‘IT GRAPHIC COMPETENCES – A CHANCE FOR THE FUTURE’ is a project that addresses the need of ”Vasile Alecsandri” Theoretical Highschool, Sabaoani, Neamt County to improve the quality of the initial education of our mathematics-computer science students and the institution’s need for European cooperation and contact with firms activating in the computer science domain of the European job market, in order to understand what and how we should offer our students in their initial education in order to enhance their chances of being hired and leading a fulfilled life. THE PROJECT’S PURPOSE To connect the school with the European job market for carrying out internships for the mathematics-computer science classes that will add quality to their students’ initial formation and aid in their being hired. THE PROJECT’S SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES - creating partnerships with 4 Spanish firms that will contribute to improving the quality of the initial formation of students and connecting the school to the European job market; - developing the knowledge, abilities and competences of the participants which are necessary for creating a Graphics Identity portfolio for print, through European internships; - participants’ gaining of work experience in multicultural teams and experience in using modern equipment in European IT companies; - developing the participants’ linguistic knowledge of English up to the A2-B1 level; - participants’ gaining of knowledge about the Spanish and European culture and traditions. The project’s beneficiaries are 10th graders studying mathematics-computer science in ”Vasile Alecsandri” Theoretical Highschool, Sabaoani and they will be selected through a contest. We predict that we will carry out 34 students’ mobilities for initial training, who will be accompanied by 4 accompanying teachers and one supervisor. The participants will gain practical experience within 3 Spanish companies where they will each do 90 hours of practice, working 6 hours a day. For 3 weeks the participants will benefit from a rich cultural programme and Spanish classes. Before the mobility, the school will organize a preparatory programme structured in 3 modules: linguistic (English and Spanish languages), cultural (cultural elements, traditions, values, Spanish institutions) and pedagogic (where they will find out the content of the programme) through which we seek to attain as better a level of the participants’ knowledge which will allow them participation in the mobility. During the internships the students will learn to create elements for print that are part of the visual identity portfolio of an institution (company, school, etc.) and at the end their competences will be listed in the Europass Mobility. At the end of the project there will be: - 1 optional ‘IT Graphic for Print’ course resulted from the project along with didactic materials; - 1 portfolio of visual identity for the school; - 34 participants’ evaluation portfolios; - 1 school magazine; - 6 visual identity portfolios containing print elements for the receiving companies; - 34 articles on the project’s blog - 1 project site; - 1 project blog; - 2 photo galleries ( 1/flux); - 1 project panel; - 1 opening and 1 closing conference of the project. We consider that the project will have a significant impact on the school through its direct contribution to raising the quality of the education we offer. The students will develop their abilities and practical competences as well as their linguistic competences for inter-cultural communication. The long term impact of the project will consist in the possibility of our students to find a job and get hired on the Romanian or European IT job market. The final products the participants will create will be merged into an optional course that will assure the project’s sustainability, will contribute to the diversification of our educational offer and will bring a plus in the value of the teaching-learning-evaluating process. On the other hand, the opening to the job market and the collaboration with external partners through this project will help the school to adapt to the changes happening in society. The progress of the project’s activities, as well as the resulted products will be disseminated and shared through the project’s website, the opening and closing conferences as well as press or the school’s magazine articles.