Date/time
Date(s) - 01/01/2024 - 31/12/2025
All day
Project type
Selected participants
About the project
In 2021, the European Union (EU) faced a concerning issue with a high percentage of young individuals aged 15 to 29 falling into the category of Not in Education, Employment, or Training (NEET). Specifically, 13.1% of young people were classified as NEET, which raised significant alarms, particularly in rural regions. This situation not only negatively impacted the well-being and living standards of NEETs but also posed threats to the social and economic sustainability of these areas. To address this pressing challenge, the EU set a target to reduce the NEET rate to below 9% by 2030 and recognized the revitalization of rural regions as a shared European vision. In response, the Back on Track project was developed as a means to tackle these challenges and contribute to achieving these common goals.
A crucial aspect of this effort is to reach, motivate and effectively integrate inactive young people who are disengaged and marginalized. Back on Track aims to understand the characteristics of these young people and explore strategies to engage those who have been left behind. Consequently, the overall objective of the project is to establish sustainable and effective methods of engaging with rural NEETs, facilitating their social and educational integration, providing targeted and personalized support to pursue their individual aspirations, and enhancing their basic skills, life skills, and mental well-being.
The project places a strong emphasis on the digital inclusion of rural NEETs and strives to bridge the gap by providing access to urban benefits, such as extensive education and employment opportunities, through virtual means. By increasing the virtual mobility of rural NEETs, their integration can be significantly improved, the attractiveness of rural areas can be enhanced, and the EU’s overarching goal of transforming brain drain into brain gain can be advanced.
To achieve its objectives, the project will establish a transnational cross-sectoral stakeholder network to ensure the long-term sustainability of its outcomes. It will also develop a strategy for successful outreach to rural NEETs, implement a mentoring programme and create an innovative digital training model tailored to the identified needs of rural NEETs. Through these efforts, the project aims to provide a pathway and new prospects for individual development, training and career orientation
without the need to leave rural areas.
In summary, the Back on Track project represents a concerted EU effort to address the pressing issue of rural NEETs. By understanding the characteristics of these young people, providing targeted support and leveraging digital inclusion, the project aims to improve their integration, enhance the attractiveness of rural areas and contribute to the EU’s goal of reducing the NEET rate while revitalising rural areas.
https://interreg-danube.eu/projects/back-on-track
Mental health workshops organised from April to May 2025 in cooperation with the Centrum Rodiny v Dúbravke
Over the past six months, within the Back on Track project, we organized five mental health workshops in cooperation with the Family Center in Bratislava, engaging 42 young unemployed participants. The workshops combined theory with practical activities on stress management, self-awareness, goal setting, and emotional regulation. Participants left with stronger resilience, self-knowledge, and key life skills to support their personal growth and future employability.
Peer review groups – v spolupráci s OZ Sosna
Since November 2024, we have been running quarterly peer review groups with five experts, and this process will continue until the end of 2025. In the past six months, two interactive sessions were held, led by an experienced facilitator, bringing together youth workers, NEET specialists, and experts working with excluded Roma communities. Their feedback will help us improve mentoring programs, training activities, and mental health support for NEETs, with recommendations to be presented at stakeholder workshops.
International Peer Review Group
Within the project, we hold international peer review groups online every six months with experts from all partner countries. So far, three sessions have taken place where experts and NEETs jointly discussed mental health, evaluated project materials, and shared practice-based recommendations, with one more session planned for late 2025.
What We Accomplished in 2024
In July, we launched the second phase of the BackOnTrack project, focusing on empowering rural NEETs by enhancing their digital skills. This period marks a transition from research to hands-on activities, such as designing and testing the Pilot Mentoring Program. This program aims to provide personalized guidance to rural NEETs, with testing activities scheduled across Hungary, Serbia, Bosnia, Romania, and Bulgaria.
During the second project period main focus of the work of ADEL Slovakia focused on communication activities, since ADEL is the communication lead of SO2. We have developed a communication strategy for SO2 and actively participated in communication meetings developing the strategy for attracting the mentors (which is the target group ADEL is responsible for) who will be in 2025 participating in mentoring pilot activities.
Further we cooperated with the partners on creation and evaluation of the project Strategy and developed a Regional action plan – both activities are focused on improving possibilities for rural NEETs on consortium level and in Slovakia. ADEL further actively collaborated with the network of stakeholders inviting them to International stakeholders´ workshops (2 took place during 2024) and to Stakeholders network.
We organized 2 Peer review group meetings, where members met, familiarized themselves with each others work, evaluated and gave feedback to project outputs – strategies and online educational platform for NEETs, creating together Collection of recommendations, experiences of stakeholders and (former) NEETs from the field. Members of the national PRG are experts actively working with NEETs in Slovakia, mainly from eastern part of the country.
One representative of PRG participated also on Transnational PRG, where representatives of all national PRG met for the discussion.
Project meetings
Since the beginning of the project, we have attended two offline project meetings in Vienna, organized and led by the project managers from ÖJAB – Österreichische JungArbeiterBewegung (Austrian Young Workers Movement) and ipcenter.at GmbH.
The project was kicked off with a NEETs in the Danube Region Conference that was connected with the 1st partners meeting. NEETs Conference, aimed at reducing the 13.1% NEET rate to below 9% by 2030, this event was a critical step toward empowering our youth.
The second meeting was filled with meaningful exchanges and inspiration. We discussed the progress of our activities, ranging from youth mentoring and mental health initiatives to new strategies for community engagement. In small groups, we tackled current challenges through creative brainstorming, searching for practical and innovative solutions together.
A highlight of the program was the visit to AusbildungsFit, where we gained valuable insights into how vocational training and education can be implemented effectively in practice.
Partners Meeting in Tuzla – 26–27 February 2025, Tuzla, BA
At our partners meeting in Tuzla, we reflected on the first year of Back on Track, during which we created a joint strategy, developed 10 national action plans, and launched pilot mentoring programs in five countries. We also set up a psychosocial support program for NEETs, started building a digital career guide with online courses, and prepared upcoming events including a thematic workshop and a digital career fair.
This article was supported as part of Back on Track, an Interreg Danube Region Programme project co-funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union. The European Union cannot be held responsible for them.
Project is co-funded by the European Union.
