Preventing conflicts and tackling Early School Leaving

Course category: Inclusion and Diversity
Locations: Bologna, Palermo, Tenerife, Sofia
Preregistration: Online in the course webpage

Related courses: How to stop bullying and cyber bullying in schools, Diversity in the classroom, Special needs and inclusive education, the Italian experience of overcoming segregation

You can check in our Course Catalogue all the courses available in 2022 and 2023.
You can check here what our past participants say about us and our courses.

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COURSE OVERVIEW
Early School Leaving (ESL) is directly connected to unemployment, social exclusion and poverty. Personal or family problems, learning difficulties, conflicting dynamics, a difficult socio-economic situation are all factors that influence students to drop-out from school prematurely together with the pedagogic methods, the school climate and the relationship teacher-pupil. Today is more than important to work on these factors to prevent and fight ESL and conflicts.
Since there is not a single reason for early school leaving, there are no easy answers and an holistic approach is needed. During the course the participants will learn how to identify the causes of ESL and the best approaches and strategies to prevent, tackle and reduce it as well as the keys to conflict management.

MAIN OBJECTIVES
This course aims to provide teachers, headmasters and education staff with knowledge, tools and methods to prevent and tackle Early School Leaving (ESL). The general aim of this course is to foster excellence in education by empowering teachers, trainers, headmasters and other education staff to tackle ESL while sharing best practices and experiences with fellow participants and trainers throughout all Europe gaining as well a broader understanding of education in Europe.
Thanks to this course the participants will:
- Understand the causes and effects of ESL as well as the relevant European trends;
- Learn about the dynamics and characteristics of conflicts and the most effective strategies to prevent and manage them;
- Get acquainted with the key elements and growing trends related to ICT and project-based learning;
- Learn how to engage students and motivate them through interactive and participatory pedagogic methods;
- Learn how to lead and deliver experiential workshops, simulation activities and digital projects to fight drop-outs;
- Learn how to involve parent and stakeholders to tackle ESL in a more effective way;
- Get an insight and exchange bets practices about establishing anti-Bullying Procedures and Codes of Behaviour at school;
- Get to know case studies that could be used and integrated in a real course;
- Exchange good practices and discuss challenges with fellow colleagues and the course trainers.

TARGET AUDIENCE
This course is addressed to teachers, trainers, educational counsellors, career counsellors, school psychologists, headmasters, school management and administrative staff working in primary schools, secondary schools, vocational schools, training centres, adult education schools, higher education and NGOs.
Please mind that the course may include teachers from different school levels.

DAILY PROGRAMME
Please find below the standard indicative daily programme that will be personalized on participants needs and professional profiles.
Our standard program comprises 7 days of course, of which the first one is dedicated to networking, preparation and cultural immersion and the last one to follow up, specific needs and cultural activities. Please note that we always do our best to accommodate the specific needs of our participants in a flexible way, including but not limited to budget restrictions and travel arrangement. Participants can choose to arrive 1 day before the start of the course and/or leave one day after the end of it in order to enjoy a deeper cultural immersion. Upon specific request we can organize longer or shorter versions of this course.

Day 1
- Participants arrival
- Orientation and information about the venue and the city
- Networking activities
- Walking tour in the venue’s city
Day 2
- Course introduction
- Competences ex-ante evaluation
- Ice-breaking activities
- Teambuilding exercises
- Early school leaving European rates and policies
- Understanding and recognize the main factors that lead to school drop-out
- Reflections on current early school leaving causes and presentation of learners’ experiences about early school leaving
Day 3
- The pedagogical approach I: the effective use of ICT and new technologies to prevent school drop-put and engage students
- Practical work: turning your iPad or Android tablet into a virtual whiteboard
- Practical work: adding interactive exercise to the lesson with Kahoot
- Practical work: creating a learning community with Socrative
- Visit to local school and best practices’ exchange on preventing early school leaving with local teachers
- Cultural activities in the venue’s city
Day 4
- The pedagogical approach II: reducing early school leaving and fostering students’ participation through project-based learning (PBL)
- Effective collaboration of PBL inside and outside the classroom
- Practicing, designing and delivering effective PBL activities
- Optional cultural visit outside the venue’s city (Florence, Cefalù, El Teide...)
Day 5
- The parental involvement approach: engaging and dialoguing with parents to prevent early school leaving
- A Differentiated, Holistic and Systemic Approach to Parental Involvement
- The relationship between schools, parents and families
- The stakeholder involvement approach: involving parents to prevent early school leaving
- Resources and best practices to empower a multi-dimensional and holistic response to early school leaving
- Visit to local body active in the field of early school leaving
Day 6
- The School governance approach: moving beyond temporary and isolated measures to a strategic 'whole school approach'
- Developing anti-Bullying Procedures in School
- Establishing guidelines on Codes of Behaviour
- How to prevent and cope with stress: strategies and techniques
- How to support students to manage stressful situations
- Practical work: implementing a relaxation and visualization session
- Practical work: practicing breathing and self-awareness techniques
- Cultural activities in the venue's city
- Farewell dinner
Day 7
- Space for discussion of future cooperation and planning follow up activities
- Course roundup and final evaluation
- Validation of learning outcomes and certification ceremony
- Additional training session tailored to specific needs (optional)
- Optional cultural activities or additional guided visit in another major city
- Participants departure

METHODOLOGY
We tailor the working methods based upon participants’ needs, attitudes and professional profiles in order to ensure high productivity, effectiveness and transferability into practice.
The standard methodology is highly practical and participative with hands-on approach that comprises real-job examples, case studies examination and simulations. We embrace collaboratively working methods that foster mutual learning and cooperation among participants. Our focus is on learning in an interactive and international environment knowledge applicable to the real contexts and/or in the classroom. The pedagogical methods that we use are based upon experiential training, group and peer activities, learning-by-doing and best practices’ exchange. They include visits with local schools and institutions allowing the participants to better understand the local education system as well as exchange ideas and contacts.
Morning Wrap-up and brief daily evaluations are foreseen to ensure quality of education and to adapt the learning programme to participants' needs better tailoring the education.
We organize optional social, networking and cultural activities in order to give participants the opportunity to know Italy as well as to exchange best-practice and establish professional cooperation and links.
The training and staff team is multinational thus giving a full European dimension to the course.

SESSIONS PLANNED
You can find below the sessions planned. If none of these dates suits you please mind that we may organize an additional session ad-hoc for your school if there are at least 6 participants interested so feel welcome to contact us at info@erasmuslearningacademy.eu to let us know about your needs. When adding an ad-hoc session we may be able to organize it in your language.

23/01/2022 - 29/01/2022 (Bologna)
20/03/2022 - 26/03/2022 (Tenerife)
12/06/2022 - 18/06/2022 (Palermo)
10/07/2022 - 16/07/2022 (Bologna)
06/11/2022 -12/11/2022 (Sofia)
22/01/2023 - 28/01/2023 (Bologna)
15/01/2023 - 21/01/2023 (Palermo)
07/05/2023 - 13/05/2023 (Palermo)
07/05/2023 - 13/05/2023 (Tenerife)
13/08/2023 - 19/08/2023 (Bologna)
08/10/2023 - 14/10/2023 (Tenerife)

COSTS AND ERASMUS+ FUNDING
Teachers, trainers, headmasters and any other staff of education organizations are eligible to receive an Erasmus+ grant covering all the costs to attend our training courses including travel, board and lodging, cultural activities and all fees. Our training courses are tailored to be fully funded by Erasmus+ and we offer different options to ensure the best comfort and quality at a price that is within the Erasmus+ grant.
We are proud to tailor our training courses to both participants' learning and practical needs and to ease your participation at our training courses, we will gladly take care of all the practical arrangements. If you prefer, you can take care of some of the practical arrangements by yourself (e.g. meals, local transport...), though we will manage the organization of your accommodation in order to ensure optimal logistic organization, safety and time-efficiency. We always provide board and lodging in the same hotel in which we organize the course thus ensuring optimal comfort and potential of networking with the fellow participants.
The most common option that we offer to schools and organisations costs EUR 1220 and includes course fee, certification and support fee, accommodation in single room, 2 coffee breaks per day, 3 meals per day, walking tour in the venue’s city, a sum-up dissemination video and local transport during the course. For schools sending 2 or more participants we can offer accommodation in double rooms and we can provide as well accommodation for people or relatives accompanying the participants.
When attending our courses, we recommend you to request 9 days of individual support for your subsistence costs, 7 days for the course plus 2 additional days for the travel. In this way you can have more flexibility in planning your stay and you can enjoy all the cultural activities planned from the first to the last day of the course.

CERTIFICATION AND VALIDATION OF LEARNING OUTCOMES
At the end of the course, each participant will be awarded a certificate of attendance, together - if requested - with the Europass Mobility Certificate.
We support the participants in every step of certification an d validation of learning outcomes with specific focus on European instruments and Erasmus plus requirements such as staff mobility/learning agreement, quality commitment and Europass mobility certificate.
We experienced that schools and education organizations may require additional documents to certify the competences learned or the presence in the training course. Upon detailed request we can provide those documents as well as we provide photos of the training course and a sum-up video that can be used for visibility and dissemination purposes.

WHO WE ARE
ELA (Erasmus Learning Academy), is a training centre that focus on designing and implementing learning training courses for teachers, education staff and students with the support of European programmes, especially Erasmus plus. ELA has been created by IFOM director Francesco Tarantino and is in charge of managing the initiative ErasmusTrainingCourses.com formerly managed by IFOM. IFOM keeps focusing on work-based experiences for students and graduates. ELA focuses on designing and implementing international training courses and learning mobility for teachers and education staff.
ELA offers a range of innovative and practice-driven courses tailored for educators, especially teachers. Our focus is on learning outside the classroom in a cooperative and international environment. The pedagogical methods that we use are based upon experiential training, learning-by-doing and best practices’ exchange.
We work as a hub and a network in the Italian territory where we cooperate with public institutions, schools of all levels, VET centres, universities, adult education providers and other formal and non-formal education institutions. Our main headquarter is in Bologna, where most of our courses take place, and we organize as well several courses in Sicily and in Tenerife. Feel welcome to read more about our locations and about the courses for teachers and educational staff that we organize.
We holds extensive experience in organizing international training courses for teachers, headmasters and educational staff. In particular since 2011 we organize our courses with the support of European Union funds and in the last 5 years we’ve successfully received and trained over 2500 teachers and education staff coming from all over Europe, as you can read from the reviews at www.erasmustrainingcourses.com or on School Education Gateway. Past participants appreciated our interactive and hands-on approach focused on practice and experiential training and our support in project implementation, practical arrangements, certification and dissemination. As partner, we bring a strong added value to an Erasmus plus project thanks to:
- Our experience in more than 200 Erasmus+ projects
- Our international activity and presence (e.g. eTwinnig, SEG, EPALE…)
- Our involvement as stakeholder in EC initiatives and networks
- Our dissemination and visibility capacity and support
We work in the education sector since more than 10 years, thus we know the real context, the challenges that teachers are facing every day. We regularly participate in international training and European conference to keep our know-how up-to-date. We’re experience in tailoring our courses to the participants needs and profiles thus enhancing personal and professional development.
We’ve experience in providing linguistic, pedagogical and cultural preparation before the mobility as well as support and assistance after. We know how support and guide participants providing clear and comprehensive information before the courses and making them feel comfortable and safe.
We have successfully organized board and lodging as well as social activities and cultural visits for thousands of teachers and learners that came to Italy for learning purposes.
We’ve experience in ensuring continuous monitoring and evaluation and in the assessment, recognition and validation of learning outcomes through various European tools (i.e. Europass, ECVET, …).

OUR QUALITY STANDARDS
We comply to the 10 principles set in the European Quality Charter for Mobility:
- Information and guidance: we provide every participant with access to clear and reliable sources of information and guidance on mobility and the conditions in which it can be taken up, including details of the Charter and the roles of sending and hosting organisations
- Learning plan: we draw up a learning plan describing the objectives and expected outcomes, the means of achieving them and the evaluation measures, taking account of reintegration issues
- Personalisation: we tailor the mobility based on participants’ needs and we ensure that the training course fits in with personal learning pathways, skills and motivation of participants and develops or supplements them
- General preparation: before departure, we can provide participants with general preparation tailored to their specific needs and covering linguistic, pedagogical, legal, cultural and financial aspects
- Linguistic aspects: we support the participants both before, during and after the course, we speak 10 languages do we can fully support the participants form the linguistic point of view
- Logistical support: our venues are easily accessible and based on our vast experience in mobility projects we provide detailed information and assistance concerning travel arrangements, insurance, the portability of government grants and loans, residence or work permits, social security and any other practical aspects
- Mentoring: we provide continuous mentoring to advise and help participants before, throughout and after their stay
- Recognition: we’ve vast experience in recognition of learning outcomes and we assist participants and sending organizations in the recognition and certification process including the issuing of the Europass mobility certificate
- Reintegration and evaluation: during the training we run daily evaluations as well as a final evaluation to monitor and assess all aspects of the training courses and ensure its quality, when appropriate we run an ex-ante and ex-post evaluation to assess the learning outcomes and the competences acquired, after the training we support participants in order to enhance their reintegration
- Commitments and responsibilities: we draw up and sign with the participant a learning agreement and quality commitment and we monitor that the training course comply with these standards

In addition we follow the best practices identified by the IQAIST network:
- Innovative, modern and practice-driven content
- Practical, participative and hands-on methodology
- Tailored programme based on actual professional needs
- Knowledge applicable to the real contexts and/or in the classroom
- Collaborative learning and best practices’ exchange
- European added value and exchange of best practices between countries
- Attention to personal growth and development
- Needs assessment before the training
- Distance learning support before and after the training
- Continuous monitoring and evaluation after the training
- Validation and certification of competences
- Clear communication, practical information and guidance
- Full support, commitment and responsibility
- Easy accessibility
- Flexibility
- Cultural immersion and social activities

LANGUAGE OF THE COURSE
The course is held in English. For groups with at least 8 participants, we can organize an ad-hoc session in a different language.
Please write an email to info@erasmuslearningacademy.eu to get more information about it.