Multidisciplinary approaches: a comprehensive intervention to empower those at risk

At EU policy level, and most recently in the Council Recommendation on pathways to school success adopted in 2022, there is an increasing recognition of the importance of combining services for marginalised groups in a community-based location as one-stop-shop multidisciplinary teams. These so-called community lifelong learning centres (CLLC) engage actively a wide range of professionals, such as social and health services, youth services, outreach care workers, psychologists, special emotional counsellors/therapists, nurses, speech and language therapists, guidance specialists, youth workers, local authorities, NGOs, businesses, unions, volunteers, etc.

Such a model allows for a more flexible, accessible approach which aims to engage socio-economically excluded groups. Marginalised young people tend to distrust any support coming from public authorities, and very rarely do they directly contact specialised services. However, any efforts towards their (re)engagement in education and training or the labour market are likely to fail if not accompanied by measures to tackle issues in other spheres of their lives. 

This multidisciplinary approach within a CLLC helps overcome fragmentation of services and allows to establish a continuum of strategic interventions in these services. Within this context, these individuals and their families feel at ease, as they are offered a functional alternative to formal education. When offered non-formal education options, individuals feel comfortable and may build a trustful relationship with the professionals involved, may increase their self-esteem and motivation to learn. These are important ingredients for reactivating those in need. 

Raising awareness: Producing new evidence on CLLCs

Since 2019, Cedefop, in cooperation with the Lifelong Learning Platform (LLLP), and the Education Disadvantage centre at the Dublin University, made a systematic effort to raise awareness on the need of such community lifelong learning centres and joined forces to bring new evidence on their role. In May 2019, Cedefop in collaboration with LLLP organised a high-level Policy Learning Forum bringing together Brussels-based key stakeholders to explore the potential of community lifelong learning centres as one-stop shops for preventing young people at risk and early leavers from education and training from disconnecting. The event was hosted by the Romanian Presidency of the Council in its permanent representation to the EU in Brussels and gave great visibility to existing good practices of CLLCs. A few months later in August 2019, the Cedefop/LLLP joint briefing paper “Implementing a holistic approach to lifelong learning – Community Lifelong Learning Centres as a gateway to multidisciplinary support teams” was published to inspire policy makers and practitioners.

At the PLF, the new enriched edition of Cedefop’s VET toolkit for tackling early leaving was launched. This is a one-stop-shop online platform offering a plethora of resources to policy makers and practitioners who aim to tackle early leaving from education and training. Although it is primarily designed for Vocational education and training (VET), it offers several intervention approaches that have been conceptualised with a holistic perspective in mind and can be implemented by community lifelong learning centres. A few years later, in 2021, acknowledging the specific characteristics and needs of those who are not in employment, education or training (NEETs), Cedefop launched its second VET toolkit for empowering NEETs.

Examples of risk factors: Complex multifaceted needs

Within the NEETs toolkit, there is a risk factor section where one may see that often, education is only one among many challenges in young people’s lives. Those at risk of becoming NEETs have complex multifaceted needs. Thy may have health, psychosocial, legal, or housing problems, among many other issues. Substance abuse, chronic diseases, bullying, or an unintended pregnancy are common reasons for dropping out of education and training, losing one’s job and progressively become socially inactive. Poor housing conditions can limit a young person’s possibilities to study at home, while also affecting their health and ability to learn. Family responsibilities, such as taking care of siblings, leave young people little time to study and to attend education and training. Financial issues in the family often drive young people to drop out from school in favour of a precarious job.

Who are at risk in Europe?

Here is a closer look at who and how many are actually at risk in Europe:

• 9.9.% - one out of ten young people aged 18–24 are early school leavers, meaning they have not qualified in upper secondary education;
• 13.1% of young women and 10.5% young men aged 15–29 in the EU are NEETs;
• 128 million are low-skilled adults in the EU-27, Iceland, Norway and the UK. This represents almost half (the 46.1%) of the adult population in these countries. Low-skilled adults are a highly heterogeneous population, composed of people with very different characteristics and needs including people with low education, low digital skills, low cognitive skills or medium-high education but at risk of skill loss and obsolescence.

Challenges for those at risk

Those at risk often accumulate several vulnerabilities and are furthest away from the labour market or are in precarious jobs and at risk of unemployment, yet they benefit the least from upskilling and re-skilling opportunities. Their participation in further education and training is considerably below average and it has not grown a lot over recent years.

Investing in lifelong learning pays off

Low levels of education are associated with negative economic and social consequences not just for the individuals and their families but also for the whole economy and society. On the other hand, investing in education and in lifelong learning is linked to higher economic and social returns.

Thus, empowering low-educated people and early school leavers by a multidisciplinary and whole community approach must be seen as a priority, especially nowadays that employment and the economy overall is becoming skills intensive. As resilience has become a necessary skill to achieve well-being in our changing societies and economies, upskilling and reskilling within a multidisciplinary approach can contribute to this end.