Baltic Research Programme Project “Vocational education and workplace training enhancing social inclusion of at-risk young people” , No. LT08-2-LMT-K-01-010.

The main research goal of the project is to investigate, how can vocational education and training (VET) enhance social inclusion of young people at-risk, both in terms of combating school drop-out and promoting transitions between various (social) learning contexts, such as school-work transition.

The project comprises of three sub-studies:

  1. In the first phase we focus on understanding personal strategies and institutional factors supporting or hindering educational careers of young people. In parallel with a narrative study focusing on at-risk youth in VET schools and workplace learning contexts, statistical analyses based on PIAAC data will be conducted.
  2. The second part of the study is aimed to map the “best practice” of approaches, methods and tools used to support inclusion of at-risk youth.
  3. As the third phase of the study an Educational Learning Lab intervention will be implemented to develop, test and assess methods and technology-based tools for successful inclusion of at-risk youth.

The project will shed light on complex interplay of personal and institutional factors and different dimensions in the ecosystems of young people affecting their learning trajectories and life careers. Moreover, the project will have practical implications on actors and settings of interventions. By applying the Educational Learning Lab model the study is expected to introduce a novel approach how school or community level processes could be co-constructed and is expected to give a boost to the professional development and agency of vocational teachers and workplace instructors. The project will also contribute into networking and future research collaboration between partner institutions. In the frame of the project a joint project application for Horizon/RIA project will be developed. Moreover, the networking and professional development of the doctoral students involved in all phases of the project are taken as a central importance. 

The project is executed by the team of researchers from the Baltic countries and Norway, representing Vytautas Magnus University (Lithuania – project leader), Stavanger University (Norway), University of Latvia and Tallinn University (Estonia).

The implementation period: January 2021 – December 2023.