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<< Background >>Drop-out from VET schools is a significant problem across Europe, and both Italy and Norway experience high drop-out rates, with completion rates of just 60-70% in Italy and 70-75% in Norway (within 5-6 years). Not completing VET school can have major negative impacts on students’ lives, like difficulties entering the labor market, lower lifetime income, and impact on mental health. Also, societies are affected through higher public spending on social welfare, lost productivity and increased inequality. To address this issue, the project aimed to on the one hand detect risk of dropping out of school early on for each individual student, and on the other hand to address the specific issues that students deal with to avoid school dropout. The project consisted therefore of two phases:1) early interception and assessment of at-risk students 2) individualized and modular support pathways based on specific school dropout behavior The project group has worked on the issues and have systematized knowledge about the issue, and developed helping tool for school professionals, and also developed a support pathway to work further with, which helps working on the issue. << Objectives >>The expected achievements were to: 1) Improve the ability of schools to identify early and understand in detail the specific determinants related to school dropout. 2) Increase the effectiveness of support interventions through structured pathways on a broad spectrum of specific risk and protective indicatorsBefore the start of the project, both schools had systems in place that monitored attendance of students. However, these systems did not go beyond that - that means that the specific problems of students, e.g. academic, in context with the school, problems at home, or health issues, were not reflected in these registration systems. The aim of the project was therefore to be able to detect early on where problems lie that may lead to drop out from school. In a second step, the project wanted to develop a tool case from which teachers, social workers and others could develop measures that would directly address the problems of each student who is struggling and is therefore at risk of drop out.<< Implementation >>The project started out with in-depth research to understand the characteristics of dropouts. This meant that the project group developed an interview guide for students at risk, to find out how they are feeling at school and which problems they strive with. The interview guide was then translated from English to Italian and Norwegian, and teachers and social workers in the two schools - Ørsta in Norway and Zoli in Italy - conducted interviews with students at risk of drop-out. All the interviewers reported that this gave them enormous insight into what these students are struggling with. Project members from Volda University College analyzed the results of the interviews that were conducted in both schools. These interviews, together with input from literature, formed the basis for the development of the next step, namely the development of the indicators system and supporting IT infrastructure (an app). The final step was the development of the Program for educational success, complete with activities and tools. Activities included furthermore:- transnational training for a group of teachers- cascade training for a larger group of teachers from project partner schools- pilot testing of the two outputs<< Results >>We implemented two concrete results:1) Dropouts Indicators System (PR1):This system helps teachers, but also other relevant staff at the schools, such as social workers, to find out early on whether students are struggling, which may lead to drop out from school down the line. The indicator system contains simple and complex indicators. What is special is that not only risk factors are taken into account, but also positive and protective factors, that reduce the risk of drop out from school. The goal is to collect the observations from different teachers and social workers in one place. This enables to find out about problematic tendencies that may eventually lead to drop out from school at an early stage.2) Program for educational success (PR2):Once the school finds out about the problems that were assessed in PR1, it is important to address this issues for students at risk. The program gives the school specific tools, depending on the problem, that help deal with the students' specific needs and situation. In addition to these two outputs, three international meetings were realized. Furthermore, training sessions for local teachers on both PR1 and PR2 were carried out in both schools.