Facing severe economic, financial and social crisis, the new European Commission has defined a strategy for growth. The number 1 priority is to ensure Europe is growing again and employment rates are increasing. This top priority and the social, economic and educational situations in the 4 participating countries, inspired us to work together and tackle the problem of early school leavers by keeping them motivated for their future and increase the opportunities for our students as well as other students in Europe to access the European job market. Localised in 4 different geographical and cultural contexts, the 4 schools have realised over the last years the fundamental benefit of European cooperation of the students, teachers and the schools themselves. The experience of working together on a specific project not only in virtual space but also meeting each other and to be in different environments and cultures in Europe has proven an essential step in creating European awareness and fostering a sense of European identity and citizenship amongst students and teachers which could not have been achieved otherwise. The fundamental objectives of this project are: 1. To decrease the number of early school leavers and increase the employment rate in Europe by implementing the concept of personalised learning, both by students and teachers, in an international setting. 2) to learn and research in an innovative way, mostly outside the classroom and on locations that are relevant for the different topics during the Student Visits (‘Active Learning’). These locations are typical and relevant for the place/country each participating school is located. 3) to produce the ‘European Backpack’ and ‘Briefcase,’ for both students and teachers. How the results from the research carried out by students and teachers are created for the ‘European Backpack’ and ‘Briefcase,’ is entirely for the students and teachers to choose on the understanding that it is publicly accessible for example: a film, info graphic or a blog. Over two years 100 students and their teachers from different countries will be actively involved in the project, and cooperate with their partners, virtually and during student visits, conducting comparative research and practice related to 4 topics. Furthermore, many students inside and outside the schools will be part of the project and benefit from its results. The topics have been chosen as they are linked to the EU commission’s priorities, they allow a multi-disciplinary approach and are linked to the school's curriculum. Each topic is strongly connected with one of the of the participating schools, its surroundings and its environment. The student visits in each country, will be concentrated around that topic. The 4 topics are: 1. Discrimination and integration (Sweden) 2. Language barriers (UK) 3. Exploring New Horizons: study/ work/ training in Europe (The Netherlands) 4. Coping with social and economic disadvantages (Greece) We will achieve the goals of decreasing the number of early school leavers by keeping the students motivated for their future and increasing employment rates in Europe by an innovative new approach: Active Learning. The European Commission’s investment says on its website about the top priority: ‘This investment should be targeted towards education, research and innovation’. That is the centre of our approach ensuring the students and teachers own their own learning process by creating personal and specific research questions which focus directly on the theme. They will work in international teams of 4 people. This is a big step in the concept of personalised learning. (Education) We aim to challenge tradition learning styles of learning i.e. inside the classroom. Instead teachers and students will venture out to address their personal research question in different locations focusing on specific features relating to the chosen topic of each country during the student visits. (Research) This way of learning will enable students to contribute to and make a positive impact on the surrounding society and their own ideas for their future prospects. (Innovation) The project will facilitate ‘Action Learning' aiming to increase practical skills by developing independent learners and implementing the concept of personalised learning with an international group of students aged 15-18yrs and their teachers. Throughout the duration of the project students and teachers will have created products such as blogs, films and digital posters which contain the results of their research. All of which will be contained within a 'European Backpack’ for students and a ‘European Briefcase’ for teachers. This is a digitalised portfolio which young people and teachers from all over Europe can access from anywhere and share. It can be downloaded via a website and/or app, which we will produce ourselves during the project.