Youth Online Project originates from the necessity of adaption to continuous technological and educational changes in the world and for fighting against widespread educational problems of schools. ESL has been a serious problem for both Turkey and Europe for years.It has become a major priority for the governments of all countries to reduce the rate.In fact,the rate of early drop out and poor attendance(as a previous step)are perceived to show the quality in education system of a country.Also the project aims to develop an online tool (application which the students can both develop their skills and make their career plans by means of promiting attendance of higher education. This project aims to increase the attendance levels at partner schools and attaintment levels of higher education of students who can plan their lives to make a good start with the help of this project.A really experienced and eager project group has gathered for them in this partnership. We've decided to create a project in order to develop a conscious and resilient follow-up strategy by making awareness about ESL with analyses and creating an online tool application to appeal to the interests of students,to demonstrate their talents to explore,to do recreational activities and so on.We believe that ESL is so much connected to the deficiency of skills and competences among youngesters.So if we support their social improvements,they can be more motivated to their own future and attend higher education to find a safisticated job.It is a cyle ;if they enhance themselves,they will attend school life and if they attend school,they will form their personal and professional life. Since our school has a high rate of drop out and poor attendance, we had a staff meeting to cope with this problem at the beginning of the academic year. At the end of the meeting we decided to form a project team which consists of 5 teachers to search for the studies in both national and international projects. After that, we had a meeting with Bursa MEM R&D department on what can be done and we decided to have a common project. The English teachers got in touch with our partners in Italy and Spain and learned that these countries have the same problems as we do. This led us a partnership to overcome our biggest problem as a high school.In order to find solutions, we needed scientific surveys that could be useful for us so, we had a university partner and decided to have situation and risk analysis. We had some negotiations with our NGO partner who has had many activities in education on what can be done about the students under risk of drop out and poor attendance. With our partners, we decided to have an online tool that can be used and supported by social clubs or individually in schools. The students will be able to log in whenever they want and share things related to education. This will help the students from different countries to know each other and have common things. To do that, we got in touch with a software company as a partner and we formed our project with seven partners. The objectives of the project are; 1. To get the common questions for the analysis (about the rates of attendance, success and drop out) from the partners who have drop out and attendance problem. 2. Applying same surveys by preparing risk analysis, using recovery plans in strategic plans. 3. Applying factor analysis to find the reasons that cause problems. 4. To evaluate all the results by partner university. 5. To form the content of the online tool. The students will define the things that will be in the tool. So the content can be: a. Career planning (opportunities for work/school, forming CV, knowledge acquisition from the experts, mentorship) b. Talents and interests (sports, dance, music, ICT, language, drama, videos) c. Chat (social network) d. My youth club (personal page, online exhibition, written book) We planned 4 meetings and 2 LTT activities to complete the intellectual outputs successfully.Thanks to the project;there will be less discipline problems by preventing absenteeism and early drop outs,high motivation and academic success, self fulfillment of teaching staff and students on education,being a good example to neighbor schools.Each partner will get benefit from the project and cooperation.All partners will use its scope to disseminate the project and its outputs. We believe that if we know the youngesters in detail,their problems and potentials,we can help them more efficiently.And also if the youngesters are online,they can catch the other youngesters by means of improvement.by this way,we will save the youth directly and save the rest of the community indirectly as they are the future engineers,teachers,doctors and so on.
Dropout has always been a serious problem for governments for years and the priority hasn’t ever been changed. The rate of dropout is expected to reflect the quality of the education. Youth Online is a project against dropout among students between 14-19 years at High Schools of partner countries using technological and educational improvements in the world. The rate of dropout in partner schools led us partnership of this project and we got in touch the partners. Struggling with dropout and truancy led the authorities to find solutions to this worldwide problem. However, Youth Online has a different approach in reaching the students in risk of dropout. Being in a digital era, the project has aimed to help the students continue their education with digital support. We believe that the reason why the students drop out is not only their failure in the classes but also not feeling themselves belonging to their schools which cause disengagement for multiple reasons. Beside helping the students in risk to be a part of the school, the project also aims to support the successful ones to be mentored for many topics like their professional tendencies etc. The aim of Youth Online is to increase the attendance level of the students in partner schools and encourage them for higher education so that it can be a good start of their future life. In order to achieve good results, we planned to have six intellectual outputs: 1. SITUATION ANALYSIS: Before we had applied this analysis, UNIVERSITAT POLITECNICA DE VALENCIA (UPV) identified the methodology that was going to be followed during the application of the Analysis. So we decided to apply ‘Delphi Method’ and the sample questions were introduced to the partners. The final form of the Situatıon Analysis was applied at partner schools on both teachers and students to identify the current situation of the schools. UPV prepared a report for each partner school and shared with them. 2. RISK ANALYSIS: UPV prepared the analysis questions and shared with the partners. After all partners had agreed that they are appropriate for their students, the questions were organised to be applied at schools to identify the risks that cause the students drop out or play truant. UPV prepared a report for each partner school and shared with them. 3. FACTOR ANALYSIS: After sharing the questionnaire with the partners, UPV sent the Analysis to the partner schools to be applied at schools to identify the factors that cause dropout in partner schools. UPV prepared a report for each partner school and shared with them. 4. NEEDS ANALYSIS: The partner schools applied the questionnaire to identify the needs of the students so that they can be helped by the mentors. UPV prepared a report for each partner school and shared with them. 5. GUIDEBOOK: The guidebook included all details of the project as well as the questions and the results of the outputs that had been applied. The guidebook was translated into four different languages(Turkish, Italian, Spanish, English) became a good reference for schools in local, regional or international level and uploaded in the project web site to be used for free (www.youthonlineproject.com). 6. ONLINE TOOL: The final output of the project aims to provide mentorship for the students to engage the school system and give them a chance to change their attitudes towards their school. The mentors are the volunteers from the project partners who can help the students in professional support. We identified the needs of the students by applying the Analyses above to create the Online Tool. All results of the first four analyses were taken into consideration while deciding the titles (tags) of the mentorship. What’s more, JOVESOLIDES-the NGO partner Spain that is responsible for the content of the tool- had some workshops for making decision on which topics to include in the tool. So, the tags were decided as follows: • Improve my communication skills • Working my self esteem • Planning my future • Discover my talent • Promote my intercultural integration • Finding my best group • Learning for a better study • Facing bullying We planned 2 LTT’s during the project implementation: 1. LTT in Valencia- SPAIN to evaluate the results of the outputs. Five participants from each partner attended got training on how to manage in classes and the learning styles. 2. LTT in Helsinki-FINLAND to learn how to use Online tool. Five participants per partner attended the activity for five days and had workshops on the technical use of the tool. We had an extra meeting with partner school students to increase the impact of the tool and prepared ‘Risk Prevention Activities’ for the schools. The activity proposals were for students, teachers and parents to help the process of mentorship in better way and help students to engage their school and improve the feeling of belonging.