No to early school leaving; yes to perseverance: prepare your professional future in Europe! We are four partners: a French secondary school, a French vocational high school, a Portuguese and an Italian secondary schools. Within our 4 schools, the same observation can be made: for pupils with academic weaknesses, thinking about educational and vocational guidance is complex, either they ignore it and let the adults decide for them or they feel anxious when dealing with choices. Teachers are also helpless and do not always know how to avoid school drop-out and how to help their students. Therefore, according to our common difficulties, we decided to get involved in a European project to tackle early school leaving and foster a selected orientation. We want to develop ambition among the most vulnerable students facing academic learning, remotivate them about their plan for the future, enhance Vocational Education and Training (VET) and promote mobility for students worried about travelling. Our European collaboration will allow us to develop common strategies in order to provide our pupils the most effective support. Each school will choose 6 students between the ages of 13 and 16, who feel insecure in their apprenticeships or dealing with school dropouts mixing boys and girls. The students will implement actions and achieve mobilities (2 mobilities in the first year and 2 in the second year). The students will visit vocational schools and companies to discover the professional families, this should fight gender stereotypes. They will visit various places, they will share about their experiences and create a game that allows them to know the countries of their partners.Thus, they will be able to discover Europe and develop their European citizenship. The professionals will share about teaching actions and methods and enhance innovating teaching practices in order to make a better diagnosis and fight against school drop-out. The different students’ works could be seen on eTwinning Twinspace, the students will add photos and videos that show the different steps of the project as well as the quiz (collaborative game).to discover the three countries’ culture. (France, Italy, Portugal) A steering committee will ensure the coherence and the assessment of the project. Professionals and learners will work together. Coordinators in charge in each country will be in contact regularly by email, at least once a month, and according to the needs. They could also use the Chat in the Twinspace and the sharing space. Each quarter, the coordinator will send to their partner a business plan with the tasks, the topics, the dates and the deadlines of each activity. The coordinators of each school will give all the information about the implementation of their project. Teachers and learners will carry out the activities linked to the project and give the results to the coordinators in order to send them to the main coordinator. The teachers involved in the project will put online the different activities on the schools’websites and on the project Twinspace. All along the project, the coordinators will discuss about the activities, their implementation, the progress of the project.They will share ideas and will suggest new activities. At the end of every year, each coordinator will send a report in which he will describe the activities carried out. The main coordinator will send an annual report to the National Agency. This accurate and regular monitoring will allow to check the progress and to validate the general goals. The expected results for the learners are: - increasing their involvement in their school guidance, - deepening their knowledge about training and professions and, - motivating them to organize their future here or in Europe as European citizens. As far as teachers are concerned, it will reinforce their knowledge about foreign educational systems, it will develop innovative practices in order to fight against school drop-out and promote a selected orientation for the pupils. In the long term, we would like to develop partnerships with vocational schools nearby but also with European schools and build together professional practices in order to help the students plan their orientation project and thus avoid early school leaving.
No to early school leaving; yes to perseverance: prepare your professional future in Europe! We are four partners: a French secondary school, a French vocational high school, a Portuguese and an Italian secondary schools. Within our 4 schools, the same observation can be made: for pupils with academic weaknesses, thinking about educational and vocational guidance is complex, either they ignore it and let the adults decide for them or they feel anxious when dealing with choices. Teachers are also helpless and do not always know how to avoid school drop-out and how to help their students. Therefore, according to our common difficulties, we decided to get involved in a European project to tackle early school leaving and foster a selected orientation. We want to develop ambition among the most vulnerable students facing academic learning, remotivate them about their plan for the future, enhance Vocational Education and Training (VET) and promote mobility for students worried about travelling. Our European collaboration will allow us to develop common strategies in order to provide our pupils the most effective support. Each school chose six students aged between 13 and 18 who were at risk of dropping out of school or having difficulty learning, with a mixed gender. The students took part in activities in their schools, and went on trips (2 trips in the second year, 2 trips in the third year). Our timetable was disrupted by the health crisis, so our respective agencies granted us a rider to extend the project by a year. During the first year, the partners worked with their pupils on the project's priorities (discovering professions, exchanging with professionals from all horizons, developing oral skills and knowledge of Europe) and shared the fruit of their activities on twinspace. The teachers exchanged visio on a regular basis. Visits to vocational high schools and companies enabled students to learn about different professions, while combating gender stereotypes. They visited different places, exchanged experiences and created a digital game and kahoot, enabling them to discover Europe and develop their European citizenship. Professionals exchanged views on pedagogical approaches to better diagnose and combat school dropout, and the necessary links with other staff such as nurses, educators, teachers, psychologists, homework help associations and businesses/artisans' associations, depending on the partner country. The pupils' various productions were visible on the former e-Twinning Twinspace, with teachers uploading photos, documents and videos retracing the different stages of the project, as well as quizzes (collaborative games) to discover the culture of the 3 countries (France, Italy, Portugal). The European steering committee, made up of coordinators from each country, ensured the coherence and evaluation of the project. As planned, the coordinators maintained regular contact in the evenings via visios, e-mail, telephone and WhatsApp. The project coordinator regularly sent the partner coordinators a list of activities, tasks and topics to be addressed (such as gender equality in the workplace). The project teachers worked with the students to implement the tasks. Twinspace was the unifying, disseminating, sharing and motivating element for all involved. During the course of the project, the coordinators always discussed the activities, their implementation and the progress of the project. They shared ideas and made suggestions on other subjects (such as the layout of spaces in a facility) and activities. During the course of the project, the partners agreed to produce an interim report. This regular, precise follow-up helped to regulate the project's progress and validate the general objectives. The expected results for the students were an increase in their involvement in career planning, a deepening of their knowledge of professions and training courses, and greater motivation to plan their future here or in Europe as future European citizens. For the teachers, it was a strengthening of their knowledge of foreign education systems, the development of pedagogical gestures that value students and the introduction of new practices to combat school drop-out and encourage students to stay in school and choose a career path. We will continue to develop partnerships with local vocational high schools, as well as with other European educational establishments, and to work together to develop systems and professional practices to help students build their career plans and avoid dropping out of school.