5. Stakeholders involvement

NESET - Network of Experts on Social Aspects of Education and Training publishes reports for policy makers and practitioners interested in promoting equity and inclusion in education and training across the European Union. This paper seeks to examine strategies for establishing community based lifelong learning centres in EU Member States. It explores evidence and research on the benefits and advantages of establishing such centres, as well as the barriers and difficulties impeding both the establishment and effectiveness of such centres. The report concludes that community based lifelong learning centres can simultaneously provide instantiations of a range of key lifelong learning objectives, such as active citizenship, social cohesion/inclusion, personal and social fulfillment, intercultural dialogue, as well as employment pathways.

Family Education is one of the Successful Educational Actions (SEAs) identified in the research project INCLUD-ED. It supports the promotion of cultural and educational interactions between students and social agents, and more particularly with family members and enhance students' achievement.

InnoOmnia, in the city of Espoo, Finland, was founded in 2011. It is the first multi-sector vocational education centre in Finland where entrepreneurs may run their businesses jointly with students and teachers. Work and vocational education are part of a blended learning approach. One of the key aims of the programme is to improve the appeal of vocational education, and to offer “21st century learning” opportunities.
Services include:
1. Entrepreneurship support for current and aspiring entrepreneurs, primarily in arts and crafts or the service sectors.
2. Work-based/on-the-job learning programmes
3. Innovation and piloting of new teaching methods in the context of vocational education, g, e.g. gamification, mobile learning, entrepreneurial teaching methods
4. Teacher and school leader professional development for K-12 and vocational sectors

Finland has been developing innovative teaching methods and procedures to cater for individual needs through the use of activity based learning, small group teaching, on-the-job learning and different learning environments to reduce dropout.

Joy of Reading is a three-year (2012-2015) national literacy programme led by the Finnish Ministry of Education and Culture and implemented by the University of Oulu Faculty of Humanities (Information Studies) and Faculty of Education.

LERI is a qualitative action research project under FRA’s multi-annual Roma Programme. It was developed in response to the European Commission’s Communication on an EU Framework for National Roma integration strategies up to 2020. LERI brings together local authorities and residents, in particular Roma, to investigate how they can best be involved in Roma integration actions, and identify which aspects of these actions work, which do not, and why. The aim of the project is to facilitate the engagement of all local stakeholders, including Roma, in joint efforts to enable Roma inclusion. The experience gained and the lessons learned during the process will help improve the design, implementation and monitoring of Roma integration policies and actions at the local level.

This paper seeks to examine evidence regarding the potential for multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary teams to play a key role in the prevention of early school leaving. As part of developing a strategy for such multi/interdisciplinary teams, an important focus is on necessary and supportive conditions for their effectiveness, rather than a deterministic assumption of their inevitable effectiveness. The report highlights the need to provide strong strategic guidance to the teams on important issues to be engaged in by the teams such as mental health support, alternatives to suspension, marginalized families outreach, teacher conflict resolution and diversity training skills, bullying prevention skills, positive school climate promotion, engagement with parenting skills and a focus on children?s language development etc.

The aim of the report Nordic Projects to Combat School Dropout is to improve and inspire new initiatives for young people, and to create enriching contacts between actors and organisations in the Nordic region.
The Nordic Web Resource on Dropout from Upper Secondary Education was a project commissioned by the Nordic Council of Ministers and run by the Nordic Welfare Centre between 2012 and 2015. The aim of the project was to compile good examples of initiatives aimed at increasing the proportion of young people in the Nordic region who complete upper secondary education.

This report seeks to inform and guide the short and medium term strategic planning of the 10 Urbact - PREVENT city municipalities and all other municipalities, local authorities and schools across Europe with regard to parental involvement in education for prevention of early school leaving. This review is based on an analysis of EU Commission and Council documents on ESL and social inclusion, a dialogue and ongoing consultation process with the 10 municipalities engaged in the Urbact - PREVENT project and it interrogates international research relevant to this area. PREVENT is funded by the EU Urbact programme.