2nd Press release of the LOOP Project

The LOOP Erasmus+ project is now in its second year of implementation and starting the policy experimentation phase. The partnership has concluded the designing of the policy tools with the active engagement of the teaching community through co-design sessions held in the partner countries. Based on this participatory approach, the following tools were developed:

1. A mentor’s capacity programme and a teacher’s induction programme based on mentoring to support the initiation to the teaching profession
   The mentor’s capacity programme, aimed to train experienced teachers and school leaders to act as mentors of new teachers, is now complete and the field trials are about to start in Portugal, Spain, Italy, Slovenia, Croatia and Greece. Between 20 to 30 mentors are expected to be trained in each country to act as mentors of their colleagues from January 2023 onwards supporting the implementation of the teacher’s induction programme.
   The teacher’s induction programme, based on mentoring is also ready. It addresses new teachers initiating their career paths and aims to support them in adapting to the new workplace culture. It covers professional issues, legal/administrative topics of the teaching profession and socio-cultural aspects related to the school/cluster of schools norms and processes. The field trials of the induction programme are set to take place between January and June 2023 and the consortium hopes to involve more than 500 teachers in all the countries.
   To implement effectively the field trials, a training course was organized. The ”Train the Trainers” Staff Capacity Programme took place in Ljubljana, Slovenia, from 19th to 23rd September 2022, aiming to train, at the national level, future trainers that will now train the experienced teachers to become mentors. In addition to the theoretical training, the participants also attended several workshops which focused on self-reflection on their career path, empathy, communication, the strength of mindset, etc.
   If you are interested in participating in the piloting of the mentor’s capacity course and/or teacher’s induction programme, reach out to us through our website contact form.
2. Policy Brief on the current landscapes of the partner countries‘ educational systems.
   We have released the first Policy Brief that includes: a) an analysis of the current landscapes about the teaching career in the different countries of the consortium, b) alternative views on the teaching career and their potential consequences or impacts, and c) a set of policy recommendations.
   The results from the policy brief were already presented in three policy seminars. On July the 1st, a seminar was carried out in Lisbon, Portugal for the presentation of the Policy Report, which was attended by 30 stakeholders who discussed the requirements for the generalization of induction programmes based on mentoring and the essential conditions for that. On July the 8th, the policy brief was presented to 120 relevant stakeholders both online and virtually, in a broader round table organized in Athens, Greece, with the stakeholders finding the policy recommendations highly relevant and giving important feedback. Finally, a seminar was conducted in Slovenia on the 13th and 14th of September, with the participants highlighting the process of evaluation during mentor induction as a point of focus during the implementation of the programmes.
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