Page 72 - Štremfel, Urška, and Maša Vidmar (eds.). 2018. Early School Leaving: Contemporary European Perspectives. Ljubljana: Pedagoški inštitut.
P. 72
ear ly school leaving: contempor ary european perspectives
partnership working in and around schools, providing good tools
also with regard to ESL. The multi-agency teams involve school
heads, teachers, guidance specialists, psychologists, social work-
ers, youth workers and therapists. Every school in secondary edu-
cation provides a service for educational psychology and guidance
(SPOS) which cooperates with teachers, parents, the school’s med-
ical service, as well as competent services and professional cham-
bers. Education and career guidance1 is explicitly seen as a preven-
tion, intervention and compensation measure for addressing ESL.
Second, the role of second-chance schools has also been put forward.
Third, the ESL topic is included in continuing professional develop-
ment courses. Finally, several other practices (e.g. a digital register of
students that allows ESLers to be followed up and given help to enter
an appropriate training programme or the labour market; ‘Mosaic
Classes’ for students with behavioural difficulties; the ‘Stop&Go’
self-development programme) and projects (e.g. the PAS project that
helps identify at-risk students and applies measures; the ‘Itzigerstee’
project for highly problematic students) have been established, al-
though a comprehensive national strategy tackling ESL is still lack-
ing. Moreover, as MENJE (2015) highlighted, it is clear that in general
high schools (lycées) only respond to ESL once it is already obvi-
ous; instead, timely attention to early causes and pathways is need-
ed, namely at the start of the process that ends in ESL, and to invest
more in preventing ESL.
Key words: Luxembourg, policy measures, ESL statistics, education
and career guidance, multi-professional teams
Introduction
Following Europe’s strategy within the framework Education & Training
2010 (European Commission, 2002) and 2020 (Council of the EU, 2009),
the reduction of early school leaving (ESL) has become an important issue
in Luxembourg. The issue has also attracted political attention since over
40% of youth who were in unemployment had no qualifications (Cedefop,
2014). ESL has been addressed in a comprehensive reform of the national
1 Education and career guidance (as defined in European Commission/EACEA/
Eurydice, 2015) refers to the support provided to students in their choice of educa-
tion and career paths; it is closely related to two interrelated activities: career educa-
tion and career guidance (for the exact definition, see ELGPN, 2014, p. 14).
72
partnership working in and around schools, providing good tools
also with regard to ESL. The multi-agency teams involve school
heads, teachers, guidance specialists, psychologists, social work-
ers, youth workers and therapists. Every school in secondary edu-
cation provides a service for educational psychology and guidance
(SPOS) which cooperates with teachers, parents, the school’s med-
ical service, as well as competent services and professional cham-
bers. Education and career guidance1 is explicitly seen as a preven-
tion, intervention and compensation measure for addressing ESL.
Second, the role of second-chance schools has also been put forward.
Third, the ESL topic is included in continuing professional develop-
ment courses. Finally, several other practices (e.g. a digital register of
students that allows ESLers to be followed up and given help to enter
an appropriate training programme or the labour market; ‘Mosaic
Classes’ for students with behavioural difficulties; the ‘Stop&Go’
self-development programme) and projects (e.g. the PAS project that
helps identify at-risk students and applies measures; the ‘Itzigerstee’
project for highly problematic students) have been established, al-
though a comprehensive national strategy tackling ESL is still lack-
ing. Moreover, as MENJE (2015) highlighted, it is clear that in general
high schools (lycées) only respond to ESL once it is already obvi-
ous; instead, timely attention to early causes and pathways is need-
ed, namely at the start of the process that ends in ESL, and to invest
more in preventing ESL.
Key words: Luxembourg, policy measures, ESL statistics, education
and career guidance, multi-professional teams
Introduction
Following Europe’s strategy within the framework Education & Training
2010 (European Commission, 2002) and 2020 (Council of the EU, 2009),
the reduction of early school leaving (ESL) has become an important issue
in Luxembourg. The issue has also attracted political attention since over
40% of youth who were in unemployment had no qualifications (Cedefop,
2014). ESL has been addressed in a comprehensive reform of the national
1 Education and career guidance (as defined in European Commission/EACEA/
Eurydice, 2015) refers to the support provided to students in their choice of educa-
tion and career paths; it is closely related to two interrelated activities: career educa-
tion and career guidance (for the exact definition, see ELGPN, 2014, p. 14).
72
