Page 74 - Guiding-at-risk-youth-through-learning-to-work-Lessons-from-across-Europe

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

and/or collaborate effectively with the school. Parents of older children
(secondary school level) may no longer feel able to influence their children or
may find it difficult to communicate with them (CREA, 2007b). Some parents may
simply lack interest in their child’s education or wish their child to move quickly
into employment (for instance, to support the household with an income). There
is also evidence that some parents whose children have low levels of
achievement are more reluctant to contact teachers than parents whose children
are doing well at school (CREA, 2008).
Individual schools and school networks have developed numerous initiatives
to help improve parental involvement in their children’s education.
Schools need to be active and creative in developing ways of increasing
parental participation. The education system represents an important journey in a
child’s life and parents should be encouraged to participate in their child’s
learning development and to be supportive of their needs.

4.3.5. Managing, training and supporting guidance staff
Guidance professionals, outreach workers, teaching assistants, personal
advisers and other front-line staff and volunteers working with at risk groups have
the challenge of dealing with many young people experiencing multiple barriers
to participation. Such professionals need to be appropriately managed, trained
and supported to reach their full potential. A recent study among 20 000 teachers
and support staff found that teaching assistants reduce teachers stress levels
and improve classroom discipline but do not boost pupils’ progress (Institute of
Education, 2009). The researchers believe that the main reason is that less than
a quarter of teachers have been trained to manage teaching assistants, even
though more than half of teachers do so. These findings support the argument
that professionals and volunteers working with disaffected young people should
have access to relevant training; this was also confirmed by a recent Cedefop
study on professionalising career guidance (Cedefop, 2009b).

4.3.6. Other policies to prevent early school leaving
Guidance-oriented policies are not the only type of action taken to reduce early
school leaving. Research has shown that extending the length of compulsory
education can have a positive effect on school completion rates (GHK Consulting
Ltd, 2005), although longer compulsory schooling does not necessarily translate
into a sustainable improvement in levels of knowledge, skills or aptitudes (Wolf,
2002). Nevertheless, many European countries have, over the past decade,
progressively increased the length of compulsory education: Bulgaria, Italy,

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