In collaboration with the social cooperative La Strada based in Milan and Fondazione Milan, Scuola Bottega is a project that has been created to help fight early school leaving.

Since 2006, La Strada has been supporting the training of young people from 13 to 17 years of age (both Italians and foreigners). These teenagers, who live in care centres or come from fragile family situations, have abandoned compulsory education and need personalised support to help them get through their final exams.

The Scuola Bottega programme consists of alternated school and work experience sessions, which, over time, have proven to be a very effective tool in responding to the risk of young people dropping out of education, to avoid the dispersion of the resources and potential of young people, who need valid solutions and solid reference points to return to their education with confidence.

Thanks to Fondazione Milan, the training programme has been enriched and integrated with sporting activities and educational and work training workshops, which teach young people about how to look after themselves properly and respect rules and regulations and adult figures.

The 30 young people admitted on the course will be involved in three different activities:

• Classroom lessons, to prepare them for their final exams;
• Experiential education through workshops and sporting activities (these are directly manged by Fondazione Milan at the Vismara sports centre, the headquarters of AC Milan Youth Sector);
• Work experience in the workshop (for those who have already reached 16 years of age), with the aim of helping them prepare for their insertion into the world of work.