PRIME - PRomoting and IMproving career-related Education in primary education

<< Background >>PRIME was a collaborative effort to prevent early school leaving (ESL) and school drop-out, through the development of career-related learning in primary schools and the improvement of teaching skills of teachers and educators. The partners’ countries show some of the highest rates of early school leaving in Europe together with high youth unemployment rates. Career learning in primary schools is known to be a powerful strategy as it impacts educational outcomes and promotes social mobility while raising aspirations, challenging stereotypes and broadening horizons. Primary schools are in fact pivotal in preventing ESL as career stereotypes and aspirations are shaped in the early years of education (Kashefpakdel et al., 2018). In many EU countries, early career education is still fragmented if not existing at all. Holding biased assumptions and having narrow aspirations influence the academic effort children exert in certain lessons, the subjects they choose to study, and the jobs they end up pursuing. Therefore, the PRIME project worked to empower teachers and schools in creating effective early career education activities with the development of tools and resources for schools.<< Objectives >>The PRIME project aimed to:-improve career learning in primary schools to prevent ESL and school disengagement in 4 Southern and Eastern EU Countries with high rates of ESL and youth unemployment-develop training paths for teachers, educators, school counsellors and representatives of the labour market at EU level -provide coherent and usable tools and resources for teachers, educators and school counsellors in 5 languages for learning Career Management Skills in primary schools -develop engaging tools and resources to help children understand the socio-economic context, explore careers and the labour market -promote the integration of career learning activities, tools and resources within the school system-build and develop inclusive education communities where schools and local stakeholders such as enterprises and public organisations work together to make the students' educational journey meaningful-promote a cultural change towards a preventive and community approach to societal issues such as school disengagement and ESL. -promote a new paradigm of career guidance which moves from advices in transition times towards a learning paradigm to enable citizens to manage their careers- << Implementation >>Successful and inclusive career pathways represent both one of the most crucial missions in Europe and one of the areas which most needs innovation and improvement. The project aimed therefore to contribute to the creation of a common set of European resources to support teachers, school counsellors and educators from the community with the scope of improving early career-related practices and to create a network of trained and coordinated stakeholders who collaboratively can work to give significance to learning experiences, contrast school disengagement and promote social mobility from an early age. To meet these needs the project has worked on several lines of actions with the aim of increasing quality in early career learning (Sultana, 2018). The project adopted and implemented in all the project phases the methodology of Participatory Action Research (PAR) which foresaw the direct engagement of the beneficiaries and the stakeholders in the co-creation of the project results while promoting a process of social innovation and cultural change. PAR worked to empower local communities, helped them to identify shared priorities and to cooperate to implement the project resources, skills and tools in their daily practice. PAR was strategic for the development of all the PRs: more than 550 teachers and career counsellors were involved in focus groups, co-creation groups, testing pilots playing an active role of “researchers” and designing with a bottom-up process the new career learning framework and resources of the PRIME project. More than 5435 students were involved in the testing of PR2 and PR3. The implementation of this powerful methodology was not only open to teachers and educators but was also open to students who became active contributors to the project results (e.g. the students in Italy who collaborated to create the graphic layout of the PRs and the students in Greece who also attended the short training in Valladolid who contributed in the development and testing of PR2). The Consortium implemented a series of activity aimed at the creation of 4 complex Project results: Project result 1. PRIME - Career Learning at school: pedagogical models and methodological guidelines. This involved an intense desk and field research with data collection via a digital questionnaire and via a series of focus groups with teachers and educators. Project result 2. PRIME - Career Learning Units & Curriculum mapping. To create this, a detailed review of existing learning units on the PRIME topic was implemented and, based on what collected and studied, partners created a set of educational resources and tried to map them to practical school life to make them as exploitable as possible. Testing was done via a series of pilot actions which were precious to provide feedback and insights. An extra set of learning units was created which targeted not only students but also professionals. This was a unique opportunity to implement and put in practice community guidance approaches towards social responsibility. Project result 3. PRIME - Educational Career learning Games for Schools & Communities. To create this PR, a complex workplan was implemented in the partner countries where pedagogical methodologies, digital competences and digital storytelling techniques were combined. This resulted in 4 videos consisting of 4 digital trips and educational resources built together with the reference communities. Project result 4. PRIME - Training for teachers and educators. The creation of this result included a thorough desk research, the creation and testing of the contents of the modules. Additionally, the project Consortium organised in Valladolid a short training activity that involved 18 participants from the 4 partner countries from the partner institutions and from other institutions interested in the topic of the project. During the training section all the partners delivered and tested the training built in PR4 providing lectures and workshops exploiting the project results. Finally, the partner organised 4 transnational meetings, online meetings for monitoring and implementing the tasks and they developed a 3-lines communication and dissemination plan that spread along the project lifespan. Partners' staff, beneficiaries and stakeholders were also involved in a series of community building activities and events which worked to create asustainable and inclusive community engaged in career learning and in preventive actions to contrast schooldisengagement. << Results >>The Consortium worked to produce a set of open source resources to support career learning activities in primary schools.The project and its planned activities resulted in four project results:Project result 1. PRIME - Career Learning at school: pedagogical models and methodological guidelines. A handbook which defines a shared methodological framework for improving career learning at school to be used as a methodological and theoreticalreference for schools, communities and LM stakeholders who want to implement career learning activities. Project result 2. PRIME - Career Learning. Units & Curriculum mapping. An innovative tool for teachers and school counsellors to improve career learning at school.This tool consists of 4 kits of learning units (more than 20) to help teachers and counsellors carry out career learning activities, both in the classroom and also outside (during visits and workshops). Project result 3. PRIME - Educational Career learning Games for Schools & Communities. This output consists of 4 new educational games to introduce andsupport career learning in primary schools. The games support students in understanding the surrounding socio-economic scenarios and is aligned to the European priority of building effective tools to promote labour market information and intelligence (LMI for lifelong guidance, Cedefop, 2016). Project result 4. PRIME - Training for teachers and educators. A set of training modules to empower teachers and educators on the topic of early career education. The implementation of the project results mentioned above generated the following outputs:Questionnaires and focus groups guidelines 18 focus groups (180 people involved) and data from 176 questionnairesLiterature repository and reviewA full stack of comprehensive training resources for teachers on the topic including chapters, presentations and videos.A comprehensive educational kit of resources for teachers which includes forms for students (all graphically designed following a coordinated and well studied image identity) and guidelines on how to use them. Innovative digital and interactive resources to help students explore the surrounding context. Minutes, Reports and Presentations for the meetingsDidactic materials, videos and presentations used to conduct the short training activitiesQuestionnaires and follow-up tools for collecting data and information to manage the project and evaluate the quality of the working processes and the project results and productsPilot Actions plan, ensuring the coherence of the testing phase in each national context involved (with more than 550 teachers and 5435 students involved)Dissemination plan in 3 lines, describing the strategy to inform potential stakeholders and beneficiaries, also using social networks and community building strategiesQuality assurance and risk management planEvidence from the pilot actions and Multiplier eventsThe implementation of the project results generated the following outcomes:Promotion of the creation of a coordinated and integrated career learning system in primary schools which represents a potential starting point for national programmes on early career learning. The students’ better understanding of the world of work, to contrasting career stereotypes and raising aspirations The empowerment of educational stakeholders and representatives from the world of work who now have the skills and methodological reference to generate new interactive digital career learning games and resources adapted to different and specific contexts. change in the traditional way of teaching: the creation of innovative teaching methods. This contributed to enhancing the skills of teachers, practitioners and educators in this field.