Detecting and Preventing Drop out from Higher Education or Supporting Students to Switch Successfully to VET Erasmus Project

Project Title

Detecting and Preventing Drop out from Higher Education or Supporting Students to Switch Successfully to VET

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 addressing more than one field

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2014

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: ICT – new technologies – digital competences; Labour market issues incl. career guidance / youth unemployment; Early School Leaving / combating failure in education

Project Summary

Background
Success in higher education is vital for jobs, social justice and economic growth and therefore highly qualified professionals are indispensable for each society. As one of its headline targets, the European Union proposes to lead at least 40% of the younger generation to a third level education. Additionally, it claims to reduce the number of dropouts in higher education. Despite various efforts in recent years, the reality in most European countries is a different one. Still too many students in the EU drop out before they complete their higher education degree.
Dropping out can be a positive decision when students realise that the time, place or degree is not right for them. However, even though most of those who drop out from an initial course of study want to transfer to another course or to return to study at a later date, currently most countries do not help them sufficiently with flexible arrangements. Students, who leave university without a degree, are usually well-trained persons. However, their potential for the labour market is still underestimated and not used adequately.
In order to tackle the problem of early dropout in higher education throughout the European Union, experts amongst others proposed the development of an “early warning systems” in order to identify persons at risk. It is also proposed to offer counselling and personal support to students at risk as early as possible in order to be able to offer them adequate assistance.

Objectives and target groups
Being located both at the sectors “Higher Education” and “Vocational Education and Training” of the Erasmus+ Programme, the PrevDrop project targets the situation outlined above. The project targeted two groups of students that face dropout risks: a) students for whom a successful continuation of their studies appears to be probable and b) students for whom a successful continuation of their studies is highly improbable. PrevDrop equipped student counsellors at Universities, careers counsellors at employment agencies as well as students themselves with tools, knowledge and resources that help to detect dropout risks and to provide or find adequate support.

Outcomes and products
The main outcomes of the PrevDrop project included:
National and transnational reports that provide an overview about the latest state of research on student drop out from Higher Education in the partner countries as well as the target groups’ needs.

A Student Self-Reflection Tool (SRT) that helps students as well as student advisers to detect dropout risk. The SRT comprises four modules (“My studies and I”, “My university and I”, “Don’t worry”, “My feedback”) that include the following scales: Self efficacy, motivation to study, study expectations and satisfaction, University conditions and support, social and methodological competence, coping skills and problem solving Scale selection, development and adaption.
A training manual that consists of four modules:
– Module 1: Understanding and Preventing Drop out from Higher Education
– Module 2: The PrevDrop self-assessment-tool
– Module 3: Counselling concepts
– Module 4: The successful integration of students who dropped out from higher education into VET

A comprehensive resource package for student advisors as well as multipliers that includes e-books, sets of PowerPoint slides for each module and trainer guides that are available at the learning platform section of the PrevDrop web portal.
Face-to-face training courses that aimed at implementing the PrevDrop concept and resources and that promoted the networking of student advisors from Universities and employment agencies.
The PrevDrop web portal that is the gateway through which the project’s target groups can access the project’s main outputs: The Student Self-Reflection Tool, the learning platform that includes the resource packages for student advisors and multipliers and the project web site. All products are available in English, German and Italian.

Impact
Amongst others the PrevDrop project promoted the networking between student counsellors at universities, counsellors at employment agencies and counsellors at other country-specific institutions regarding (potential) dropouts. For other institutions and the labour market there is a greater availability of usually well-trained persons. Companies will profit by getting the opportunity to recruit staff earlier. To sum up, the key factors for the support of students at drop out risks are the early detection of these risks, low-threshold counselling offers and networking.

The PrevDrop partners
PrevDrop has been a cooperation of partners from five countries: the University of Applied Labour Studies of the Federal Employment Agency of Germany (coordinator), the Universities of Plymouth (United Kingdom) and Macerata (Italy), Applied Vocational Psychology and Policy (AVOPP) (Luxembourg), ZAB Consult GmbH, the Nürtingen-Geislingen University (both Germany) and Infoart (Bulgaria)

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 299409 Eur

Project Coordinator

HOCHSCHULE DER BUNDESAGENTUR FUER ARBEIT & Country: DE

Project Partners

• Applied Vocational Psychology and Policy Research Unit (AVOPP)
• UNIVERSITY OF PLYMOUTH
• UNIVERSITA DEGLI STUDI DI MACERATA
• INFOART EOOD
• ZAB consult GmbH
• HOCHSCHULE FUER WIRTSCHAFT UND UMWELT NUERTINGEN-GEISLINGEN