presentations of their hard work.
We are happy that the importance of this project has been recognized and that it has received funding from EU funds through the Erasmus + program. We are grateful to our partner organizations for the successful cooperation and we are looking forward to new projects.
*Find here more photos from the project: HERE