PARTNERSHIP
94 High School “Dimitar Strashimirov”, Sofia, Bulgaria – Project coordinator
94 SU “D. Strashimirov ” is a secondary school located in the city of Sofia, Slatina district, Hristo Botev district. In addition to the general education classes in the school, there is also admission in three specialties in the vocational education – “Manufacture of textile clothing”, “Logistics of goods and services” and „Entrepreneurship “. The team consists of 90 educators, teaching general education and vocational training, a principal and deputy principals. The main activities of the school derive from the law ZPUO – training of youth 1-12 grade according to the state educational standards for acquiring general and vocational education The school has experience in the management of projects financed under OP “NOIR”, mainly aimed at literacy and digital skills of youth who do not good know the Bulgarian language. Further to these activities, we would like to establish this project, where digital and peer mentoring will support the academic and career perspectives of youth.
Our school is providing vocational training in the above mentioned fields. Distance learning caused by COVID-19 lockdowns was a huge problem for our students.100% of the then (over 903 from 1st to 12th grade) are with Roma origin, with low educational achievements. The issue for us is that our training provision has been buffeted by this crisis, and parents are worried, that they cannot find a stopgap solution and in that case this could make their children gravely vulnerable. Therefore, we came with a solution to set up of peer learning support mentoring schemes between advanced students and students with low skills to prevent potential school drop-out. For that case we need an extra EU funding in order to take into account existing best practices from Turkey on methodological implementation of the peer mentoring support and to digitalise the process, which is in line with the school curricula enhancements implemented in 2022.
Learn more at: https://school94-sofia.com
World Innovative Sustainable Solutions, Istanbul, Turkiye
The staff members of WINSS have been working over 14 years in the VET sector. The purpose of the association is to contribute to peer support and cultural transformation of marginalised individuals in the society in order to ensure their sustainable life; to offer creative solutions to the complex educational problems with a systemic and holistic perspective, innovative and sustainable digital solutions in the field of education, career guidance, green economy, STEM technologies, etc. It carries out peer mentoring activities as well as studies and publications in educational studies on educational, social and cultural issues. Part of the staff of the organisation is consisting of mentors and job coaches, who will provide expertise in the field of this project. The organisation is working also intensively with parents of marginalised youth through provision of further family support.
The staff of the organisation in the past 10 years is providing guidance and support to youth at the last grades of their education in the form of career guidance, mentoring, job shadowing for vulnerable youth. This partner will ensure the successful realisation of the methodology to implement distance peer mentoring scheme between advanced students and students with special educational needs to prevent potential school drop-out including peparatory training on peer mentoring during distance learning. Their experts will facilitate the peer support process and will provide additional guidance to the teachers and to the students in order to succeed in this unique relationship. They will provide guidance on the Model for peer learning mentoring between advanced students and Roma students as well as will facilitate train the trainers workshop in Sofia.
Learn more at: https://www.winssolutions.org
Bulgarian Inclusion Support Team, Sofia, Bulgaria
The Bulgarian Inclusion Support Team organizes activities related to the implementation of inclusive education and labour market support for marginalised students in terms of successful implementation in Bulgaria of inclusive vocational education and training, supported employment, peer support, inclusion and sustainability in the labor market and implementation of social inclusion in culture, sports and society as a whole. Although it was established in 2021, the team of the organisation consists of leading experts in the field of inclusive education, supported employment, recognition of prior learning, recognition and validation of e-mentoring. Their team members are frequently invited as guest speakers at major national and EU conferences in the field of inclusive education, career guidance and counselling, validation of learning outcomes as well as in the Committees to the Ministry of Education and National Agency for Vocational Education & Training. The organisation will provide the guidance on realisation of peer mentoring scheme as well as will help marginalised
students to use digital tools in this process including further support on their digital competences.
BIST team will work intensively with the teachers at 94SU in order to provide inclusive education support and as mentoring provider, who work for disadvantaged people and will provide tips and guidance on further adaptation through improvement of their communication and social skills, exchange of experience and good practices including training on digital tools, which could be useful for this peer to peer relationship. They will provide the peer support mentoring digital support and will facilitate train the trainers (teachers) approach via dedicated written guidelines as part of project results. Overall this collaboration between non-governmental sector, who is in direct contact with marginalised youth and their families and the schools and school staff from other hand prompt to be successful having in mind already established relations during previous common project.