Abigél Primary and Secondary School, Nyíregyháza and Debrecen, Hungary
Lifelong learning promotes entrepreneurship

The Abigél School is participating in the youngbusiness.net 3 project to enable it to develop its lifelong learning programme, with the aim of encouraging personal development and self-employment among the school’s students and young people in the local community.

Teachers from the school are being trained to work as enterprise trainers and counsellors, and new accredited courses will be introduced to structure the learning process. The Abigél School aims to disseminate its ‘know-how’ among other local schools, and the wider community.

Background

The school became aware of the the youngbusiness.net 2 programme through attendance by some of its staff at a Business Awareness Raising Day held at Budapest Youth Enterprise Centre (BYEC), in the Spring of 2006. Accordingly, when youngbusiness.net 3 was launched in 2007, the school was keen to become a partner.

A Multi-purpose Institution

The school was established in the year 2000 as a multi-purpose institution offering teaching in the Arts at both primary and secondary level, as well as vocational and adult education courses. The only educational establishment in the region which provides language courses in Arabic and Japanese, taught by teachers who are native speakers of these languages, Abigél School operates from two sites, the main one being in Nyíregyháza, where a school building has recently been converted to provide a new incubator facility and student accommodation. The other site is in Debrecen, where a new incubator facility has also recently been officially opened as part of the youngbusiness.net 3 programme.

The primary school teaching in the Arts focuses on developing students’ personal and artistic strengths, and courses are provided in music, dance, fine arts, arts and crafts and drama. At secondary level, students are taught a broad range of general subjects, in addition to the Arts subjects, so that they are equipped to pass their final examinations.

Vocational Training

Vocational training is provided in Nyíregyháza and Debrecen, at both primary and secondary level, in subjects such as graphic design, building, decorating, plumbing, carpentry, farming, administration and IT. The school sees its participation in EDW’s youngbusiness.net 3 programme as an excellent way to empower vocational trainees to set up their own successful businesses.

The Benefits

The youngbusiness.net 3 programme is also benefitting the school’s young adult education students. Many of these students are disadvantaged adults who missed out on traditional education and who are being empowered by the European Union’s Leonardo Da Vinci ‘lifelong learning’ approach to education, embodied in the youngbusiness.net 3 programme.

Cooperation on the programme has also helped to inform Abigél School on the development of its new business incubator facilities, which were recently officially opened in both Nyíregyháza and Debrecen.