Nowadays, unemployment, especially among young people is one of the main problems European Member States are facing and there is an urgent need to take measures aiming at improving labour opportunities for young people. According to the results of the most recent sociological investigation carried out in Hungary by the OK Centre of the OTP Fáy András Foundation, young people are living for the moment without having any objectives for the future and they avoid decisions which may entail risks and uncertainties. Moreover, they tend to have a low self-esteem and a low self-confidence. As a consequence of the afore-mentioned problems that young generations are currently facing in Hungary, we can state that they experience considerable difficulties when looking for professional growth and development opportunities in the European labour market. Against this background and in line with the aim of the Europe 2020 Strategy to reduce rates of early school leaving and fostering youth participation in the labour market, the OK Career Programme will provide a medium-term solution by helping children and young adults, to identify which kind of career would be the most suitable for them according to their personality, competencies and preferences. The Career Programme also will detect skills and competences participants already possess and which have to be further developed by novel training methods. The proposed methodology is being developed under the motto “Job fit is the basis for both productivity and personal satisfaction”and it is based on educational contents elaborated in accordance with current and future requirements of the European labour market and learning materials developed with the aim of transferring knowledge and key competences (i.e.: entrepreneurial and digital skills among others) young generations need to become integral part of a future-oriented society, being able to take sound decisions. Aiming at achieving these goals, we foresee the implementation and piloting of the OK Career Programme and its special methodology as a first step in Romania and at a later stage in the rest of Europe. In doing so, we also intend to carry out the following activities: • To continuously improve and develop the self-recognition methodology already applied by our experts and trainers • To carry out in-depth research activities to identify the needs and/or gaps in the selected countries/regions, and based on the results of this survey, we will elaborate or re-define the inductive self-recognition methodology according to the specific needs and problems of pupils, as well as taking into account cultural aspects of the selected region • To implement, test and continuously optimise educational contents, developed in accordance with pupils’ profile, and aimed at helping children and young adults to acquire competences and skills required by the labour market. According to our expectations approximately 500 young people will benefit directly from this innovative methodology during the piloting phase of the proposed CareerProgramme. Generally, as result from the project, young people (with special attention to people not in employment, education or training (NEET) and members of the Z generation) participating in the training courses will acquire relevant knowledge and competences to be able to become conscious, future-oriented members of the society. Moreover, trainers and staff working at the participating organisations will benefit from the training directly and other educational institutions will be influenced in an indirect manner by the project. The 32 hours of interactive, inspiring and entertaining learning material for self-recognition and job fit, developed and implemented by the project will be part of the permanently offered courses by partner organisations. However, project partners foresee continuously optimise educational contents in order to ensure high quality training courses according to pupils’ profiles and tailored to the current trends and needs. The applicant OTP-Fáy Foundation has already established two training centres in Hungary (Budapest and Nyíregyháza) for providing high quality financial, economic and management training aiming at transferring skills that are the indispensable elements of a successful life in the 21st century to as many people as possible. After the conclusion of the proposed project, we foresee implementing gradually the Career Programme in other european countries as well.
OTP’s Fáy András Foundation (referred to as ’Coordinator’ and ’Foundation’ later) of Hungary and Romanian Right to Education Foundation partnered up to realise their project tackling an EU-wide problem, namely mass unemployment, specifically youth unemployment. According to the results of the most recent attitude reserach carried out in Hungary by the Foundation, young people are living for the moment without having any objectives for the future and they avoid decisions which may entail risks and uncertainties. Moreover, they tend to have a low self-esteem and a low self-confidence. As a consequence of the aforementioned problems that young generations are currently facing in Hungary, we can state that they experience considerable difficulties when looking for professional growth and development opportunities in the European labour market. Against this background and in line with the main aim of the Europe 2020 Strategy to reduce rates of early school leaving and fostering youth participation in the labour market, the project was meant to offer a solution for these problems to foster social integration and well-being of young generations. Aiming to achieve these goals the Foundation centered its project around developing the OK Career Programme and its own special methodology, the so called „OK methodology”, and following its proper adaptation gradually implementing it in Romania. The 25-year-old Foundation has based its professional activity under the motto “Opportunities for the Future Generations”. In its Budapest and Nyíregyháza OK Training Centers the Foundation provides its own courses in finance, economics and management, tailored to the actual needs of the students using its inspirational pedagogy based methodology. So far over 100,000 students have participated in the trainings, the main goal of which is shaping the social attitude towards the subjects. Fundatia Dreptul la Educatie (Right to Education Foundation) as a strategic partner has since its setup in 2015 been delivering free of charge, 4-hour finance, economics and management trainings to 10-18 year-old Romanian children based on the „OK methodology” of the Coordinator. The Partners have developed the Career Programme in accordance with the EU labour market’s current and future requirements to assist Hungarian teenagers’ professional orientation and career planning. The Programme offers mid-term solutions for young people to increase their labour market potential. One part of the innovative, interactive and inspiring material (’CareerSchool’) is aimed at 13-15 year-olds, the other (’CareerCoach’) focuses on 17-19 year-olds and its objective is to increase self-recognition and assist youngsters in identifying the career opportunities most fit for their skills and competencies. Parallel to the development of the training materials an attitude research using primary and secondary methods was conducted among Romanian children about their future and careers (the results have been published in a study available in Romanian and Hungarian) and used in the Career Programme’s Romanian adaptation process. The preparation of trainers of the two Foundations was followed by the implementation of the Career Programme into practice. In Hungary, 472 students (249 from 21 types of high schools and 224 from 10 types of primary schools) from 11 settlements, in Romania, 424 students (321 from high schools and 103 from primary schools, from 14 schools altogether) from 8 settlements completed all the modules of the 3 to 4 part trainings (further 102 students joined in for one module). The training material was then optimized and finalized based on the experience of the trainings. At the end of the project an English version of both the Hungarian and the Romanian originals was produced and a trainer from each Foundation had prepared to deliver the material in English, making it the first step towards the long-term goal of gradually implementing the Career Programme in other European countries as well. The Partners introduced the intellectual outputs during 4 multiplier events in Bucharest and Budapest, which were a great success. The largest impact of the project was on its primary target group, namely the young participants of the career trainings. They - gained self-recognition necessary for a career choice, got a better understanding of their values, needs, strengths, opportunities, - were enabled to get a positive view of themselves and use that in presenting themselves in a successful way and formulating a successful and happy life, - became more conscious and future-oriented as a result of the knwoledge and the gained and developed competences, - became proactive and commited towards the society. By creating the Career Programme the partners have managed to contribute to the formulation of a unique European perspective of young people’s self-recognition, career orientation and helping them identify and find the most suitable career path for them.