Description
Keep in touch: create a platform to coordinate the activities of the main stakeholders working in the field of early leaving in your area.
Countries
Why is this approach useful?
When a young person drops out of a VET programme, it is possible that s/he has moved to study in another institution, or that s/he left education and training altogether. It is important to clarify the situation of the young person as early as possible in order to be able to offer him/her adequate support, if needed. For this it first needs to be clear which organisation is responsible for reaching out to the young person who has dropped out.
The following questions should be answered for VET providers:
- Which organisation should we inform if we have not been able to contact and reach out to a young person who has dropped out?
Why is it a quick win?
Establishing a procedure to determine which organisation is responsible for contacting and reaching out to individuals can be done at a relatively low cost. For instance, at local or regional level this issue can be addressed by creating a platform to coordinate the main stakeholders in the field of early leaving, and facilitate a dialogue to decide who needs to contact an individual in each case.
It is also possible to designate a unique service that centralises the information on early leavers and reaches out to them directly.
How to make this approach successful?
This approach is successful if:
- The list of young people who are potentially early leavers from education and training is periodically updated and reviewed.
- The time elapsed between drop-out and the moment young people are contacted is as short as possible.
- The organisation which makes contact with the young person has as much information as possible about their situation in order to take the most appropriate approach to working with them.
- The first point of contact is a ‘friendly face’, aiming to work with the young person to address the cause of early leaving as well as helping him/her to return to education/ training.