The AEO aimed to develop a culture of sharing, joint participation in tasks and in the design and implementation of projects, collegial relationships with others, based on gradual levels of responsibility/participation in construction and decision-making and to build practices that were an incentive to a growth in educational quality, based on the adequacy of pedagogical methods and a responsible and dedicated performance. The objectives pursued were: -Diversify the formative and educational offer with positive impacts on the results and motivation of students at risk of dropping out; -To value the experiences developed in different contexts; -To diversify offers for students who wanted to improve their school performance; -Preventing school abandonment; -To recognize, by the community, AEO as an inclusive and socially intervening educational institution; To contact with other realities in formal and non-formal learning contexts; -To maximize the digital and linguistic competences which are fundamental in today's global world; To eliminate possible economic, social, geographical, cultural obstacles in order to increase self-esteem and consequent school success, reducing social inequalities.
AEO offers education from pre-school to 12th grade and is the only public school with secondary education in the municipality. Despite the varied educational offer, this project focused only on vocational education students. From the analysis of the reports made by the vocational courses' coordinator and by the EQAVET team, it was found that these students are, in the overwhelming majority, students whose regular education does not offer the practical aspect that they seek, existing a constant demotivation potentiated by the disbelief in a promising future. Some of them have some economic limitations and insufficient self-esteem to face their future with an optimistic perspective. These are students who throughout their educational path have not managed to overcome the various obstacles they have encountered: economic, cultural, geographical and social. This project may prove to be of extreme importance in minimising and annulling these external factors that prevent an adequate schooling path, favouring innovative teaching and fostering academic success. Ourém is characterised by a migrant population, therefore the importance of implementing projects that open borders and prepare students for the European labour market.