The inclusion of people from disadvantaged backgrounds and people with low skill levels is an important challenge in the implementation of European policies for growth, jobs and social inclusion. Combating rising levels of unemployment in adults and young people has become one of the most urgent tasks for European governments. Supporting and upskilling low- skilled people through the VET system can help to tackle these challenges and equip people with the skills required by the labour market and the economy. REPLAY-VET aims to provide the disadvantaged and low- skilled people with targeted opportunities to acquire the VET skills to cover these replacement vacancies. Our project will do this specifically through utilizing the many job opportunities in Europe resulting from replacement demand. Through prior identification of future vacancies tailored to real labour market needs, our project will provide enhanced VET opportunities for people furthest from employment, including an innovative new strategy to identify those low- skilled positions in critical sectors that will have the greatest impact in the future and best practice strategies aimed at strengthening the key competencies of low- skilled people.REPLAY-VET is designed to achieve cooperation for innovation through the exchange of research and development of new forecasting approaches on replacement demand and mixed methodological approaches and the development of innovative new tools and strategies in education and training (mainly VET) for upskilling low qualified people.The project is seeking to benefit its audience through both better practice and better policymaking. Consequently we are seeking to influence a number of target groups besides the ultimate beneficiaries who are the low employability groups. The project will actively involve policymakers in the VET system and active employment policies. Other important participants will be observatories and labour market analysts who work across the EU seeking to both forecast what skills are needed and where, and to inform policymakers of their results.The main project’s activities are designed around the needs of the 5 intellectual outputs and 2 multiplier events:• Compendium of country reports on job replacement forecasts • Sectorial report on skills prospects • Aligning future replacement positions with opportunities to low- skilled people • “Occupational Kit” for upskilling low- skilled people • EU Strategy and guidelines for upskilling low- skilled people to cover future replacement positions • Open workshop for alignment of future replacement positions with opportunities for low- skilled people • Open workshop for the presentation of the Occupational Toolkit and the EU strategy and guidelinesThe participating organizations will benefit both from problem-solving research into quantitative and qualitative labour market replacement demand and from the settings from the outputs of the project itself which VET planners and other stakeholders could draw on to set proper strategies. If successful, our project will enable better matching of skills demand and skills supply by upgrading professional skills of those with low qualifications and will enable VET strategies to take advantages of the opportunities to be more closely aligned to the predicted and forecasted replacement needs of the labour markets. The project is also looking for a short-term impact that would also help the community of labour market observatories and analysts across Europe to be empowered to advise and support decision making process on VET and active employment and social policies to take advantages of the labour market gaps and future opportunities. We seek to impact directly upon vocational trainings systems at national/ regional levels. It is they that will be the beneficiaries of the new strategy to identify those low- skilled positions in critical sectors that will have the greatest impact in the future and best practice strategies gathered in the Occupational Kit aimed at strengthening the key competencies of low- skilled people. Policymakers at the regional and national levels will benefit directly from different outputs of the research: country reports on job replacement forecasts and research about the employment and labour conditions of the low- skilled people in their region/ country, occupational kit, national strategy and career guidelines.REPLAY-VET promotes a structured inter-regional and cross-border cooperation enhancing the commitment of local and regional public authorities with the participation of public bodies active in the labour market as well as knowledge organisations active in innovative practices.The issue of labour market integration of low- skilled people and the challenge to cover future replacement demand is a Europe-wide issue. Therefore, a transnational perspective for a research and implementation project is proposed.
REPLAY-VET was specifically conceived to strengthen key competences in VET curricula and provide more effective opportunities for the low- skilled or low educated people in order for them to acquire or develop those skills through VET. REPLAY-VET responds to Europe’s pressing need to tackle replacement demand caused by new technologies, an ageing workforce and a persistently low level of skilled workers affecting many economic sectors. In Europe, there remains a large volume of population with low skills for whom there will not be employment opportunities. The project used a network of expert labour market analysts to explore what new policy and practices will need to exist if Europe is to tackle replacement demand priority new and in the future. The project focused on groups with low skill/qualification levels, those economically inactive and often outside of the employment (e.g. workers, long-term unemployed, young people, migrants, etc.). The work resulted in a series of workshops and stakeholders’ exchange events (with involvement of Employment and Training and other Social Policy-Makers, Education and Training Providers, Career Guidance Professionals, Employers, Public Authorities and Agencies, Workers and Trade Unions) and written output such as national and sectoral reports, ‘How To’ guides and a toolkit. At the end of 2015, there were 43,802,200 low- skilled people (Eurostat). REPLAY-VET tries to enhance the access, participation and performance of these disadvantaged learners and facilitate their transitions between different levels and types of education and training; from education/training to the world of work; and/or from one employment to another. The outputs of REPLAY-VET contributed to these issues by: - highlighting lessons for across the EU based on the REPLAY project’s findings in different national/regional contexts; -recognising the critical importance of reinforcing links between education, training with the changing world of work, in promoting effective labour market policies, such as the inclusion of low skilled and other people from disadvantaged backgrounds; -presenting recommendations highlighting opportunities and constraints related to professional training and qualification of low-skilled groups in a cross section of employment sectors: construction, early learning and care, home care, logistics, manufacturing, metallurgy. The project delivered innovative policies and practices that all regions can learn from: • The occupational toolkit (www.replayvet.eu) designed to provide VET providers, employment services and policy makers with how-to-guides and best practice examples responding to needs and challenges regarding the employment and training opportunities of the low-skilled people. The kit gives access to inspiring solutions structured by key themes and the users will find the keys for successfully training low-skilled people to prepare them for the job vacancies that are arising as people leave work in an aging society. • The European Strategy highlights lessons and recommendations on improving the current and future labour market participation of low-skilled groups of workers across the EU. These include: reducing barriers to vocational training; improving the attractiveness of jobs, careers and labour conditions associated with the sectors in which low-skilled/low-qualified people work; and advancing professionalisation in these sectors. REPLAY-VET, through its 3 outputs and 2 multiplier events, contributed as well to enhance access to training and qualifications for all through VET, in a life-long learning perspective, notably by increasing the accessibility of C-VET for low- skilled workers and providing efficient and integrated guidance services for low- skilled people. Thanks to REPLAY-VET, a significant step in the right direction has been taken to improve the employability of low skilled and at risk of exclusion to be active agents in the labour market, increase their social cohesion and achieve a society with less inequalities. The partners of the REPLAY-VET project, 8 entities from 6 different countries: Prospektiker (ES), University of Exeter (UK), IWAK (DE), CRISP- University of Milano Bicocca (IT), Narodní Vzdělávací Fond (CZ), University of Stirling (UK), CEREQ (FR) and Lanbide (ES), have promoted through the development of the project, a structured inter-regional and cross-border cooperation enhancing the commitment of local and regional public authorities through the participation of public bodies active in the labour market as well as knowledge organisations active in innovative practices.