<< Background >>Only a few years ago, early school leaving was generally considered a local or regional problem, exclusively impacting a single territory and economy. The work carried on by the European Union on the topic of school dispersion, especially by the CEDEFOP, has clearly shown that the exchange of good practice at the level of the Union is the most promising way to tackle the issue and - as happened in the field of VET education - has led to some thoroughly documented programmes for tracking and tackling school dispersion, including risk-profiling and instruction on data gathering [cf. CEDEFOP, VET Toolkit], clearly designed to ease transferability and a pan-European application. We strongly believe in a EU approach to the issue of school-dispersion, which would lift the enormous pressure on the lagging regions by providing them with adequate tools to reach the quantitative targets set by the EC.The transnational partners chosen for the EARS project share the crucial features of being part of the local “avantgarde” in the fight against school dispersion. In other words, each of the partners is well-known - in its own territory - for having developed and applied cutting edge procedures to tackle school dispersion, and having a clear overview of the administrative, cultural and systemic features of its region, each one in its different role and position. Consequently, the common need is that of an upscaling, reached through open discussions among peers in order to truly valorize each one’s experience and track-record.Actual data gathered in the Basso Ferrarese area (IT) validated the effectiveness of the school-level approach advocated by EARS and strongly advocated by the lead applicant: in 2015 the piloting area had an average of 24.4% early school leavers; today the average is down to 17.7%. The project idea draws extensively from a set of integrated actions to tackle early school leaving which were developed, piloted and executed within the “Community Educational Pact” (P.e.co) of the South-Eastern District of Basso Ferrarese, in northern Italy. Countries such as Spain (26.5%), Portugal (23.2%) and Malta (33.5%) have high rates of early school leaving, while countries such as Italy (18.2%) and Romania (17.5%) move steadily above the European average. By contrast, countries such as Austria, Denmark, Finland, Sweden, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, the Czech Republic and Slovakia are even more below the desired 10% target set by the EU (Fotopoulos, 2013).In Gorj County (RO) - one of the piloting areas -, school dropout in primary and secondary education is present especially in rural schools and educational units that educate Roma students. In the last ten years, the early school leaving rate in Romania had a stagnant evolution from 19.3% in 2010, to 17.3% in 2013 and then again an increase to 19.1% in 2015. It then decreased steadily to 15.3% in 2019, still far from the target proposed and assumed in the 2020 Strategy of 11.3%. In Greece, another piloting MS, school dropout, according to official European data for 2011, is set at 13.1%, with the goal to fall below 10% by 2020. But even if the country seems to be holding back the student dropout rate in relation to the European average (13.5%), all estimations show that early school dropout rates will be increased dramatically due to the prolonged financial crisis as well as the inability of many families to support the path of their members within the levels of the education system.<< Objectives >>Overall objective of the project EARS is to produce a set of procedures that can be actionable at the single school level. A structured interaction with the full range of actors usually involved in school-dispersion issues, in each specific administrative context (i.e. the local health authorities, local councils, social cooperatives and volunteer associations, labour-market operators, mutual assistance entities, community police, NGOs, etc. according to the context) and throughout each partner’s territory will allow us to develop deeply integrated procedures to support the young people with significant school-dispersion risks, also considering those associated with the pandemic. The project will reach its main scope through the following specific objectives:1.Co-design of a common action protocol between the partnering entities, summarizing and improving the single regional practices already in place. This “enhanced” best practice exchange will produce a set of spaces, initiatives and activities through which to offer first and second level guidance and information services to all piloting school users, as well as counselling and psycho-pedagogical support services empowered by the support of a digital profiling tool to inform, raise awareness and contrast drop-outs and potential drop-outs.2.Improve the effectiveness of the digital profiling tools to inform about life and career possibilities within and outside the territory. Building and validation of a fully working prototype of the profiling tool will be subsequent to a full year of project’s piloting, with a long observation phase by the partner in charge of the digital work, in order to build a tool that actually matches the needs of the target groups.3.Training on the procedures, tools and competences needed by teachers and administrative staff to closely follow up on high risk students, leaning on the three pillars of the programme: 1. Learn the Future; 2. Local and EU Labour-Market; 3. Family Involvement. Materialization of stimulating workplace environments as well as widespread interventions, in the form of seminars / workshops.4.To advocate the results in dialogue with major sectoral stakeholders, promoting it at a European level, synergically with the new standardization tools developed by CEDEFOP.<< Implementation >>In relation to the specific actions that will be carried on under the “Project Management & Implementation” budget line, here follows a non-exhaustive list:●General management by CFP CESTA as a coordinator will be based on the work plan and the detailed Gantt Chart presented and shared during the kick-off meeting. This activity will take place throughout the entire duration of the project (M1-M36).●Administrative management by CFP CESTA as a coordinator and all partner organizations, for the correct management of expenses and the production of supporting documents, will include the support for “Interim and Final Reports”, with a follow-up for the presentation of the Final Report to the Erasmus+ National Agency INDIRE.●Realization of a “Communication and Dissemination Plan” by Asociatia Edulifelong (RO) with active involvement of all partner organisations. This activity will include the support in the planning of four multiplier events.●Dissemination events in the countries involved, including production of visual, textual, graphic and other materials aimed at promotion and dissemination of the project online, as well as the management of the EARS social media. This activity will take place throughout the entire duration of the project (M1-M36).●Drafting, dissemination and processing of the call for the expression of interest targeted to piloting schools in each of the partnering countries, with the assistance of each local partner in the outreach activities.●Realization of the “Monitoring and Evaluation Plan” by SISERA (EL) with data collection tool and further detailing of the project’s KPI. EARS is designed to have a 4 phase structure. All project results and training activities might be conceptually categorized under one of the four project phases: Phase 1 - Research, Phase 2 - Development, Phase 3 - Pilot, and Phase 4 - Validation and advocacy.<< Results >>R.1 EARS 5-Countries Anti-Dropout Pilot ProtocolThe project foresees the realisation of an anti-dropout protocol produced and shared among the EARS partners, stemming from a contextual adaptation of procedures, tools and competences needed by teachers and education providers to contrast early school leaving. The propaedeutic identification and standardization of common solutions, actionable at the school-level will be the core of the co-design work.R.2 EARS Digital Guidance ToolThe project foresees the realisation of a “EARS Digital Guidance Tool” co-designed and shared among the stakeholders. The shared platform will host career and education orientation informative materials responsive to the TG user (TR2.2 service map); by tailoring the pathways using step-by-step questionnaires and interactive material leading to the informative static and/or A/V materials according to the TG user’s current situation, expectations and desires for the future.R.3 Impact ResearchThe objective of the R.3 is to comparatively analyse the situation of school dispersion in European Countries and examine the issue of tackling this issue in a holistic approach. The main aims of the study are to examine the theoretical background on whether and how social inequalities are reflected in the school dispersion, whether the education system can overcome these distinctions by developing certain central educational policies, what are the effective practices of tackling the phenomenon of school dispersion and by which innovative supporting methods.R.4 Scheme of Engagement for Teachers and Admin StaffR.4 is a 3-months, intensive work session related to the production of a scheme for the application of the programme in schools, and especially to the engagement of teachers and administrative staff in pilot schools. The most important feature of this WP is the relation it has with other results, tasks and timelines, which are detailed in the subsequent section. The design of the training material will follow ECVET guidelines and standards, in order to ease its transferability and scale-up. R.5 Pilot Anti-Dropout Program 1-Y and 2-YThe program will be executed based on the results of the protocol and developed training strategies to bridge education and career pathways as a result of a know-how exchange between partners (so, in other words, R.1 and R.4). The pilot will be actuated as a timetabled series of events, study visits, structured workshops and unilateral info days, leaning on the three pillars of the programme: 1. Learn the Future; 2. Local and EU Labour-Market; 3. Family Involvement.R.6 Experimental Micro-Pilot for Younger Students (TG4): Anti-dropout PreventionThe activity foresees the involvement of a younger target group in an anti-dropout program, tailored at experimenting methods to connect with students at an early stage, targeting the 11-14 years old age range. The delivery of the micro-pilot will be based on results and faults of the Pilot Anti-dropout Program 1-Y execution, as analysed and co-reviewed by the EARS Research Unit after the first iteration of the activities. The experimental activity is intended to address the matter of prevention in school dropouts by observing the effects on a younger target to expect a further contribution to decreasing indicators on early school leaving as a desirable impact.C.1 Training for Teachers and Admin StaffThe C.1. learning activity will take place after the research phase, and allow the professionals belonging to the partnering organization to further assimilate the R.1 output developed by their colleagues of the EARS Research Unit. Training courses must be divided into two sub-sections:-C.1.1 Anti-dropout strategies and techniques;-C.1.2 Anti-dropout strategies and techniques + EARS Guidance Tool.