Dace Ratniece

Digital Opportunities for 1st Year University Students’ Educational Support and Motivational Enhancement

Young people face a real and increasing difficulty in finding a decent job with each day. Three additional combining factors are worsening the youth employment crisis even further, causing challenges while transiting to decent jobs. Namely (i) numbers of discouraged young people, who are neither in education nor employment or training (NEETs) are increasing. In tertiary education, (ii) unemployment among university graduates, in general, are rising. Therefore, (iii) potential NEET group students, especially in the 1st year, who, apart from reduced study fees, require extra motivation and moral support from educators. The aim of the paper is to find out how to solve the dropout crisis applying digital opportunities for 1st-year universities students’ by an educational support and motivation enhancement. Educational institutions should combine the traditional forms of study and e-learning. However, direct contact between the teacher and the student plays very important role in acquiring a quality education, and should not be left out.