The Hungarian Central Transdanubian Regional Innovation Agency, a project partner of the InnoSchool project, participated at a local workshop on the 6th of May in Székesfehérvár to take part in the discussion and development of the Youth Strategy of Székesfehérvár. The discussion started with a general overview of the status-quo; it has been highlighted that more than one third of middle school students – approximately 10 thousand students – are daily commuting to the city. This makes Székesfehérvár to be a significant educational center of the region. This educational potential is supported by local universities. Although the number of students in higher education institutions increased rapidly in the past years, Székesfehérvár is still not an important university city in Hungary. Therefore, the youth strategy should focus dominantly on students of middle schools.

A lot has been reached in the past years regarding youth affairs. A Student’s Council was established to better understand the students’ needs and various programs are organized – including inter-school competitions, students’ days, music festivals and educational programs. Educational programs are supported by the Alba Innovár Digital Entertainment Centre and the recently opened House of Secrets Scientific Entertainment Centre. These institutions aim to present modern ICT related technologies to the youth, to serve as a place where they can try out the latest technologies and improve their skills that are going to be essential in the 21. century.

CTRIA believes the above-mentioned institutions share the goal of the InnoSchool project. That is why Ákos Szépvölgyi, the director of CTRIA, presented the results of a recently executed research within the InnoSchool project. His presentation focused on skills and skills development, what are the new directions in education, which skills are considered important for the 21. century. Within those skills, entrepreneurial skills are prominent, which is targeted by the InnoSchool project as well. In his presentation, he shortly talked about the activities of the project and created linkages with local stakeholders that could support the implementation of the InnoSchool pilot tests.