With the INTENSE project, the consortium aims at improving the employment situation of "disconnected" young people who are currently not addressed by initiatives such as the "Youth Guarantee". The addressees of the INTENSE project belong to a kind of sub-group of so called NEETS – those are educationally disadvantaged with psychosocial, psychological, multifactorial problems, problematic life styles and disabilities. Relevant studies, e.g. Eurofound 2015, identify a europe-wide need of this target group to be addressed. They also include the call for the development of holistic approaches in order to achieve sustainability. The above mentioned need provides the stimulus for the consortium to develop (1st part of the project) and test (2nd part of the project) a client-centered educational concept.In essence, the development takes the following 3 dimensions into account:1st dimension - Compensation. The compensatory aspect concerns the assignment of a Transition Coach who works systemically and enables the clients to recognize their own educational needs, to ask for the coach's support on their own initiative, to develop their own goals and work on the achievement of the latter in an independent manner. With this target in mind, a principle will be drawn up that synchronously adapts the type of support to the process of change and development of the client. The core concept of this approach is the Transition Management, which does not only focus on the transition from school to work (frequently the key aspect in employment-centered initiatives), but also takes account of each progress in their development that reduces the distance to the labour market and results in the development of indicators of employability.2nd dimension - prevention. The studies which identified the need of an holistic approach, define the requirement of national support systems to act in a preventive manner in order to produce as few NEETs as possible and, if applicable, start the holistic approach at an early stage. In order to fulfil the requirement of prevention in connection with this project, we will involve relevant stakeholders in the development phase from the very beginning and built a constructive collaboration with them during testing phase.3rd dimension - Structure and Cooperation. The issue going hand in hand with the points mentioned above is the explanation of structural aspects with regards to the success of integrated approaches. In doing so, we focus on formal and legislative structures of national support systems in Europe and on the absolute requirement of cross-sectoral cooperation. By involving the stakeholders at an early stage and throughout the entire project, a solid basis for achieving cross-sectoral cooperation is created.All 3 dimensions and the strategies and measures developed from them will be incorporated in a short-term joint staff training event. The trainer course will be realized 3 times during the project duration and is mainly intended for professionals from the stakeholders network of the partners. The course will provide the skills especially decisive for the success of the implementation phase.The participation of the University of Malaga will ensure the evaluation of the project development (1st part of the project) and implementation (2nd part of the project) using modern, scientific methods. For this purpose, the university will apply the Stufflebeam Model during the development phase and evaluates the implementation phase according to effectiveness and efficiency by appliyng the Contribution Analysis (Mayne 2008).The objective is that - with its execution - INTENSE can provide a validated best practice that sustainably helps participating clients to advance according to their individual potential regarding their employability. Furthermore, in its implementation phase INTENSE can promote solution-oriented prevention and cooperation by means of transnational networking and provide results.Thanks to involving the stakeholders in the development phase and especially in the test phase, we further expect that the professional approach of the project consortium will establish a process that influences existing educational structures with regard to preventive work and structural cooperation in a solution-oriented way.All results, including those of the trainer course (virtual learning content), will remain available beyond the end of the project. In addition, all partners will be available for a solution-oriented, transnational dialogue even after the term of the project.
The INTENSE project stands for an approach to improving the employment situation of "disconnected" young people, which cannot currently be achieved through employment-centred initiatives. By "disconnected youth" is meant a subgroup of so-called NEETs - low-educated youth with psychosocial, psychic, multifactorial problems and problematic lifestyles. Relevant studies identified a Europe-wide need for this target group, highlighting the need to develop holistic approaches to sustainability. This need provided the basis for the project consortium to develop and implement a client-centred approach. The consortium consisted of 7 partners with a project management office specializing in educational projects - Eskwadraat NL, vocational education and training Institutions - dts Pärnu (EST) and SBH Südost GmbH (GER), vocational school Izmir (TR), a school organisation specialised in projects for young people with a low educational background - De Spinaker (NL), a partner specialised in development of professionals LCEducational Ltd. (CY) and the University of Málaga (ESP) for the scientific monitoring and development of an evaluation approach that can be applied during the implementation phase. The objective was to develop solutions for educational staff considering the following aspects. 1st compensation. This aspect aims at the systemic coaching, which enables the clients to recognize their own need for support, to inquire independently of the support of the coach, to develop their own goals and to work on them. The central idea is transition management, which not only focuses on the transition from school to work, but also takes into account every development step that shortens the gap to the job market and establishes self-confidence and relevance to life. For this purpose, a variety of training methods and tools as well as a comprehensive and proven Train the Trainer concept were combined in one platform. The focus is on methods of conversation and coaching approaches that have their origins in humanistic psychology. 2. Prevention. The studies that identified the need also formulated a request for national assistance systems to take preventive action in order to produce as few NEETs as possible and, if necessary, to start the holistic approach at an early stage. In order to meet the requirement of prevention in the project context, we included relevant stakeholders in the development and implementation right from the start, as well as developed guidelines and training content. 3. Structure and cooperation. The point accompanying the above is to explain structural aspects regarding the success of integral approaches. In doing so, we focused on the formal and legislative structures of national assistance systems in Europe and the unconditional requirement of cross-sectoral cooperation. This aspect was considered with the development of an evaluation approach. Main activities Development of a comprehensive eLearning platform in all partner languages (EE, ENG, ESP, GER, GRE, NL) with theoretical explanations, explanatory videos, methodical descriptions, exercises, curricula including factual-temporal structure and workshop descriptions, guides, evaluation reports incl. technical appendices and a project charter. All content is freely accessible on the platform, provided with OER standard and available as SCORM. All three main aspects were included in a course for "Transition Coaches", which was implemented during the project duration in 3 rounds. The methods and approaches learned by the coaches served as the basis for the implementation and evaluation . Achieved effects The evaluation approach proved that the key issues - coaching and interviewing based on methods of humanistic psychology, the approach "change the mindset", "transition management", stakeholder involvement and effectiveness verification during implementation already provided concrete solutions to existing contexts. In addition, partnerships and specific follow-up projects have developed on a regional basis in the partners' network. All partners use the developed content to qualify their own educational specialists. The long-term benefit is that third parties in the present platform can find an integral approach to trigger changes in coach-client relationship, organizational structure, and action in regional and country wide networks with the aim of achieving equality of opportunity for those who are deprived of their education. Furthermore, there is the possibility to expand the approach, because no conclusive statements are possible in methodological terms. Central figure is always the transition coach.