"<< Background >>As part of the Europe 2020 strategy, almost all EU Member States have formulated national targets and indicators to reduce the rates of early school leavers. The project partners have already analysed and discussed their needs in various preliminary meetings. The participating vocational schools in particular lose many educationally disadvantaged pupils on the way to graduation. But the companies also complain that their trainees drop out of training. The Corona pandemic has exacerbated this phenomenon in all partner countries.According to the partner schools, the reasons for the dropouts are often absenteeism, poor grades, but also causes in the personal environment. The teachers often do not know how to react and support the students. The modular training aims to provide answers to this and thus meet the needs of the teaching staff of the individual partners.The needs of educationally disadvantaged young people are identified in advance and the ""end target group"" is thus included in the development. This ensures that the training content equips teachers with the skills that will actually benefit the young people.<< Objectives >>The reasons for learning disadvantages can be manifold. Usually there are several factors in the personal and social environment: poor housing conditions and thus a poor learning environment, poverty makes personal support by the parental home difficult, experiences with violence, drugs, debts, etc. block the possibilities of concentration. All of this leads to lower self-esteem, lower motivation and additional barriers to learning. Due to the usually multiple problems, individual support is necessary. Young people with socio-economic difficulties and learning disadvantages generally need strongly individualised learning support. In order to be able to support this target group better in the future, teachers need special methodological and didactic competences. Within the framework of the project, a digital ""modular further training to become a coach for integrative learning processes - iLEAP Coach"" will be developed for teachers and trainers, which will impart exactly these urgently needed competences.Furthermore, topics such as educational disadvantage, inclusion, digital tools, etc. will not only become more present locally, but also nationally and internationally through the dissemination activities, thus broadening awareness of the issues.If widely applied, this modular training can counteract rising school dropout rates.<< Implementation >>Within the framework of the project, different activities are carried out, both digitally and in presence.The digital project management meetings and the transnational partner meetings serve on the one hand to check the progress of the project and on the other hand to develop the individual modules of the digital modular training to become an iLEAP coach and to distribute the work packages among the partners.In the Training of Trainers activity, 2 master trainers per partner organisation are trained, who act as the main multipliers for the iLEAP Coach training.Different dissemination activities within the organisations serve to multiply the knowledge gained within the partner organisations. Through different marketing activities (e.g. information material, open day) and the country-specific multiplier events, educational staff and other interested stakeholders are to be sensitised to these topics and additional local support services are to be developed during the project.<< Results >>A variety of results are expected during the project. First and foremost, an empirical needs analysis will be carried out. The objective of this is to determine which individual problems the pupils and trainees of the participating partners have, how these affect the learning opportunities and existing competences and which competences the teachers and trainers should have in order to be able to strengthen them individually.Based on the findings of the analysis, the contents of the modular training to become an iLEAP coach (inclusive learning process coach) will be determined and developed in the framework of 4 modules.The 4 modules of a digital training for trainers and teachers to become an iLEAP coach include a method case for application in 5 languages (Romanian, Macedonian, German, English, Cypriot Greek) and are freely accessible online for the target group. In addition, 2 employees from each partner organisation are trained as master trainers. They then act as contact persons for further training within their own institution and their network."

"The problem of increased youth unemployment is a transnational problem in Europe. For many young people it is difficult to enter employment after their training. The reason for this is a mostly very schooled training system that is not very oriented towards real work processes.The project partners the Bildungswerk der Bayerischen Wirtschaft (bbw) gGmbH, the companies Dräxlmaier, INA Schaeffler and Stabilus, as well as the vocational schools Scoala Profesionala Germana Kronstadt and Stredna odborna skola strojnicka at the locations Brasov (Romania) and Kysucke Novo Mestp (Slovakia) led the project ""Work-Based Learning in the Field of Cutting Mechanics: Introducing VET Multipliers to Alternate Work-Based Learning in Romania and Slovakia"". The project had a duration of 36 months, from 01.09.2015 to 01.09.2018. The first local cooperation structures were already in place before the start of the project. For some years now, the companies have been working together with the vocational schools on the implementation of an apprenticeship in cutting mechanics. The project increased the labour market relevance of this training by introducing dual elements and deepened the cooperation between the training company and the vocational school. The aim was to make the training more practice-oriented and action-oriented. Within the framework of the project, appropriate know-how was exchanged and the close cooperation between the partners ensured a long-term cooperation. According to feedback from the partners, the project contributed to a stronger willingness to take on trainees on the part of the training companies and facilitated the transition to employment for the training graduates. The higher priority was thus given to promoting the employability of young job seekers and indirectly reducing the risk of youth unemployment. In addition, the various measures taken to disseminate the project experience (e.g. website, posters, presentations) not only aroused interest in the project, but also, based on feedback from the partners, ensured increased interest in the multiplication of the results by colleagues and other interested parties. In order to achieve the goals, further training courses and workshops on practice-oriented training methods and 2 workshops on the dual training system in Germany were carried out within the framework of the project. These took place for vocational school teachers as well as company trainers and managers of the project partners. In addition, existing teaching and testing materials were revised and modernised. The regular feedback from participants and partners on the activities and the course of the project was positive and most of the suggestions for improvement were implemented at an early stage.The project is in line with the objectives of the ""Europe 2020"" strategy. It aimed to improve education systems, thereby laying the foundations for a competitive, sustainable industrial sector and reducing the discrepancy between the demand for skilled workers and the training of skilled workers."