The Kick-off Meeting of the CHOICE – Increasing young people’s motivation to choose STEM careers through an Innovative Cross-disciplinary STE(A)M approach to education project was held on February 20th and 21st in Palermo, Italy. The project aims to increase young people’s motivation to choose STE(A)M careers through a practice-oriented approach, thus contributing to produce a workforce capable of facing the complex social challenges of the coming years.

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Through the involvement of teachers and students in a cross-disciplinary bottom-up learning process, the project also aims to promote cooperation and collaboration among educational institutions, business and local authorities as hey stakeholders able to support reform of STE(A)M curricula at schools. Schools have been involved since the first phase of the project to ensure a greater impact on the target group, in particular students and teachers.

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During the 2 years of the project, a series of outcomes will be produced:

• National reports on local and regional initiatives, best practice, students’ attitudes and teachers’ approaches to STEM education

• Reflective practice case-study compendium

• Design and development workshops

• Local teacher training sessions on STE(A)M approaches and the implementation of the MOOC on STE(A)M education

• Field-visits to leading companies and universities in the field of STEM

• Stakeholder round-tables

• Policy recommendations

• CHOICE@SCHOOL: Tool for collecting good practices

• CHOICE@SCHOOL: Open day in schools

• Final International Conference in Brussels

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The first meeting was hosted by CESIE, project coordinator, and it was attended by all the partners involved.

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In the coming months, the first activity to be carried out by all partners will be a national report containing a mapping of the different local realities, best practices and initiatives in the STE(A)M field that contribute to close the skill mismatch in the current labour market. Subsequently, Reflective Groups will be organised involving managers from companies in the STEM fields, representatives from Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) and representatives from local authorities.

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The second transnational project meeting will be held next July in Athens, Greece.