The EU Education policies, lay down in Europe2020 Strategy and related documents*, addresses themes as important as "Education for Jobs and Growth" or "Early School Leaving" (ESL). In a recent Infographic, the Commission addressed the subject of ESL, by stating: "Schools cannot effectively work alone. They need to move from isolated and short-term actions to engaging in a more holistic and systemic initiatives" ** UP2B is fully aligned with such vision of an integrated approach from an enlarged community of actors. Centered in Schools, UP2B is fed by a matrix of relevant subjects for the creation of a better School, consequently, better citizens and a brighter future. The project is a strategic partnership of School Education, created by Companies, Universities, NGOs, Education Local Authorities and Schools, from South, North, East and West of Europe, cooperating for promoting motivation at School (for students and teachers) and for preparing students for their future life as workers and Citizens. The project’s integrated approach of formats, contents and expertise was based in previous needs assessment during the partners’ regular activities and envisages to enhance School Education, aiming Social Cohesion. UP2B objectives are: -To enhance school attractiveness, diminishing rates of demotivation and absence and rates of early school leaving -To facilitate the relationship and the transition between School and the Labour Market -To increase students’ sense of citizenship by generating awareness about the labour market -To increase the sense of European Citizenship and its core values of equity, namely concerning Gender, Minorities and Human Rights, as fundamental Educational aspects While pursuing these objectives, UP2B is also tackling the growing social scourge of NEET youngsters, not dealing with its consequences but rather trying to eliminate some of its causes, as early school leaving and unawareness about the labour market and about VET possibilities. Accordingly, UP2B target-groups are: -Students aged 12-16 years old, because at those ages they have already been required to think about important life decisions, namely concerning education paths they wish to follow (regular secondary school, VET school,…) or they had equated/may equate an eventual school dropout (which will require them to look for a job in order to avoid a NEET situation); it is therefore of upmost importance to raise awareness about the labour market, but most of all, to increase school attractiveness near them; -Teachers of such students, because they play a decisive role in raising awareness concerning Citizenship, facilitating them to better understand society and culture and supporting them to consciously claim their rights and be sure to fulfil their duties, within and beyond school; -School communities (School as an Institution: managers, administrative staff, education counsellors, parents, surrounding communities); -Teachers of teachers: by involving them, the project ensure that its effects start at the very early stage of school actors preparation, ensuring sustainability; -Operators of other education domains (as VET and Higher Education) as they play a decisive role on careers’ training and guidance; -Operators of the labour market (employers, employment agencies and career counsellors), as they need to provide their views, but also be ready to support demotivated youngsters, inclusively promoting their return to school in the all the applicable cases. The methodology envisaged to target these groups and to achieve such objectives is to provide specific products, appellative in design, in content and in use, that they can reach as motivational devices in School and, at the same time, as educational resources of high added value from a cross-sectoral perspective (enhancement of school subjects, regardless of the subject - maths, languages, geography, history, sports, etc and of human values promotion - gender equity, equal opportunities, fighting bullying, environmental protection, human rights, etc). Those products are: (i) an online platform as a ‘School & Job Community of Practice (CoP) and Active Repository of Teaching Tools’, (ii) a ‘School & Job Matching Handbook’, (iii) a compendium of pedagogic activities ‘Boost Up your Class – Citizenship & Job - Pills Activities’ and (iv) a package of online pedagogic activities ‘Boost Up your Class – Citizenship & Job - e-Pills Activities’. UP2B is structured in 6 work-packages accounting for management, evaluation, dissemination, stakeholders’ involvement, incorporation by 3rd parties and horizontal domains. It will also multiply results through the realization of 7 multiplier events targeting hundreds of participants from 6 countries. * https://ec.europa.eu/education/policies/european-policy-cooperation/education-jobs-and-growth_en ** https://ec.europa.eu/education/resources-and-tools/document-library/a-whole-school-approach-to-reduce-early-school-leaving_en
The objectives pursued were essentially 4, as enounced in the application. Such objectives remain the same during the project’s implementation, namely: -To enhance school attractiveness to both students and teachers, diminishing rates of demotivation and absence near students and teachers and rates of early school leaving; -To facilitate the relationship, but also the transition, between School and the Labour Market; -To increase the students’ sense of citizenship by generating awareness about the labour market and its wide range of possibilities; -To increase the sense of European Citizenship and its core values of equity, namely concerning Gender, Minorities and Human Rights, as fundamental aspects of Education. In the assessment processes implemented during the project’s development, and once they have been completed, the involved teachers were always very positive about the importance of the project for their work and results in line with such objectives, so the partnership is convinced and has evidence that it has made an impact, and will keep making, as intended.
The needs addressed by this project were the demotivation of students in the classroom (but also of teachers), school dropout and the low connection between school and its wider context, namely the relationship with the world of work and horizontal areas of growing importance such as environmental sustainability, gender equity and human rights, in short, the values of active citizenship based on youth empowerment processes. The project also intended to address the new role model of teachers and educators, being such role of not just the one who transmit knowledge but the one who, on top of knowledge transmission, is also required to guide, to mentor the student within a world of extremely fast-moving information, some of it important, some of it not important or even fake. This project aimed to create a link between the knowledge for the sake of knowledge (deeply important from a philosophical and an emancipatory perspectives) and the knowledge for its practical use in daily life, in order to address such needs which are in the basis for early school leaving and for deep demotivation at schools.