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Casebook for Career Guidance Practitioners working with migrants

2014-1-AT01-KA204-0009732014Strategic Partnerships for adult educationfinalizedGood practice
Countries: AT|FR|DE|TR|UK|IT · Grant: €277,026
Romas and/or other minoritiesNew innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training coursesLabour market issues incl. career guidance / youth unemployment

Project summary

According to Eurostat (2012) there are nearly 4 million people migrating every year in the EU. About 2 million of these come from outside the EU and 1,5 million are EU citizens migrating in a different Member state. Accounting for both, migrants (people who are not citizens of the country in which they reside) amount to 29 million, representing 5.8 % of the total EU population. Career counsellors and social workers are one of the essential actors for the integration of migrants, as they help them to ‘find their way’ in the host societies, both in the world of work than in the overall society. In many European countries, career counselors learn mostly on the job, hence the need for structured training activities addressed to them focused on migrants. This project wants to ease the process of insertion of adult low skilled migrants by developing a Casebook on career guidance delivered to migrants, and a set of additional tools to ease and spread its use. These will be two E-courses, one targeted to career counsellors and social workers and the other one to trainers of career counsellors and social workers, and a web based depository for additional cases. A preliminary Study on the use of casebooks for learning will also be developed. Casebooks consists in a collection of cases that students and trainees are requested to discuss providing also direction for solution or treatment.. Trainers and trainees use the Socratic method, that is to say trainees have to read one case, and then, facilitated by a set of questions posed by the trainer, have to discuss what are most important elements to consider, both personal and from the context, what is the problem and it causes, how the problem can be eased or solved, examples of good practice in addressing the situation or problem. This special structure and mode of delivery makes Casebooks a very powerful tool for learning. This project is submitted by a network of organizations active in support and integration of migrants based in AT, DE, FR, IT, UK, that already cooperate together in other projects focused on migrants. All the partners belong to countries where migration is significant but has different features. One organization from Turkey, one of the main sender countries in Europe, has been included in the partnership so to get a different point of view, and to reduce the risk of cultural biases and stereotypes. The partnership decided to work at producing a Casebook to present the many facets and related challenges of migration in EU countries, and to develop a training tool that could help career counsellors at European level. Thanks to the project 540 career counselors, trainers and social workers will be directly trained by partners by using the Casebook, 480 trainers will be trained to use the Casebook in their training activities addressed to career counselors, trainers of adults and social workers. Additionally, over 15000 career counselors, trainers and social workers will be informed about the project. Long term benefits will be a higher expertise of practitioners delivering career guidance to migrants as well as a better general knowledge of migrants’ career issues and professional paths, both resulting in a better inclusion of migrants in the European society.

Final report summary

The project "CASEBOOK Career Guidance Practitioners" working with migrants wanted to ease the process of insertion of adult low skilled migrants by developing a Casebook on career guidance delivered to migrants, and a set of additional tools to ease and spread its use. These are two E-courses, one targeted to career counsellors and social workers and the other one to trainers of career counsellors and social workers, and a web based depository for additional cases. A preliminary Study on the use of casebooks for learning was also developed. The partnership produced a Casebook to present the many facets and related challenges of migration in EU countries, and developed a training tool that could help career counsellors at European level. Casebooks collected cases that students and trainees are requested to discuss providing also direction for solution or treatment. Trainers and trainees use the Socratic method, that is to say trainees had to read one case, and then, facilitated by a set of questions posed by the trainer, had to discuss what are most important elements to consider, both personal and from the context, what is the problem and it causes, how the problem can be eased or solved, examples of good practice in addressing the situation or problem. This special structure and mode of delivery makes Casebooks to a very powerful tool for learning sessions. This project was submitted by a network of organizations active in support and integration of migrants based in AT, DE, FR, IT, UK, that already cooperate together in other projects focused on migrants. All the partners belong to countries where migration is significant but has different features. From Germany a carrer guidance training institution, from Italy an internationally networked organisation with a strong social base, from UK a private organisation strongly networked within their community, from Turkey a social NGO with close cooperation to public bodies working with migrants and the coordinator from Austria, a NGO, with long year experience in multilingual carrier guidance for migrants. Within this project, 6 Intellectual Outputs have been developed. 1. Study on the state of the art of using Casebook for learning and teaching with migrants: The Study reviewed existing literature on how is the best use of Casebooks for teaching (when used by teachers / trainers) and for learning (when used directly by learners). The study has also highlighted how to structure a Casebook for this target group, pointing out main challenges and specific aspects. 2. European Casebook of Career Counselling with Migrants: The "Casebook" include 60 cases, collected in all partner countries, each of them with a set of questions to promote reflection, a description of the main issues of the case, and direction for solving or managing these issues. The casebook is produced in all partner languages and available online on the project website. The website will be managed and updated for at least the next five years. The german version of "Casebook" has been printed and disseminated in Austria by the Final Conference (Multiplier Event) and also by the final exploitation workshops. 3. Guide on Using the Casebook of Migrants - for training of Career Counsellors and Social Workers: The guide addresses to trainers of career counsellors and social workers. The Guide describes how to use the Casebook produced by the project during their training. 4. E-course on Using the Casebook of Migrants - for training of Career Counsellors and Social Workers 5. Guide on Using the Casebook of Migrants - for self training of Career Counsellors and Social Workers: The Guide contains practical examples on how to collect and develop case studies from day to day practice as well as how to insert the Casebook in their individual learning plans. 6. E-course on Using the Casebook of Migrants - for self training of Career Counsellors and Social Workers All partners could achieve short and longterm goals and involved relevant stakeholders they cooperating with. Long term benefits are a higher expertise of practitioners delivering career guidance to migrants as well as a better general knowledge of migrants’ career issues and professional paths, both resulting in a better inclusion of migrants in the European society.

Project partners (6)