What is Erasmus+ and how did the idea for Happy school 2020 come about? We managed to create the first national consortium in the history of HARMONY ACADEMY within the Erasmus+ program in Slovakia. What unites its partners and what are its goals?
Happy School 2020 – a happy school is the goal of the Erasmus+ project. It is the EU's programme to support education, training, youth and sport in Europe. With a budget of €14.7 billion, it provides opportunities for over 4 million Europeans to study, train, gain experience and volunteer abroad.
Under the term "happy school" we can imagine satisfied lecturers and teachers whose work fulfills , lecturers eager for further career and professional growth. In addition to them, there are satisfied managers and school management with knowledge in the field of leadership, business, entrepreneurship, psychology, organizational management, quality as well as strategic development. Last but not least, on the contrary – the main target group of a happy school is the participants themselves, who find joy, support and fulfilled expectations in such a school.
In order to meet the objectives of the Happy school 2020 project, the first national consortium was created, which is the first ever national consortium in the history of the HARMONY ACADEMY within the Erasmus+ program in Slovakia. This consortium consists of three members – Harmony Academy Trnava, IPA Slovakia Žilina and PlusAcademia Bratislava. The main goal of this consortium is to successfully implement the Learn and Lead model into the full-scale operation of language schools through the project and to support lecturers in the new, misleading positions that this Learn&Lead path offers. By implementing this governance model, the language school links the process of lifelong learning with the career growth of its tutors in direct connection with their possibility of involvement in school management.
This consortium was also formed in order to strengthen the successful implementation of the functional Learn&Lead model in the operation of language schools in Europe. All three partners are united by the same goal, and that is to focus on an adult learner who needs a flexible, high-quality, professional supplier of adult education services. At the same time, it is important to take into account the needs of the lecturers themselves, managers as well as the owners of organizations providing the training itself. The common goal of the consortium is to create an environment for school life (HAPPY SCHOOL), which is defined as a school with an international dimension, high quality and availability of services and a lifelong learning system of the entire organization.
The consortium's joint effort is to create an environment in which the Learn and Lead governance model can be fully developed, thereby increasing the motivation, quality and engagement of lecturers, as well as the quality of the services provided, including at the international level.
The coordinator of the Happy School 2020 project is Harmony Academy Trnava, which in September 2017 received the prestigious award of the Slovak Academic Association for International Cooperation Erasmus+. This award was given for outstanding activity and achievements in the implementation of European education programmes in the years 1998-2017. In total, Harmony Academy has submitted 20 successful projects in the field of adult education during this period.
