Eurostat records from 2018 show clearly there has been still almost 20 million of young people Neither Employed nor in Education and Training (hereinafter called NEETs) in EU. Lowering youth unemployment and supporting the engagement of as many young Europeans as possible is at the heart of the EU policy agenda. The most vulnerable subgroup of NEETs is young people with the lowest level of educational attainment.The prevention of being NEETs should start already in the last grade of primary school when pupils are standing in front of one of their most crucial decisions in life: what career path will I take? Do I want to even continue in further education?This project wants to link the point of prevention of being NEET with support to boost the interest of pupils in technical, scientific and mathematical disciplines with a high degree of innovativeness among students of the last grade of primary schools due to the increasing lack of qualified and professionally educated workers in the labour market, particularly in aforementioned disciplines.In most of EU primary schools pupils can consult their career and what personalities are suitable for a given work, however what is usually missing at primary schools is that young students also need to gain more of the motivation, popularization of technically oriented apprenticeships before choosing a further direction of their education.It often happens pupils do not like technically oriented subjects due to lack of popularization and emphasis on the importance, prestige and innovativeness used in technical fields. This is exactly what this project intends to address at a transnational level, ensuring the necessary transfer of best practices from foreign experts focusing on innovative course methods and technical innovations (e.g. 3D printing, virtual reality, artificial intelligence, Internet of things, etc.).The project specifically aims at the creation of the methodology on how to correctly identify the pupils at risks of dropping out of school, demotivating to the next level of education, the associated unemployment, and destined for being future NEET. Partners will exchange best practices on how and according to what characteristics they will identify vulnerable pupils. Process of identification would run with the help of teachers and youth workers as they know the best the background of pupils and are close to their families.Consequently, 6 sets of courses curricula with the innovative method of action learning will be specially created in cooperation with foreign experts and based on transferred best practices. Partners will cooperate also with organisations/SMEs dealing with technical disciplines and new technologies. The result of such cooperation will be the awakening of pupils’ interest in technical education in new fields with a high level of innovation and a certain prestige. This should facilitate their choice of secondary education and prevent them from leaving formal education with completed primary schools.The project believes by the end of the project, at least 40 out of 75 representatives (representing 15% out of total number of involved pupils) will successfully finish with project courses and enrol in secondary vocational education with a focus on any technical field.At the end of the project, partners will organize a final conference in Prague that will aim at raising awareness of NEETs phenomenon at European level and presenting project innovative solution and its success, including project outputs and impacts on the target group.

"The complex challenges of today's world make it necessary for the European educational systems to adapt and respond with a new approach to learning. Learning must be seen as an on-going progress, building up continuously at every stage of life. Schools must equip students with the necessary skills to face a multicultural and multilingual reality, ruled by increasing accessibility to information technologies. Today, technology is changing how and what we teach. Knowing how to embrace this important change and how to utilize it in the best possible way is a mission that must be embraced by all levels of schooling. Our modern society has been defined as a ""fluid"", because it isn't based on the traditional and safe pillars of what had become the traditional lifestyle, but floats on new morals, new ideas, and a new perspective of the world, less dependent on traditions and more reliant on technologies. In this context, our project aimed at the introduction of transversal or soft skills in everyday teaching practice, in order to create a fundamental heritage for all students, a base upon which educators and learners will build a personal response to the complex requests and challenges of today's world. It is necessary that the schools form individuals and citizens who are able to react to problems by using their minds, will and emotions, people in whom competence and creativity, technique and humanism, sensitivity and vision are fully integrated. The inclusion of soft skills into everyday didactic will change the notion of learning as a reciprocal exchange which does not end with the acquisition of concepts, but it must provide the students with the skills to learn continuously, a continuous process of ""learning to learn"". In practice, the project started with an initial conference, held by Professors from the University of Ca' Foscari, Venice, who have already collaborated in our last Erasmus+ project. It focused on the introduction of the importance of soft skills and their practical application to didactics. The conference was open to the local teachers community and was an opportunity to launch the project as an international event. Right after the conference, two teachers from each partner country and a group of 8 Italian teachers moved to a residential, three-day training course held at H-Farm, Venice, a world-leading innovation hub (connected to the University of Venice) that seeks to explore new practices in education and designs approaches towards digital transformation. After this initial stage, all stakeholders of the project were personally involved in the creation of project-based activities which would promote students' engagement through deep investigation of complex questions and real problems, addressed using soft skills. During each international project, students worked in groups to seek solutions to real-life situations and practical problems presented by the local community. The involvement of local institutions was an essential step towards the final dissemination of the project results. Each group presented their proposal and, in the future and where possible, the winning one will be realized in the local community. At the end of all activities, a report was created, introducing soft skills in school practices and collecting all project-based activities which were shared with other teachers not involved in the project. For each international project, each partner school selected an average of 10 motivated pupils, and two accompanying teachers (among those who participated into the training program). All students were eligible to participate, but each school assured to include students with lower possibilities or social disadvantage. Students were engaged actively, in order to encourage their creativity and work in a cooperative way, leaning empathy, passion and resiliency. They also practiced their soft skills (communication, critical thinking, social responsibility, problem solving, teamwork and leadership, creativity and innovation) exploring problems with an authentic approach while building friendship outside their traditional learning environment. Students learnt to work in a team, sharing the same objectives in order to find solutions to real questions and issues. They also learnt to think critically and produce solutions in a competitive way. In the long-term, the final impact of our project will be the introduction of a new idea of learning into the traditional school systems, a continuous building up of experiences and skills in order to critically face the challenges of the modern world, equipping students with the necessary tools to address real problems. Project- and problem-based learning will increase young people's motivation, put subject content into context, and offer opportunities for the development of social, civic, and entrepreneurship competences for the challenges of the future."

The aim of our project ‘Breaking Down School Barriers’ is to assist schools in the European Union in their work regarding inclusion in the classroom. It became evident that there was a need for action in all of the participating schools. We want to initiate bringing lesson design up to date in this context.At the first preparation meeting between the coordinators, the project was defined and laid out more clearly. Key issues that we wanted to pursue during the course of the project were also identified. The coordinators also discussed the latest developments and research on inclusion in schools with professors from the University of Bolzano.At the first international meeting with students at Gymnasium Wentorf the project focused on music. In mixed groups, each group learnt a folk song from one of the partner countries. These were performed for the parents at the closing event. This gave the students the opportunity to make music together and learn about other countries. The students also wrote their own words to the song ‘Happy’ by Pharrell Williams and practised it together with Mr Fischer, a music teacher at Gymnasium Wentorf. The words they wrote were relevant to our project. Each student contributed to the creation of the song and video, regardless of their previous knowledge of music. The result of this work between the countries is our Erasmus song which has been sung at each of the meetings.Our Erasmus partners in Spain led a project focused on theatre during the second international meeting. In preparation for this, the students wrote their own skits on the topic of inclusion (for example about bullying).Our Erasmus partners in England worked on a project focused on science during the third international meeting. Students took part in a Forensic Science ‘Whodunnit’ event, using procedures and chemicals employed in real forensic investigation work.Our Erasmus partners in France worked on a project focused on games during the fourth international meeting. In preparation for this, the students had prepared a typical game from their home country. At the meeting in France there were workshops, where students tried all the games from each partner country. Our next international meeting was in Italy, where the theme was different types of learning styles. As a homework for the meeting, students made videos about the different learning styles – auditory, visual and kinesthetic.The sixth meeting was in Denmark, and the theme was inclusion through sport. Each country had to show a typical sport from their home country, and all students tried playing the sports. During the meeting students also took part in group work on how sport can help inclusion.The final meeting was in Finland, and the theme was inclusion through technology. For preparation students had to tell/discuss how each partner school worked with technology.ObjectivesThe goal of this project was to create an innovative and sustainable model of inclusion that will overcome the barriers of a static and traditional school system. This will result in building an innovative and inclusive educational world that will be responsive to the needs of all students regardless of their physical and mental background.Number and profile of participating organisations.There are seven countries in the project (Germany, France, Spain, UK, Italy, Finland and Denmark). All participating schools are public schools, and some of the schools also cater for integration for special education students. Participating students in our project were between 11 - 15 years old.-The Italian school (Instituto Comp. Savignano sul Rubicone) also welcomes students with physical and mental conditions with the support of specialised staff.-The English school, Thomas More Catholic School, near London, has a large number of pupils with special needs, and more than 50 different languages are spoken here.-The Spanish school in Aranjuez near Madrid, also has many students with special needs. The school has around 1000 students. The school also trains students to work in restaurants etc.-The French school, College Aristide Briand, is situated in Domont, north of Paris. The school has a large number of immigrants from Africa. The school has ULIS (units located for inclusive education) for students with impaired cognitive or mental functions.-The Danish school, Hedegaardsskolen in Broenderslev, has 800 students. It is a normal primary and secondary school and also includes some students with special needs.-The school in Finland is situated in Vantaa near Helsinki and has 650 students. The school has a specialised programme for students with special needs.-The German school, Gymnasium Wentorf near Hamburg, has around 1200 students. The school has an advanced programme for inclusion for students with special needs.