Below 10 Project gets young people back into education or vocational training

As part of the ‘Below 10’ project, academics from the Faculties of Education and Humanities and Health and Society have been working with six EU partners to support young people to stay in education and tackle early school leaving (ESL). Tackling ESL, or those not in education or training (NEET), has been at the heart of the EU policy agenda for many years.

Below 10, which is an Erasmus+ research project, works with young people aged 12-24 to enable them to continue their education, get employment, an apprenticeship or traineeship. The work of the University of Northampton team has focused on learning by doing, which aims to connect the community, local employers, young people and their families, with a view reducing those leaving education early.

The academic team at Northampton have created a training module, online toolkit, course materials and activities to support educators across the EU as they work with young people. The tool kit, which has been disseminated to the EU partners includes workshops and training exercises on:

–         Working together as a team

–         Participation and working with children, young people and families

–         Understanding motivation

–         Developing resilience of young people

–         Restorative practice

–         Peer2peer approaches

Dr. Wendy Turner, Senior Lecturer: Education, Children and Young People, at the University of Northampton, said: “The ‘Below 10’ project has the chance to change the lives of young people across the EU, and raise their aspirations and future opportunities. The University team are now putting the final touches to an interim report, which will be presented to the Project commissioners in May 2019, with the final report and findings to be disseminated across the EU from June 2019.”

The Northampton project team includes Dr Wendy Turner, Dr Cristina Devecchi, Dr Jane Murray and Dan Ash.