Social Mobility for Disadvantaged Learners Erasmus Project

Project Title

Social Mobility for Disadvantaged Learners

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for school education

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2019

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Early School Leaving / combating failure in education; Quality Improvement Institutions and/or methods (incl. school development); Labour market issues incl. career guidance / youth unemployment

Project Summary

The lack of social mobility is a key issue for Europe. Research highlights that socioeconomic factors and family backgrounds are major barriers to social mobility and that gaps between both access to educational opportunities and achievement continue to rise. Those from disadvantaged backgrounds often lack positive role models or family support. They are not always aware of their options or their potential. They may be subject to negative influence in their own communities. This project aims to address this by focusing on a range of interventions including coaching and mentoring using young people who are just a few years older than themselves. Research shows that such role models are most likely to be a positive influence on young people.

This project brings together 6 partners from 6 countries, all of which have challenges with social mobility. It is inspired by the experience of Carmel College in the UK, which undertook an exercise in assessing the impact of poverty on the daily lives of disadvantaged pupils, to identify those pupils who were most disadvantaged and therefore less likely to benefit from social mobility. This has led to the school adopting a menu of intervention strategies to ensure equality of opportunity and to provide support to the target groups in order to raise aspiration and improve educational opportunity. The project will provide students and older pupils with proper coaching competences will support them to work with disadvantaged students with confidence. External strategies include individualised careers work, visits to FE and HE, mentoring and visits to and by local business and parental engagement.

Each partner will train up to 10 young coaches and mentors and match them with targeted pupils. In total the project expects to reach around 150 disadvantaged pupils, to support them, track them and impact on their future career paths.

This project addresses the Horizontal Priorities of…
• supporting individuals in acquiring forward-looking skills to foster employability and socio-educational and personal development
• developing social inclusion by promoting equality and non-discrimination

This project addresses the Horizon Erasmus+ School Priorities of…
• strengthening the profile of the teaching profession by enhancing professional development, facilitating teacher mobility and developing innovative teaching methods
• tackling early school leaving and disadvantage by strengthening collaboration within school and with external stakeholders and improving evaluation and quality assurance

The objectives of the project are to:

• analyse and share existing strategies and resources for improving social mobility to ensure equality of opportunity for all
• identify common areas of strength and priorities for development
• undertake a study visit to Carmel College to investigate the policies and practice of poverty protection
• use the outcomes of the study visit to develop a generic tool for identifying those in need of and would benefit from intervention strategies
• develop a holistic model to address disadvantage using coaching and mentoring, individualised career plans, visits and short term placements/work shadowing
• produce an impact report incorporating a series of case studies
• disseminate the outcomes widely

The specific outputs will be:

• A project website hosting the resources, impact report and case studies
• A tool for identifying disadvantage and those who would benefit most from support and interventions
• A coaching training guide for young people and students
• An impact report incorporating recommendations for school policy
• A dissemination strategy including examples of best practice, online materials and events in 6 countries

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 227718 Eur

Project Coordinator

Carmel College & Country: UK

Project Partners

• KAUNO KOLEGIJA
• Charlottenlund ungdomsskole
• Associazione Professionale Universo CLIL (Coaching Lifelong Innovative Learning)
• LICEU TEHNOLOGIC DE INDUSTRIE ALIMENTARA
• DIRECTORATE OF PRIMARY EDUCATION OF WESTERN THESSALONIKI