Whilst unemployment in general has increased in Europe, these increases have been disproportionately high amongst young people. And there is a group of people threatened by exclusion from the labour market and society at large which is often neglected: Young people between 15 and 25 years who have survived childhood cancer and are trying to find their way back to life, work and education. Research shows, that increased risks of unemployment were observed within all cancer diagnoses. More than two-thirds of childhood cancer survivors experience late effects. Childhood Cancer Survivors also have higher risk factors for poor educational attainment, less than optimal employment status, and interpersonal relationship issues. Create your Future establishes a career counselling programme for Childhood Cancer Survivors that does not only address the educational and labour market perspective but also integrates psychosocial and medical factors in order to look at the individual as a whole. This Career Counselling will be tailored to each Childhood Cancer Survivor in order to take into account their special needs, stresses and straints. For this, close cooperation between health staff and adult educators is an integral componant of the Career Counselling Programme in order to assure best possible support for Childhood Cancer Survivors. Within Create your Future up to 60 adult educators will be trained to be able to perform Career Counselling for Childhood Cancer Survivors and 80 Childhood Cancer Survivors will participate in the Career Counselling during the project duration. Objective of Create your Future: • Create your Future raises awareness for the individual needs of childhood cancer survivors and sensibilizes the general public as well as the economy about these needs and the importance as well as benefits of integrating Childhood Cancer Survivors in the labour market • Create your Future fosters the employability of Childhood Cancer Survivors by developing career perspectives with them in individual counselling sessions that also address psychosocial factors • Create your Future enhances the development of key competences of Childhood Cancer Survivors by providing individual assessment and learning offers • Create your Future fosters equity and inclusion in education by creating pathways to education and training allowing participation of the disadvantaged group of cancer patients • Create your Future contributes to the professionalization of adult educators by providing tailor-made in-service training which enables them to work as trainer and coach of the beneficiaries • Create your Future brings about lasting change by embedding the learning and counselling offers in a comprehensive system which includes quality assurance and sustainability The impact of the project is to contribute to full employment and to integrate childhood cancer survivors into society, education and the labour market by providing a comprehensive Career Counselling Programme for Childhood Cancer Survivors. At the local, regional and national level Create your Future will lead to a higher qualification of adult educators in Austria, Bulgaria, Spain and Greece. The desired impact on a national or European level is not only to transfer Create your Future to other countries but for stakeholders to acknowledge the problematic and individual situation each Childhood Cancer Survivor is facing after treatment for which individual Career Counselling that includes the psychosocial and medial sphere offers a solution. The long term benefits of Create your Future will be to contributing to changing living conditions of Childhood Cancer Survivors through individual career counselling and reducing the number of unemployment rates among Childhood Cancer Survivors. Another long term benefit for Childhood Cancer Survivors will be to foster equity and their inclusion in education by creating pathways to education allowing participation of the disadvantaged group of Childhood Cancer Survivors. The long term impact of Create your Future on the economy is to contribute to reduce the hesitation of HR managers and general managers to employ Childhood Cancer Survivors. Furthermore adult educators will benefit from the professionalization by providing tailor-made in-service career counselling which enables them to work with Childhood Cancer Survivors.
Whilst youth unemployment in general has increased in Europe, there is a group of young people who are dis-proportionally threatened by exclusion from the labour market and society - youngsters between 15 and 25 years who have survived childhood cancer and are trying to find their way back to life, work and education. Research has shown, that increased risks of unemployment were observed within all cancer diagnoses. More than two-thirds of childhood cancer survivors experience late effects. Childhood Cancer Survivors also have higher risk factors for poor educational attainment, less than optimal employment status, and interpersonal relationship issues. Create your Future has established a career counselling programme for Childhood Cancer Survivors that does not only address the educational and labour market perspective but also integrates psychosocial and medical factors in order to look at the individual as a whole. This Career Counselling was individually tailored to each Childhood Cancer Survivor in order to take into account their special needs, stresses and straints. For this purpose, close cooperation between health staff and adult educators was an important element of the Career Counselling Programme in order to assure best possible support for Childhood Cancer Survivors. Within Create your Future around 50 adult educators/trainers/counselors in the 4 partner countries: Austria, Bulgaria, Greece and Spain were trained to be able to perform Career Counselling for Childhood Cancer Survivors and 60 Childhood Cancer Survivors did participate in the Career Counselling during the project duration. The main objectives of Create your Future were: • to raise awareness about the individual needs of childhood cancer survivors and sensitize the general public as well as the economy about these needs and the importance as well as benefits of integrating Childhood Cancer Survivors in the labour market • to foster employability of Childhood Cancer Survivors by developing career perspectives with them in individual counselling sessions by also addressing psycho-social factors • to enhance the development of key competences of Childhood Cancer Survivors by providing them individual assessment and learning offers • to foster equity and inclusion in education by creating pathways to education and training allowing participation of the disadvantaged group of cancer patients • to contribute to the professionalization of adult educators by providing tailor-made in-service training which enables them to work as trainer and coach of the beneficiaries • to bring about lasting change by embedding the learning and counselling offers in a comprehensive system which includes quality assurance and sustainability The impact of the project contributed to fostering employment and integration of childhood cancer survivors into society, education and the labour market by supporting them with a comprehensive Career Counselling Programme. At the local, regional and national level Create your Future played an important role to increasing professional qualification of adult educators in Austria, Bulgaria, Spain and Greece. The achieved impact on a national or European level was also enhanced by identifying opportunities to transfer Create your Future to 12 other European countries ( described in the Create Your Future goes Europe report), and by addressing the problematic and individual challenges which Childhood Cancer Survivor are facing after treatment to concrete stakeholders in the partner countries. The long term benefits of Create your Future will be to contributing to changing living conditions of Childhood Cancer Survivors through individual career counselling and reducing the number of unemployment rates among Childhood Cancer Survivors. Another long term benefit for Childhood Cancer Survivors will be to foster equity and their inclusion in education by creating pathways to education allowing participation of the disadvantaged group of Childhood Cancer Survivors. The long term impact of Create your Future on the economy is to contribute to reduce the hesitation of HR managers and general managers to employ Childhood Cancer Survivors. Furthermore adult educators will benefit from the professionalization by providing tailor-made in-service career counselling which enables them to work with Childhood Cancer Survivors.