Social belonging Interventions: Transforming VET student experiences, otherwise known as BelongVET. This EU funded project hopes to create an easily adaptable social belonging intervention model, developing a specific identification model and intervention materials for European use.
The BelongVET project is in cooperation with the following partners.
- Rapla County Vocational College, Estonia
- Chambre de Métiers et de l'Artisanat des Pays de la Loire (CMA), France
- Rud Vgs, Norway
- Noorderpoort, The Netherlands
- Tradium, Denmark
- StudentPulse, Denmark
What if one single class period could change a student’s entire trajectory? This guide provides a scientifically proven, 45-minute intervention that boosts student retention, engagement, and grades. It works not by teaching more content, but by removing the psychological barrier—belonging uncertainty—that stops students from learning. Invest one hour now to build a classroom culture that lasts all year.
You will find a quick start and a step-by-step implementation below.
Find guide
You will also find three episodes where you can watch how to run the session.
What if a single 50-minute conversation could change whether a student stays in education — or drops out? In this first episode of the BelongVET webinar series, we explore the social psychology of belonging in vocational education and training (VET). Drawing on Greg Walton's groundbreaking "wise intervention" research from Stanford, we unpack why belonging uncertainty — the quiet inner voice that says "maybe I don't really belong here" — affects students across all backgrounds at moments of educational transition.
You'll learn:
Why belonging gaps persist even when students are academically capable How a brief, structured peer experience can produce lasting improvements in persistence and GPA What the research from Walton & Cohen (2011) and Murphy et al. (2020) actually shows — and why it matters for European VET How the BelongVET project (Erasmus+ KA220-VET) is bringing this science into classrooms across Denmark, the Netherlands, Norway, Estonia, and France.
Whether you're a VET teacher, student support coordinator, or someone thinking about how technology can help identify and support students who need it most — this episode is for you.
Episode 1: The Psychology of Social Belonging
This second session of the BelongVET webinar series walks you through the two interventions at the heart of the project — and how to actually run them. The Classroom Session is a 45–60 minute teacher-led activity for all new students. No counsellor needed. No pre-selection. Students read peer stories, reflect, and write advice for future students — and that act of writing is where the psychology happens. We walk through every step, including the 5-element story structure that makes the stories work.
The Digital Pathway is triggered by a short micro-survey. Students who score low on belonging are guided to belong.vet, where they can read or listen to stories and reflect at their own pace — using talk-to-text if they prefer.
You'll learn:
The difference between the two tracks — and why they serve different student cohorts How to run the Classroom Session step by step (Teacher Guide walkthrough) Why asking students to write advice for others is the "secret sauce" of the whole approach How the survey identifies students who could benefit most from the Digital Pathway What's on belong.vet and how to access it for free.
Episode 2: Unpacking the Playbook
Episode 3 is a masterclass. For 20 minutes, participants become students. They hear a story, read peer stories on belong.vet, and write one piece of advice for next year's students. That act of writing — advocating for someone else — is the "saying-is-believing" effect Greg Walton's research identified as the core mechanism of the wise intervention.
By the end, they've felt it from the inside. And they're ready to run it themselves.
In this session you'll experience:
- The preframing that sets up the session ("you are the expert — not the one being helped")
- A real story about feeling like an outsider in a new group — and what changed
- The "Feeling Out of Place" peer story from belong.vet — and the twist that lands every time
- Self-paced reading and reflection on belong.vet, including the talk-to-text option
- A debrief unpacking exactly what just happened — and why it works
Episode 3: The Live Intervention Demo
