Refugees and migrants and integration into the labour market as a key strategy to tackle the refugee crisesThe influx of refugees and migrants into the European Union has recently reached a high level. The crisis constitutes an urgent call to the member countries of the European Union to work together and develop efficient strategies for coping with the challenges that arise. European countries need to collaborate on solutions to integrate refugees and migrants into their societies. In this context, labour market integration plays an essential role as it supports all crucial interests by addressing social and economic goals as well as psychological ones. The key role of career counsellors and the lack of dedicated courses in academic trainingCareer counsellors play a key role in helping refugees and migrants find their best way into the labour market. Self-efficacy and economic productivity can only increase when the demand and supply of talents, competences and skills really match. This is an extremely challenging task for educational and vocational guidance, especially in cases of non-formal or non-European certified skills and when counselling other language speakers. In addition to that, the efficacy of the counselling setting is also affected by clients’ experience of trauma. The contextual setting results in a process of counselling wherein specific topics and needs result in particular challenges both for clients and their counsellors. In several European countries the qualification of career guidance and counselling professionals is the subject of dedicated academic curricula. In these academic curricula there are however no parts that are preparing future counsellors for the specific needs of refugees and migrants. Also, though in some countries in-service trainings for career counsellors from Public Employment Services are being offered, there is still a lack of research-based courses that meet career counsellors’ needs. CMinaR: Higher Education course and in-service training for counselling refugees and migrants The CMinaR project aims to develop and pilot research-based Higher Education courses that qualify future career counsellors for innovative career counselling and guidance for refugees and migrants. Additionally in-service trainings for career counselling practitioners working in Public Employment Agencies, will equip them with the knowledge, strategies and material to help them in their day-to-day practice for the counselling of migrants and refugees. The Higher Education course and the in-service-training for career counsellors will consist of six elaborated course units. The development of the course builds on a comprehensive analysis of the needs of the project’s target groups: lecturers, students, career counsellors as well as refugees and migrants. For the needs analysis the partners will combine elements of a qualitative questioning and online focus groups. Moreover, the development builds on the outcomes of a comprehensive analysis of literature, media and resources in the project’s first phase. The courses will make use of a blended learning concept that brings together elements of face-to-face courses and training with ICT-based elements, such as a media centre, alongside an interactive learning environment to be used in the implementation of the courses. The media centre will provide a variety of resources and material such as videos, activities or exercises. These materials and resources will support the learning process and aim to be of practical use for the work of career counsellors with the project’s indirect target group of refugees and migrants.All resources and materials for lecturers, students and career counsellors will be made available through national as well as target-group oriented sections of the project’s media centre. The project’s web portal will act as a gateway and front-end for the media centre. Having developed the course and the media centre in the project’s second phase, the project’s third phase will focus on the piloting and implementation of the courses in the partner countries. The CMinaR partnership: experts in the field from key countries affected by the refugee crisesThe CMinaR project aims to tackle the challenge of integrating refugees and migrants into the labour market by bringing together experienced partners from countries that are amongst the most affected by, and that play a key role in handling the refugee crises - Germany, Italy, Sweden, Turkey and the United Kingdom. The most recent political developments across Europe clearly suggest that national and isolated approaches will not be sufficient to cope with the challenges of the refugee crises. In this crucial stage of the refugee crises, the CMinaR project provides an opportunity to develop research-informed courses for qualifying career counsellors and future counsellors that reflect a transnational, European perspective and meet the target groups’ needs.
Refugees' and migrants' integration into the labour market as a key strategy to cope with high refugee influx The influx of refugees and migrants into the European Union has recently reached a high level. The situation - often perceived as crisis - constitutes an urgent call to the member countries of the Eu-ropean Union to work together and develop efficient strategies for coping with the challenges that arise. European countries need to collaborate on solutions to integrate refugees and migrants into their societies and econoies. In this context, labour market integration plays an essential role as it supports all crucial interests by addressing social and economic goals as well as psychological ones. The key role of career counsellors and the lack of dedicated courses in academic training Career counsellors play a key role in helping refugees and migrants find their best way into the la-bour market. Self-efficacy and economic productivity can only increase when the demand and supply of talents, competences and skills really match. This is an extremely demanding task for educa-tional and vocational guidance, especially for non-formal or non-European certified competences and for counselling people with other mother tongues who are seeking advice. The contextual setting results in a process of counselling wherein specific topics and needs result in particular chal-lenges both for clients and their counsellors. In several European countries, the qualification of career guidance and counselling professionals is the subject of dedicated academic curricula. In these academic curricula however there are traditionally no specific modules that are preparing future counsellors for the specific needs of refugees. In addition, though in some countries in-service trainings for career counsellors from Public Employment Services are offered, there is still a lack of research-based courses that meet career counsellors’ needs. CMinaR: Higher Education course and in-service training for counselling refugees and migrants The CMinaR project developed and piloted evidence-based Higher Education courses that qualify future career counsellors for innovative career counselling and guidance for refugees and migrants. Additionally, we developed and piloted in-service trainings for career counselling practitioners working in Public Employment Agencies that equipped them with the knowledge, strategies and material to help them in their day-to-day practice with migrants and refugees. The Higher Education course and the in-service-training for career counsellors consist of six elaborated course units. The development of the course built on a comprehensive analysis of the needs of the project’s target groups: lecturers, students, career counsellors. For the needs analysis the partners conducted qualitative questionings. Moreover, the development built on the outcomes of a comprehen-sive analysis of literature, media and resources in the project’s first phase. The courses make use of a blended learning concept that brings together elements of face-to-face courses and training with ICT-based elements, such as a media centre, alongside an interactive learning environment to support the implementation of the courses. The media centre provides a variety of resources and material such as videos, worksheets and presentations. These materials and resources support the learning process and aim to be of practical use for the work of career counsellors with the project’s indirect target group of refugees and migrants. The project’s web portal acts as a gateway and front-end for the media centre. Having developed the course and the media centre in the project’s second phase, the project’s third phase focused on the piloting and implementation of the courses in the partner countries. The CMinaR partnership: Experts in the field from key countries affected by the refugee influx The CMinaR project aimed to tackle the challenge of integrating refugees and migrants into the labour market by bringing together experienced partners from countries that are amongst the most affected by, and that play a key role for refugees’ integration – Germany, Italy, Sweden, Turkey and the United Kingdom. The majority of European states are aware that national solutions to individual challenges cannot be very effective. In this situation, CMinaR now presents a European-coordinated teaching concept for vocational counsellors that can help to tackle a core task of inte-grating refugees. It forms the base for qualifying career counsellors and future counsellors to re-flect a transnational, European perspective and meet the target groups’ needs.