Swedish Ängelholm Municipality Visit to Educational Disadvantage Centre

14 representatives of a cross-sectoral initiative to address early school leaving in the Swedish municipality of Ängelholm, visited the Educational Disadvantage Centre on April 18, 2024, to learn about its research and outreach projects, and Irish policy and practice more generally. The Swedish cross-sectoral delegation included the Municipality’s Head of Department, Learning and family, Head of operations, adult education, labour market and welfare, Developer of cooperation between school and worklife, CEO Ängelholm Business Ltd. and a Head of Upper Secondary School and Head of operations, Elementary School. The group seeks to develop a municipality wide response to early school leaving prevention in this Swedish context.

At a session hosted in DCU’s Institute of Education, presentations were given by the Centre’s Outreach Hubs Coordinators, Sarah McManus and Elaine Davis, on the local community outreach spaces to promote access to the teaching profession for socioeconomically excluded groups. Professor Paul Downes gave an opening presentation on Spaces of Connection to Self and Other: Key Issues for Youth Work and Education to Consider. Three local School Completion Coordinators, Jennifer Cummins, Amy O’Neill and Conor Casby gave a presentation on their work as well as on the School Completion Programme nationally. Key issues such as building connective relational spaces in schools and community outreach contexts, therapeutic supports in schools, bringing nature more into schools, targeting students most in need, and including an access to higher education focus for future generations of teachers were addressed in the presentations.

The Centre also arranged for the Swedish Municipality Delegation to visit Familibase, Ballyfermot’s local community outreach centre on April 17th.