Page 37 - european-lifelong-guidance-policies-progress-report

Section 3: EU Policy Developments

3.2 Schools people to leave school, taking account of the
type of education.
3.2.1 Key developments • To implement comprehensive national strate-
gies against early school-leaving by 2012, in
Three themes are focused upon in this sector: line with national targets. These strategies
should comprise prevention, intervention and
• Early school-leaving. compensation.
• Learning mobility.
• Early childhood education. The terms ‘prevention’, ‘intervention’ and ‘compen-
sation’ are defined as follows:
Early school-leaving
• Prevention should be based on early schooling,
The Annual Gross Survey Progress Report on Europe flexibility of educational pathways, attractive-
2020 by the Commission (12 January 2011, COM(2011) ness of VET, and links between the education
11, Annex 1), in its analysis of the draft National and employment sectors.
Reform Plans, reveals that though all the draft plans • Intervention includes developing early-warning
have set national targets for the reduction of early systems for pupils at risk, networking with all
school-leaving, it seems likely that Europe will fall the actors, empowering and professional devel-
short of the 10% target for 2020. The high level opment of teachers, and mentoring for indi-
of youth unemployment (20%) is the most seri- vidual pupils.
ous consequence: 52% of early school-leavers were • Compensation policies could include second-
unemployed in 2009. chance education programmes and provision
A Communication from the Commission to the of various routes, including transition classes
European Parliament, the Council, the European back into the mainstream education system.
Economic and Social Committee and the Committee
of the Regions on Tackling Early School Leaving: A Key The role of guidance is underlined to support stu-
Policy
Contribution to the Europe 2020 Agenda (31 January dents’ career choices (intervention) and transitions
2011) analyses the consequences of early school- (compensation).
leaving and provides an overview of the existing The members of the European Council in a State-
and forthcoming EU-level measures to tackle it. The ment on 30 January 2012 (Towards Growth-Friendly
Communication emphasises that early school-leav- Consolidation and Job-Friendly Growth) urge member-
ing should be tackled by comprehensive policies. It states to make renewed efforts to get early school-
considers early warning systems, guidance and voca- leavers into training.
tional orientation for young people as key measures.
The Council Recommendation on Policies to Reduce Learning mobility
Early School Leaving (7 June 2011) sets a common
European framework for effective and efficient poli- A Green Paper on learning mobility for young people
cies against early school-leaving. Two main actions was published by the Commission in July 2009 in
are recommended to member-states: order to launch a public consultation. The Council
Recommendation Youth on the Move – Promoting the
• To launch an analysis at national, regional and Learning Mobility of Young People (28 June 2011) is
local level of the conditions leading young based on its results. It refers to young people in all

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