Supporting Educational and Social Inclusion of Early School Leavers and Youth at Risk of Early Leaving through Mechanisms of Orientation and Tutorial Action

Background and problem statement

Reducing early leaving from education and training (ELET) to below 10% has been a central EU education policy objective since the Europe 2020 strategy. Nevertheless, rates remain significantly higher in several partner countries, particularly Spain at 18.3%, Portugal at 12.6% and Romania at 18.1%. Individual regions, such as Bremen at 11.1% or Catalonia at 17%, illustrate that local areas of risk also exist in formally well-established systems.

Empirical studies and the project partners’ analyses confirm that inadequate or misleading educational and career guidance is one of the most significant reasons for ELET. Associated with this are shortcomings in individualised advice, support and opportunities for reflection during critical transitions from lower secondary to upper secondary education or VET.

The guidance and tutorial action mechanisms of Orienta4YEL address this connection. They understand guidance as a holistic process of learning, counselling and support involving several stakeholder groups: teachers and trainers, school leaders, peers, parents and social workers. The shortcomings can be specified through three closely interconnected dimensions:

• Structural fragmentation: guidance and counselling structures in the participating countries are frequently organised by sector or institution; interprofessional case and network management is largely absent.

• Gaps in teaching approaches and methods: young people often make decisions based on limited information about educational pathways; protective factors such as a positive self-concept, inclusive learning environments or optimism about the future are not systematically addressed in teaching and school development.

• Limited institutional capacity for strategic management: leaders of educational institutions recognise the importance of ELET prevention but rarely have evidence-based tools for sustainably embedding effective tutorial and guidance measures.

The European Commission recommends establishing early warning systems, clearly defined indicators and guidance processes tailored to target groups in order to prevent early leaving and open routes back into education. Orienta4YEL responds through a four-stage model of diagnosis, design, implementation and evaluation, in which the five partner countries, representing southern, central, south-eastern and northern Europe, develop a “glocalised” guidance and tutorial action framework that is both context-sensitive and transferable across Europe.

The aim is to implement an adaptive action concept based on valid risk profiles and protective factors, supporting disadvantaged young people in re-entering, reintegrating into or remaining within education, thereby making a sustainable contribution to reducing ELET and promoting social and occupational inclusion.

Research questions

• Which protective and risk factors for early leaving from education can be identified in the partner regions, and how do they differ by context?

• How should a multi-level guidance and tutorial concept be designed to support both general and vocational education pathways effectively?

• What effects do the implemented measures have on participating young people’s key competences and engagement with education?

• Under what institutional conditions can successful components be permanently integrated into school-based and out-of-school educational settings?

Approach

• Diagnosing causes and identifying factors that contribute to early leaving from education;

• Developing, implementing and assessing guidance measures and measures to prevent early leaving from education;

• Supporting interest groups and stakeholders, including teachers, trainers, educators and heads of educational institutions, in working with young people who have left education early or are at risk of doing so;

• Establishing learning networks;

• Supporting educational institutions in promoting the social inclusion of young people who leave early or are at risk of leaving education prematurely.

Results

• The consortium produced a shared project and quality handbook defining roles, workflows and indicators.

• It developed diagnostic instruments, collected data in all five partner regions and published a transnational report on the causes and protective and risk factors associated with early leaving from education.

• A multilingual online platform containing a “Bank of Resources”, together with all examples of good practice, guides and materials, was launched.

• The modular tutorial action plan, a training handbook for educational stakeholders and accompanying training formats were finalised and made available online.

• The project established functioning learning and cooperation networks in all partner countries and adopted a network strategy for longer-term collaboration.

• Educational staff were trained in three training cycles lasting several days each. Formative monitoring and evaluation instruments were used, producing four territorial evaluation reports and a consolidated impact report.

• Each country held an interim event; an international conference concluded the project, with its proceedings and presentations published.