The European cooperation strategy in education and training ET2020 aims at promoting equity, social cohesion, and active citizenship. One of its benchmarks is the rate of early school leaving in education and training, which should be below 10% between 18 and 24 years. This has caught our attention because of the work that still needs to be done to get there. In this line our project’s main goals, which are interrelated among them, are the following: 1.- Stopping early school leaving 2.- Preparing our young people for the jobs of the future (this entails among others: the use of new methodologies and ICT, the integration of sustainability in the curricula of students and the comprehension of education as a tool to make students understand throughout their education the importance of inclusiveness and gender equality in our societies for their progress) 3.- Promote girls empowerment to make gender equality a reality 4.- Boost discussions at schools that leads to social cohesion 5.- Encouraging the students to get a degree in secondary education (and that students consider the degree and the training they acquire through it as a key tool for carrying out the work to which they aspire) 6.- Advising students to choose VET that best fits their profile promoting their inclusion in the labor market. A wide sample of different countries has been carefully selected in order to represent as many current situations as possible. Partners from Turkey, France, Portugal, Poland, Slovakia, and Germany made up this Project, that is coordinated by Spanish education inspectors. Activities are clearly defined: 1. Knowledge of current situation 2. Analyzing data and successful practices from different countries 3. Select and adapt that good practices to the organization, culture and academic structure of a different country 4. Implement them in a carefully chosen “target school” 5. Assess and compare the quantitative and qualitative achieved goals. Expected impact is extremely high because the addition of small changes largely checked with success in similar situations might lead to great advantages. The characteristic that makes this project so relevant is that the intellectual product will transcend the educational environment to impact on the whole society; also the improvements incorporated in each country will last forever. Knowing and sharing the best experiences about ESL across Europe, once adapted, tested and assessed in few institutions of each country contribute to getting the irrevocable goal of the national educational systems convergence. We could think that the potential beneficiaries of this project are our young people, however, they are the agents of change in our societies and a key part of the development that will take place in them. Therefore, this project benefits all of us who are part of the societies in which we work to achieve greater social inclusion and opportunities for all.
To prepare our young people for the jobs of the future (this involves among other things: the use of new methodologies and ICTs, the integration of sustainability in students' curricula and the understanding of education as a tool for students to understand throughout their education the importance of inclusion and gender equality in our societies for their progress). 3.- Promote the empowerment of girls to make gender equality a reality. 4.- Promote debates in schools that lead to social cohesion. 5.- Encourage pupils to obtain a secondary education qualification (and for pupils to consider the 5.- Encourage pupils to obtain a secondary education qualification (and for pupils to see the qualification and the training they acquire through it as a key tool for the job they aspire to). 6.- To advise students to choose the VET that best suits their profile, promoting their inclusion in the labour market. A wide sample of different countries has been carefully selected in order to represent as many current situations as possible. Partners from Turkey, Portugal, Poland, Slovakia and Slovakia make up this project, which is coordinated by USIE Spain.
As education inspectors, one of our objectives is to contribute to the improvement of the quality of education and to accompany and advise the management of schools. Furthermore, one of the objectives of the European Union was to reduce the rate of early school leaving to below 10%. Our country has one of the highest levels in the European Union and for this reason we have applied for this European project looking for partners with low dropout rates to share their experiences and check in situ the methodologies that lead to obtain these results.