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.