Page 70 - Guiding-at-risk-youth-through-learning-to-work-Lessons-from-across-Europe

Guiding at-risk youth through learning to work
Lessons from across Europe

in associated support services, feel they can tell almost as soon as the young
people come in who are at risk of becoming drop-outs. This stresses the
importance of cooperation between primary and secondary schools as it can lead
to early identification of problems (e.g. attendance and behaviour problems). The
Croatian Employment Service (CES) has stressed to staff and users the benefit
for society of the appropriate support being provided to young people who show
signs of difficulties while still in education and training. This is preferable to
spending large sums of public money after they have dropped out of school early
or have left with few or no skills and have become unemployed adults.
Research evidence suggests that there are clear differences between
individual schools in terms of how engaged they are in preventing early school
leaving (Research as evidence, 2007). Schools that have an inclusive school
ethos and that understand the value of careers education, and of skilled staff in
delivering it, tend to be more open to acknowledging the issue of early school
leaving and undertaking measures to address it.

4.3.2. Addressing specific target group guidance needs
Early school leavers are a heterogeneous group of young people, who may share
certain common needs but will also be subject to different specific requirements.
Research suggests that guidance-oriented early school leaving policies need to
adopt a flexible and versatile approach, better to cater to the needs of all young
people (Launikari and Puukari, 2005). Bespoke guidance solutions can have a
significant impact, even if only provided in initial guidance stages.
Immigration, and in certain cases repatriation, has changed the demographic
composition of different EU Member States. Guidance practitioners and teachers
are faced with the challenge of learning to communicate and interact with people
from increasingly diverse backgrounds. However, evidence has shown that many
feel insecure or ill equipped to handle this situation (Kasurinen et al., 2005).
Providing guidance to immigrant students requires a precise set of skills and
initial and continuing teacher training should have a greater emphasis on an
inter- or multicultural approach (McCarthy, 2001).
New groups with specific guidance needs are also emerging. With EU
enlargement some western European classrooms have witnessed an influx of
new arrivals from the EU-12 and teachers have had to adopt new learning styles
and support strategies. However, those working at ‘ground level’ have often
found that the necessary solutions are not delivered on time. This issue also has
relevance for countries from which mass migration originates. Anecdotal
evidence from schools in Lithuania suggests that children whose parents have
left the country to work elsewhere in Europe display higher rates of early school

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