Abstract:

In this paper we set out to assess the extent to which the project "A competitive school - investing in the future" carried out within the "Olimpiadele Kaufland" project by a technological high school from Cluj-Napoca is a success. For this purpose, we have studied the literature, thus establishing the main criteria and success factors according to which we will evaluate this project.

The "Olimpiadele Kaufland" project took place in a first phase, in the form of a competition based on extracurricular activities and was organized online on the website www.olimpiadelek.ro, between September 15, 2015 - February 29, 2016 by SC Kaufland Romania which was the sponsor of the program, Values ​​School Association, Bucharest and the Ministry of Education and Scientific Research as partners. The stated objective of the program was to activate all the educational communities in the country, in participating in a competition of social and educational activism based on informal learning, by involving students from preschool to high school and their teachers, in carrying out extracurricular activities . The activities were divided into four general areas: Environment, Sports and Health, Creativity and Traditions, Science-Culture-Education. In the second phase of the project, the schools that won in the competition received money to fund their targeted needs within the school as stated in the sponsorship agreement.

The results obtained from the application in our study of the success index model proposed and developed by Yael Fisher in 2010 for the five indices analyzed (relevance index, efficiency index, effectiveness index, impact index and sustainability index) indicate a percentage of 70% success of the project "A competitive school - investing in the future" carried out by the studied technological high school in Romania within the "Olimpiadele Kaufland" program . As a result we can conclude that the project was a success, but a mediocre success, because, although there were significant changes in school facilities, and in the case of some teachers and students the change in mentality was significant, the sustainability of the project was low due to leadership deficiencies compared to what it could be and the competitiveness of the school has improved too little, which is also reflected in the declining number of students. The school is currently threatened to reach the landmark of less than 300 students which would mean merging with another school.

Keywords:

Informal learning, leadership, project success, soft skills, motivation.