The Municipal Second Chance School makes the grade
With two academic years now under its belt, the Municipal Second Chance School (EM2O) concludes its time as a pilot project and looks to the year to come with the goal of opening as a socio-educational service to tackle the consolidated phenomena of people who drop out of school. The centre currently has 55 students, 25 of them having started in September 2019 and 30 in September 2020.
Created in 2019, the project is seeking to offer another 15 places and take on 45 young people every year. The plan is also to broaden its area of action beyond the neighbourhood of Navas by opening an antenna section at the Espai Jove de les Basses, in the district of Nou Barris, and extending its training paths from two to three years in cases where social and educational work needs to be consolidated.
Many of the youngsters are originally from countries outside the EU, predominantly boys from low-income families living in the districts of Sant Andreu, Sant Martí and Nou Barris. Most of them have not completed their secondary schooling. They reach the school having been referred there from the Barcelona Education Consortium, the Municipal Institute for Social Services or the Directorate-General for Care in Childhood and Adolescence.
The centre offers a positive balance of the impact of the pandemic over the last year, as despite the months of lockdown students have managed to maintain their relationship with the school. Out of the total intake of 25 youngsters this second year, 17 are engaged in post-compulsory training or education, meaning they are back in the education system, while 8 are pursuing vocational training for future labour insertion.
Successful project
The Municipal Second Chance School opened in 2019 as the first municipal service of this type in Catalonia, where similar services are run by social entities. The project is part of the educational equity policies promoted by the City Council, complementing other programmes and services providing support and guidance to prevent people from dropping out of school in the city.
The goal of the service is to support and equip young people to pursue their own life project by either getting back into the education system or having a professional project. For two years, the youngsters receive training in basic skills across the board, with up to a thousand hours of free technical and professional training.
Weekly recreational leisure and sports activities are also held, with the cost of transport and a square breakfast also covered.
