Early school leaving of young students remain a relevant issue nowadays, even if great efforts are underway by the EC and Member States.

Recent studies point out that slow progress has been done towards achieving the Europe 2020 target of reducing the share of early school leavers below the 10% benchmark.

In 2015 there are more than 4 million early school leavers across Europe (young people with a migrant background are more at risk of early school leaving; the risk is especially high for disadvantaged minorities). In 2016, an average of 10.7% of young people (aged 18-24) in the EU -28 were early leavers from education and training.

Contacts and consultations with project partners have also underlined that the problem and situation is very similar in partners countries in 2016: 11.2% UK, 14.0% in Portugal, 13.8% in Italy and 6.2% in Greece (Eurostat).

The project aims to exchange partner's good practices in prevention and fight against early school leaving of young people in order to provide support mainly for pupils and students at risk and with fewer opportunities (e.g. migrants, minorities, social or family problems, cultural differences, economic obstacles).

OBJECTIVES

The specific objectives of the ESY project proposal are listed below:

1To create and develop the European network of organizations active in the field of combating early school leaving

2To share methodologies and best practices in the field of the project

3To increase the capacity of partner organizations to operate at European level

4To improve the learning performance of pupils/students at risk and youngsters with fewer opportunities

5To ensure that young people acquire the relevant skills for the labour market

6To developing non-formal learning opportunities to address early school leaving and to better prepare young people for the labour market

7To foster intercultural awareness, to promote social inclusion and equity