Description
Drop in project: National Chapters from Greece, Cyprus, the UK, Italy and Romania
Across Europe, youth unemployment is at least twice as high than the overall workforce, with
countries like Greece and Italy experiencing unprecedented numbers (GR-39.9%, IT 32.2%). In the
UK, the rate is 11.3% and in Cyprus 22.2% (Eurostat, 2018).
Early school leaving (ESL) and dropping-out are often seen as the fault of young people. As a
result, certain groups of young people remain without basic qualifications and with low skills,
which significantly increase the likelihood of unemployment or precarious work, exacerbated
by the effects of the economic recession. In turn, the absence of young people from the labour
market is a significant detriment to socio-economic advancements, evidencing on one hand a
deficit in youth-related policies and on the other hand ponderous youth civic participation. There
is a need to enhance the basic and transversal skills and competences of young people who have
dropped out of the formal education system.
Over a period of two years and with co-funding from the Erasmus+ KA2 programme, the DROP
IN project sought to do this by (re) introducing ESLs in informal and non-formal learning, based
on an innovative, tailor-made capacity-building model, with the aim to ultimately facilitate their
socio-economic (re) integration and employability. The project was coordinated by the IARS
International Institute (UK), and delivered in partnership with with InEuropa (Italy), Fundatia
Schottener Servicii Sociale (Romania), KMOP (Greece) and CARDET (Cyprus).
