Strategic partnership. Between the 30th September and the 6th October 2019, the Erasmus+ seminar training took place in Palermo, Italy. The target group was the 12 youth workers who participate in the job shadowing activity of the Edu-Action 2.0 project, an initiative to tackle early school leaving and the use of non-formal education to prevent it. Luís Cancio and Clara Ribera, together with 10 other participants from Kenya, Uruguay, Nepal, Estonia and Italy, attended the preparation of the “job shadowing” of the project, a period of two months where the 12 participants will be trained in the field of non-formal education as a tool to prevent school dropout.

Edu-Action 2.0 is a project coordinated by the Italian organisation Per Esempio, and aims at exchanging good practices in the field of non-formal education and youth work to reduce the dropout rate in participating countries.

The training seminar was held in the heart of Palermo, Italy, and thanks to Per Esempio trainers, the 12 youth workers prepared the mobility ahead of them: one month of job shadowing in Europe and another month of job shadowing outside Europe. Throughout the training, the participants worked on the objectives of the project, presented and shared the situation of early school leaving in their countries and reviewed what good practices are used to combat ESL.

Another of the activities carried out was a focus group facilitated by experts from the University of Palermo, with which it is expected to complete the transversal study that Edu-Action is carrying out throughout the 16 months of the project.

Beyond the theme of the project, the participants worked on conflict resolution tools and how to combat the cultural shock, since they all face two months of intense work together with professionals from very different cultural contexts.

The seminar ended with an emotional session where the participants, together with the trainers, were able to share how they felt at the beginning of the training adventure that the Edu-Action 2.0 project will take to 6 different countries on 4 continents of the world for two months. On the way back, in mid-December, all of them will meet again to share what they have learned.

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