This is a 2-year project named Refugees & Migrants: The Past, the Presence and the Future. It is a cooperation between secondary schools in Finland (EdupoliPointCollege Oy), Greece (Second Epal Galatsiou), Italy (ITES “Vitale Giordano”) and Denmark (Holbæk 10. klassecenter). The project is coordinated by Denmark.This project is founded on the background of the fact that social inclusion is a key priority in the Europe 2020 Strategy. The target in this is to lift at least 20 million people out of risk of poverty and social exclusion. Nowadays, many schools in Europe have significant percentages of migrant populations. Some of the students tend to form nation-based groups, separating themselves from the rest of the class and communicating exclusively in their parents’ native languages. The result is a lack of understanding, increased numbers of early school leavers, disparities in learning outcomes and discrimination. Additionally, Europe and students in European countries will be confronted with a rising number of refugees and asylum seekers. The question of integration in Europe is more important than ever before. Politics is trying to find an ideal solution and establish a reliable framework to succeed in it. However, the integration possibilities that the government can offer are limited. Integration starts at lower levels with people’s awareness of other cultures and different needs. Therefore, it is essential to focus on the topic of diversity. By choosing the priority inclusive education, training and youth we want to confront all of our students with different cultures in innovative and learner-centered pedagogical approaches and address this topic. The aim is to provide opportunities for experiencing the concept of European citizenship and to foster learners with different or sometimes disadvantages cultural backgrounds. The most important objectives of this project, is to gain a greater understanding and responsiveness to social, ethnic, linguistic and cultural diversity. We want to share policies and systems in education, training and youth across countries, to better understand practices. We also aim to bring a more positive attitude towards the European project and the EU values and an increased motivation and satisfaction in daily work.The project primarily involves teachers, native students and students with another ethnical background. Secondly it involves other staff, parents and stakeholders and also EU institutional representatives. Around 100 students from each school will somehow be involved in the project. Some will participate on the mobilities and some will participate in surveys and questionnaires and other activities at school. 2 teachers from each school will visit the EU Institutions at the beginning of the project. This will be a set off and visits to both the Parliarment and the Commission to meet relevant representatives, are planned. There will be 4 LTT meetings with 5 students and 2 teachers from each school. As this project involves refugees and migrants, hosting will partly take place at hostels or other accommodation.For each meeting, we will have these activities planned:- A debate among students.- A presentation on research done during the period previous to the meeting- Visit to a stakeholder of relevance - eg. museum, refugee camp or asylum centre- Workshops among students, attendance to classes, language exchange and knowledge of the educational system.- Cultural visits to relevant places in the country. The aim is to appreciate and compare the different countries- Monitoring meeting of teachersOur main results we will be: - a board game for our schools in the future. The game can be used in classes all over Europe- a logo of the project;- a website in which all the activities of the meetings will be uploaded- a poster for each LLT meeting- Portfolios for the students- surveys on the different topicsLong term benefits- The boardgame, which is the main result, will be used by teachers in the schools. Not only teachers participating in this project, but it will also be free to be used by others in the years to come. If possible, the game will be digitalized and distributed to other schools. This way many more students and teachers can benefit from our project. A leaflet on the game will be uploaded on our website and also distributed to other schools, for promoting the boardgame.- The project website will be accessible for 3 years after finishing the project. We will save some grant for managing this.- Schools will strengthen their European identity according to their European Development Plan- Teachers will create and form better international partnerships in the future, as of the experience they have gained from this project- Students will hopefully have gained self esteem and more secure in their new country's society- A network among the students will help them to keep contact and get in touch in the future. Some friendships last forever.

Mental health problems pose a significant and unnecessary obstacle for students to overcome in the classroom. Studies show that students with emotional disturbance and poor social-emotional functioning have difficulty meeting academic standards.Mental Health is a looming issue within the European Union with reports suggesting that 160,000,000 Europeans (38% of the populace) are affected each year. (Wittchen, H.-U. et al. Eur. Neuropsychopharmacol. 21, 655-679 (2011). | Article). Additional studies show that mental health problems may cause learning obstacles for our young people and students, therefore providing diagnosis, awareness and support in our learning organisations will be key as we move forward to the future as these young people move from education into employment.This is further endorsed by Warwick et al (2008), highlighting a number of factors that influence provision of support services for students:* awareness amongst professionals of links between student’s mental health and their achievement at college * having in place national/college policies that address mental health* building an inclusive college ethos* access to in college/external support services* provision of professional opportunities for staffThe OSCAR project aims to identify best practice in how organisations across the EU tackle the issue of student drop out through having mental health challenges. It also aims to take a wider view through the approach of identifying ways of enhancing positive well being, as well as improving systems in mental health challenges. The best practice approach will arise from research and the synthesis of ideas into a trainers toolkit that will be developed based on a common set of standards but customised by each partner for their own territory.Training will be given by the D&A service design team to the partners. Service design techniques will be used to create new user and learner journeys through the education system, to ensure that those with possible issues are not ignored or missed out and the appropriate support mechanism are in place. Also that connections are made to the relevant agency for individuals at the right time so drop outs are avoided where possible.The partners will work with local, regional and national agencies and charities will act as advisers and 'test beds' for the OSCAR approach and materials. and then a set of guidelines for organisation and managers will be published that will embed the process into the partner's VET education systems. The local bodies will also act as dissemination routes for the project and its outputs.The project aims to reach, via a cascaded training process - 100 teachers and 1,000 learners, who may have been at risk of drop out due to some social, mental or related issue - therefore OSCAR will have a direct impact on the lives of learners in the partner countries. The project partners will attempt to identify and measure the impacts of the project by comparing the student's retention rates compared to a norm for the group.OSCAR aims to:1. Identify a baseline of current mental health awareness processes and procedures in partner countries;2. Identify current Best Practice in the area of mental health, mental health awareness and curriculum design in VET organisations that will increase student retention3. Use the service design philosophy to identify solutions to the current issues on an European and National level4. Provide a ‘train the trainer’ approach for VET staff in mental health awareness based on project learnings5. Disseminate via guideline development for relevant stakeholders and development of policy recommendations for policy makers.

BACKGROUNDMore than a million migrants and refugees crossed into Europe in 2015. The situation created a division in the EU countries over how best to deal with resettling people. This new situation brought new requirements for knowledge, skills and competences in different fields of work in society. Many transversal skills became ever more crucial on this agenda. Work places and tasks are very often related to dealing with people from different cultural backgrounds. The world of work in safety and security became more complex and the education offered had to change accordingly. In some countries, transversal skills form already a part of the learning outcomes in qualifications. Even if these competences are already embedded in the curriculum, they are not often made visible in learning processes or supported by pedagogical methods or learning environments. OBJECTIVESThe E4S project improved and increased the multicultural competence among teachers and staff working in private security sector. This was done by increasing background knowledge of refugee situation. The authorities can also benefit from the produced learning material and related pedagogical methods. Another skills need spotted out by the partner schools and companies was to raise awareness on facts related to terrorism. Since the issue of terrorism prevention is an international issue, the partner schools saw the possibility to use the skills and connections of the partnership to work also with this topic during the project. The partners of the Project want to emphasize that developing multicultural skills and terrorism are not connected, but are completely separate topics in the project. METHODOLOGY IN CARRYING OUT THE PROJECTThe consortium of colleges and working life partners developed the content and pedagogical methods for the vocational upper secondary qualification in safety and security/uniformed services: Working in a Multicultural Society Module. This unit of learning outcomes was produced in cooperation with project partners and external stakeholders. The material produced can benefit learners, teachers, trainers, authorities and companies planning and implementing in service training for their employees. The learning material with the pedagogical approaches where supports the implementation of learning outcomes based approach. The learning material and methods is using blended learning method. The use of digital learning material supports the improvement of digital skills of the participants. All the material is available at the website of the project: https://www.e4s.fi/ NUMBER AND PROFILE OF PARTICIPANTSThe partnership comprised of 10 VET schools from five partner countries (Ireland, UK, the Netherlands, Hungary and Finland) and several silent partners (companies, national authorities) from each country. Target groups/actors were safety and security and uniformed services’ teaching staff, safety and security students, personnel of private security companies and national authorities (quality assurance).DESCRIPTION OF ACTIVITIESIn the beginning of the project, a survey on multicultural competence needs was carried out for students, teachers and stakeholders. The results were analyzed in the kick off meeting and in the first workshop in Netherlands. Four staff training workshops organized and one multiplier event in the end of the Project in Police University College in Tampere, Finland. Each workshop concentrated on one of the main topics of the learning material and pedagogics. The material and pedagogical approach were also piloted during the Project and initial survey repeated after piloting in order to estimate the impact.RESULTSSurvey on multicultural competence needs. Working in a Multicultural Society Module including a practical plan with learning outcomes was created and piloted. Additional learning material package on Awareness of Radicalisation and Terrorism. This is a separate unit which is delivered on its own.IMPACTThe integration of vocational and common vocational units is one of the key issues in developing the labor market relevance of vocational education and training. All in all, transversal skills are often most relevant when seeking employment in the 21st century labor market. This learning material supports the various skills requirements of common vocational units and support the developing of the skills related to transversal skills. By offering tools to develop multicultural skills in safety and security sector, will support with its outcomes the quality and labor market relevance of safety and security field education in Europe to a large extent. POTENTIAL LONG TERM BENEFITSInvolvement of companies and national authorities brought added value for each partner by increasing the labor market relevance of the education. This will increase also the value on implementing learning outcomes based approach in education, and the attractiveness of safety and security field education.