Prevention Of being NEETs Through Action Learning

(PONTAL project)

1st Newsletter

October 2021

Project at glance

PONTAL project deals with the prevention of becoming NEET of pupils attending last grades of primary schools in their close future.

NEET (= "Not in Education, Employment, or Training") refers to a person who is unemployed and not receiving an education or vocational training.

PONTAL maps the current situation in involved countries, trying to identify risk factors of becoming NEET and to identify the pupils at risk.

Pupils at risk will be offered the participation in tailored workshops focused on state-of-the-art technologies to support their motivation for technological studies and to prevent them of being unemployed.

Who is standing behing the project?

 CZECH REPUBLIC

Institut pro regionalni rozvoj, o. p. s. Lead partner

TURKEY

 METIS GENCLIK VE SPOR KULUBU DERNEGI

HUNGARY

Ecocenter Alapítvány

ESTONIA

Inpla, OÜ

ITALY

ISTITUTO COMPRENSIVO STATALE SAVIGNANO SUL RUBICONE "Giulio Cesare"

LITHUANIA

Inovaciju tinklas

What has been done so far?

1) Analysis of current statistics & trends in labour markets in partner countries

Based on available official studies, reports and statistics in all participating countries, our analysts have compiled a summary report on the current risk factors driving young adult unemployment and labour market trends related to the advent of modern technologies and market demands on the profile of suitable candidates.

2) Mapping of the current situation through questionnaire survey

The partners fine-tuned the structure of the questions and response options in order to obtain the most accurate data possible from respondents in the final year of primary school while allowing the questionnaires to be used in all participating countries.
The survey methodology was also developed so that the questionnaire could be used if there was interest from other schools or organisations working with children aged 13 and over.

3) Data evaluation & pupils at risk identification & popular technologies identification

Based on the data collected from a total of 767 completed questionnaires, we were able to identify risk factors in each country as well as those pupils who might be at risk from a NEET perspective.
At the same time, the survey helped us to identify which of the modern technologies are most attractive to today's generation of young people across the participating countries.

4) Preparation of courses/workshops using the action learning method

Experts are starting to prepare courses/workshops for pupils who, according to the questionnaire survey, may be at risk. However, the courses will also be open to other pupils who are just interested in a given technology.

The methodology (in order to be able lead the courses for pupils) containing information on the action learning method and course content for 3 technologies in total (notedd in the table above) will be ready by Christmas 2021.

Pilot courses/workshops will be launched in January 2022 in each participating country and will run until the end of April 2022.

As a result of the mapping, there will be running pilot courses / workshops for 3 different technologies in involved countries:

VR / AR:

Czechia, Estonia, Hungary and Turkey

Robotization:

Italy

3D Printing:

Lithuania

1st face-to-face project meeting in Italy

All the experts from partner countries met for the first time last Tuesday, 26 October, in Savignano sul Rubicone, Italy, to share the outcomes of the PONTAL project activities and to discuss the best way to implement further activities aimed at developing a methodology for pilot courses/workshops for pupils and the organisation of these pilots.

Each partner resented the results of the mapping of risk factors and interest in technology among students aged 13-16. Experts then discussed setting up a methodology for conducting the pilot courses in technologies most popular among at-risk pupils in each of the 6 countries (in terms of potential unemployment and not continuing in the education system).

The meeting ended with a pleasant tour of the city of Cesenatico on the Adriatic coast and an agreement on the further procedure for the development of the methodology and organization of courses and workshops in VR/AR, 3D printing and robotics technologies, using the action learning method.