Students from Sir Michelangelo Refalo Sixth Form, Victoria, Gozo, recently travelled to Sweden and Norway as part of an Erasmus+ Mobility project entitled "Be your own Boss". Together, with their peers from Thora Storm School situated in Trondheim, Norway, they took part in several activities which helped them to further develop and strengthen entrepreneurship as a method to cooperate and communicate.

They were greeted at Thora Storm and took part in Camp Creative with the topic "Community and the city". After an introduction from Aksel Tjora (a sociologist and professor at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology) about how to create social hubs and chat zones within a city the students were given a task.

Keeping in mind that Trondheim is a city that is rapidly growing, they had to create a future image of how the outer harbour of the city can become a good place for people to live, in the year 2040. The students had to use their creativity and provide a model together with a presentation of their solution. They were organised in trans-national teams and given ample time and materials to create a future image of this part of the city.

Gozitan, Swedish and the Norwegians students also visited Equinor, a Norwegian oil and gas company.  They were shown a Power point presentation about the company and were also given a tour of the premises during which students had the opportunity to ask questions to the various workers at Equinor. At the end the students participated in a Kahoot Quiz. After Equinor, the students visited a chocolate factory and the chocolate museum.

On their last day in Tondheim, the participants met the students of Thora Storm who form part of the Entrepreneurship line. The Entrepreneurship line is a three-year education program for those who want to specialize in these studies and develop entrepreneurship as a strategy and working method.

This programme focuses on creativity and innovation, and part of the training takes place outside the school in collaboration with companies and organizations. These Norwegian students showed Power point presentations about their innovative projects and presented their company. Afterwards, students were divided in trans-national groups and the students from Sir M.A Refalo gave information about Gozo to the Swedish and Norwegian students who will be visiting our school next scholastic year.  

During the stay in Trondheim, it was interesting to see the group dynamics and how the students overcame cultural differences and any initial awkwardness as they communicated with each other.

Several challenges took place, again upon on the initiative of students. These challenges included sled races, snowman building and snow ball fights. There was also a barbeque and our students really enjoyed the Norwegian waffles. This was a great opportunity for the Norwegian and Swedes to teach our students about their culture as well as being a unique hands on experience.

It was an enriching experience that surely they will never forget.