VI. osnovna škola Varaždin

CAS (Croatian American Society) or HAD (Hrvatsko-američko društvo), situated in Zagreb, works on promoting  American culture in Croatia and cooperation between our two nations.

Cooperation of our school and the society started in 2014 when the representatives of the society led by Michael Soucie, visited our school and held interesting lectures and workshops about American culture for our 7th and 8th grade pupils. Copperation continued in 2015 with similar workshops through which our pupils learn something new about American culture every school year,  and so far they have learned about big cities in the USA, American national parks, federal states, education and schools, and are looking forward to learning something new about American culture in 2016.

From this school year (2015/2016) HAD decided to choose our school for a new pilot project (approved by the Ministry of Science, Education and Sports) to be held in only 4 schools in Croatia (2 primary i 2 secondary schools).

Project entitled „How to become a successful entrepreneur” (“Kako postati uspješan poduzetnik”) will last from November 23, 2015 to June 1,2016 and about 30 eighth-grade pupils will take part in it. The project will enable the pupils to acquire some important skills covering different areas of everyday business life.

The aims of the project are the following: preparing pupils for business world by teaching them how to write a good CV and a job application letter, preparing them for interviews with potential employers, as well as informing them about desirable characteristics looked for in an employee; educating pupils about enterprising and the development of a product from the beginning phase which includes “brainstorming” to the consumption phase; developing skills for the 21st century like team work, efficient communication in a foreign language, creativity, solving problems and applying technologies. The project will also contribute to development of the principles of democracy and active citizenship. The official language of the project will be  English.

The project consists of three phases. Phase 1 is instruction phase during which every group attends three 90-minutes workshops (in a 6 weeks period) and its aim is acquiring different skills necessary for becoming a successful enterpreneur. Phase 2 is development phase (in a 10 weeks period), during which every group develops their own product or service complying to all areas of production (from an idea to a prototype for legitimate future business). The last phase is evaluation and improvement phase (in a 5 weeks period) to make sure that products are ready for market testing.