Unemployment hurts at any age. Unemployment at a young age, however, generates a long-lasting negative impact. School leavers that fail to find adequate apprenticeship training position stand in danger of acquiring only insufficient vocational training or none at all. As a consequence, many will find themselves being trapped in the low-paid-sectors of the labor market, make ends meet with zero-hours contracts or having no prospect to gain a proper job at all. There can be no doubt that youth unemployment propels the probability of experiencing long spells of joblessness and bear out a high risk of social exclusion. In many cases the future of such young people will be marked by what sociologists now call ‘a state of precarity’. Glasgow, the region Rhine-Meuse and Nuremberg have an industrial past and had to master a process of structural change. They all have been facing the challenge of youth unemployment for many years. Now, for the first time, they will share their experience and promote further development by a collaborative effort for the development of comprehensive standards for the transition process from school to employment, being key to young people’s future success. Looking at the problem of transition from school to apprenticeship, employment or higher and further education in a wider perspective, they want to address several aspects of education, formal, non-formal and informal. Therefore, school, local youth organizations and parent associations and institutions of vocational training are invited to join the Strategic Partnership. Not only the local authorities themselves are involved on a broad, cross-sectoral basis, including education departments, youth and social services, but also other non-government organizations will be addressed, too, such as employment agencies, the Chamber of Commerce, the Chamber of Crafts, as well as companies. The partner institutions work together through regular project meetings,, workshops, conferences and as an online community. First, they want to establish types of career education within institutions of formal education. Then they focus on effective ways of supporting young people by extra curricular action. Thirdly they will investigate instruments of vocational training, especially for young people who have not succeeded to contract for apprenticeship. As a result, they develop not only recommendations, but also provide best practice and sample materials. All results and materials are shared on the project's website, through paper publications, and through three consecutive conferences in each of the regions. In this way, the insights and resources developed by the project are introduced to other schools, youth organizations, vocational organizations, local authorities, local stakeholders and the wider public.
Objectives Unemployment hurts at any age. Unemployment at a young age, however, generates a long-lasting negative impact. School leavers that fail to find adequate apprenticeship training position stand in danger of acquiring only insufficient vocational training or none at all. As a consequence, many will find themselves being trapped in the low-paid-sectors of the labor market, make ends meet with zero-hours contracts or having no prospect to gain a proper job at all. The Project's main objectives: - To identify interesting practice - To identify elements for effective transfer from school to work - To identify structural restrictions - To initiate long-term collaborations between various schools and institutions to improve employability especially of young people from vulnerable background - to propose recommendations of how to improve Career Education in Secondary schools, Transition Management school to work, and Vocational Apprenticeship and training to combat long spells of joblessness and high risk of social exclusion. Partners The three partners Glasgow, Rhine-Meuse and Nuremberg were selected because of their expertise in combatting Youth Unemployment. The partners' areas have had to come to terms with an industrial past; they had to master the challenge of structural change and to tackle effectively the plight of Youth Unemployment. In this project, partners shared their expertise on how to tackle Youth Unemployment and how to improve their concepts for 'Career Education', 'Transition Management school to work', and 'Vocational Training'. Description of main activities The partner institutions worked together through - international project meetings to compare strategies and approaches to combat youth unemployment - involvement of external experts - planning and realizing intellectual outputs as results of joint discussions - planning and realizing Final Conferences for discussion and dissemination of results. Working process: After having established a basis by researching the educational framework and conditions of the local labor market, partners used a cross-section approach and investigated - career education within institutions of formal education, i.e. secondary Schools, Schools relationship with higher education to inform new transition procedures - effective strategies and best practice of supporting young people by extracurricular support - concepts of vocational training, especially for young people from deprived backgrounds, who have not succeeded in contracting for apprenticeship or accessing qualifications relating to meaningful employment. Results “Act for Careers” proofs that KA2 strategic partnerships can form local consortia between local/regional/national authorities to improve the educational offer for young people and introduce these consortia into an international partnership. The project succeeded to initiate further improvement of local strategies concerning the development skills of young people, especially from deprived and minority background, in the critical transition period of school to work and vocational training. Results are shared on the project's Websites. In addition, results were disseminated as paper publications and through conferences, and offered to schools, youth organizations, vocational schools, local authorities, local stakeholders and the wider public. Longer-term benefits The project has been successful in making teachers and experts more aware to the EU-2020 strategy and aims. Several follow-up projects have been initiated, including students' exchanges of students, amongst them Young People with Special needs. Because of the successful cooperation, the Lord Mayor of Nuremberg, Dr. Ulrich Maly, and the Lord Provost of Glasgow, Eva Bolander, exchanged formal letters for further cooperation in the fields - transition management and the improvement of employability - cooperation for the better integration of asylum seekers by education and the improvement of employability - cooperation on the educational field of inclusion - cooperation for the further development of comprehensive schools to improve the chances for All young people. As a result of the strategic approach adopted by Glasgow and Nuremberg to the development of the capacity of Erasmus Plus engagement to impact significantly on the partner organisations the impact of the project’s professional research and development on Glasgow partners was to improve the employment skills and partnership offer to young people across the city through the adapting and improving of the current model. This has resulted in collaboration with colleagues in Nuremberg to further investigate the elements of Glasgow’s individual education systems, which contribute to success for learners. One area of particular interest to Glasgow was the way in which apprenticeship programmes are integrated into school, and work based learning is embedded within the German system. This has influenced the design an