Integrating and returning at-risk population to the school bench or to the labor market takes a real effort from the education system and society. In this article, I will focus on basic pedagogical tools developed by “Top-Edu”, used in the company’s courses in order to ensure success in work with at-risk youth.

The basic assumption is that providing these populations with modern and new tools, will help “balance the equation”, add “team spirit” and will send a message to the students who are given an opportunity, maybe for the first time, to integrate into a prestigious industry, with an chance to be at the head, to lead and enjoy a comparative advantage.

 

High Tech Instead of Low Tech

The main problem with at-risk populations that have dropped out of different systems, is the sequence of failures that they have experienced. As a result, their confidence in their abilities declined and their self-image diminished. From there, the road to putting up a “defense wall” and a rejection alternative towards school and society is short, despite all of the proposals that those have made to them. Over time, the boys and girls have stopped believing in themselves and in the system and from then on they reached the stage where they closed themselves off from attempts to promote, change and develop. We recognize in the students’ expressions of disrespect and distrust in the education system thoughts such as: “Here’s another attempt at failure” and “this time I will be the one to reject the system before I give the system the chance to reject me.”

Students who experienced failures for most of their lives feel intimidated by a system that offers them an outline that requires diligence, regular visits, and effort and finally, an opportunity to succeed. The thought of embarking on a path to success intimidates their daily routine, their faith that they have developed and the defense mechanisms that they have established for themselves. Is it possible for them to be identified with diligent students, “geeks” according to them? After all, they did not prepare for this. They have coped with failure many times, but with success, maybe never.

From here on, just as the possible failure is a cause for anxiety among successful students, success is a cause for anxiety among students who have continuously failed. In this situation, the system must go through a number of actions in order to bring this population closer. Despite the feelings in the system that many attempts have already been made, there is still a supreme interest to return the at-risk populations to a proper and productive path. The alternative is much worse.

 

The courses offered below, amongst other things, enable Integration, a source of income and returning the lost self-respect

The idea behind offering advanced and innovative technological fields to the at-risk population is to equip them with the necessary skills and qualifications for when they reach the labor market. These courses, taught by instructors with experience in the field, will help build trust and will result in a positive response from the boys and girls to participate in the course and regular activities.

For the first time, the graduates of the courses offered will find themselves in a leadership position, in a service providing expert position.

Prior to the start of the course, we suggest working with the students on increasing motivation, developing personal abilities, coordinating expectations, providing rationale and background for the program, increasing the students’ confidence in themselves and in their abilities, creating a personal support system that will assist throughout the course to solve difficulties, summoning success experiences, forming small work groups and developing mutual responsibility among group members.

The system needs to understand that students who have dropped out of most systems will test their teachers, mentors and instructors in various daily attempts in discipline, trust, honesty, leadership and patience. These students have adapted a kind of “survival learning”, meaning that each one has a very specific way in which they allow information to penetrate through their survival filters and a way in which they allow the learning process to occur.

For instance, students will cooperate and will achieve success if it is based on a previous success that they reached in any field. In other words, we have to find a success of some sort, even the smallest one and even one that is not necessarily from the field of study. If the student is a good football player, it is possible to build on this success and connect to it, to analyze what happened there and how he succeeds in football. Very quickly in will become clear that his success comes from a positive experience, belief in himself, hard work, perseverance, love, effort, teamwork and difficult training that bring about improvement year after year. It is not a coincidence that most of the parameters repeat themselves in every kind of success and in every subject, and can certainly be recreated. This is actually the secret of the successful; they caught the “patent” and they unconsciously recreate to another profession what worked for them in one profession and brought them success.

The conclusion from the above is that the right thing to do is to think of an activity with guaranteed success already in the first learning stages. The body offering the courses must develop its relations with the field in order to offer ideas for placement at the end of the course, as well as assistance in providing a sustenance scholarship for participants in need of it.

 

The following is an example of a course that has proven successful among a distressed population:

Cellular phone technician training program (on behalf of Top-Edu)

The cellular phone technician-training program is designed for those with a technical sense who like to dismantle, explore and fix devices of different kinds, and are interested in training themselves as cellular technicians and to be integrated into the field. Throughout the course, the students will acquire theoretical and practical knowledge that provides advanced tools and skills for fixing all cellular devices, with emphasis on the leading devices in the market such as: IPhone, Galaxy and more.

The course includes theoretical material and practical practice of lab technician work. The subjects that will be learned in the course:  

  • Troubleshooting, dismantling and assembling, identification of components, soldering and tests in different cellular models.
  • Practice and extended studies of IPhone, Galaxy and additional touch devices and smartphones.
  • Familiarity with the cellular network structure and solving special malfunctions and reception problems.
  • Software- burning with or without burning boxes, cellular operating systems, technician codes, software fixing, language installation, hacks and more.
  • The computer as a technician’s daily work tool.
  • Disabled device repairs, work secrets and special professional tips.
  • Behavior towards private clients, setting up private laboratories

For more information click here