Over the last decades, migration flows increased in most EU Member States. Migrants from third countries account for around four percent of the total EU population, according to the European Commission. Europe is confronted with an ageing population and a shrinking workforce – which will lead to labour and skills shortages that will challenge economic growth prospects. Consequently countries that make the best use of their migrant population have the best prospects to develop.Many migrants arrive in Europe from third countries or travel from country to country within Europe with complete, partial or initial levels of Vocational Education Training including professionals and trades people often with skills in demand in the host country. The final goal of this project is to train the trainiers (VETPROS) of migrants. We will develop a series of online educational material and mobile technology apps aimed at empowering Migrants to make best use of their previous knowledge, skills and competences and thus more quickly move into the job market or C-VET of their hosting country.Once known for large-scale emigration both Italy and Greece are now countries of destination or transit for hundreds of thousands of immigrants from third countries. Central and Eastern European immigrants are also at the forefront of migration. The challenge of managing the migration phenomenon in all its aspects is a key priority for European society in which citizens have equal rights and opportunities in health, employment, personal growth and development and unhindered access to public goods and services with a view to ensuring social cohesion, social inclusion, multicultural coexistence and economic development of the country of residence and from outside. The project MiGreat! builds upon the experience of partners from Italy , Greece, Sweden, Austria and the UK. The Swedish learning methododoly "Cicero" will be used as a starting point. It has proven to be successful in introducing immigrants and refugees into the labour market by helping them qualify in skills necessary to enter the. The aim is to make this immersive method available free of charge for formal and informal learning via an app with associated eLearning and training for VETPROS.Outcomes include:1. A self-help App focusing on introducing real work situations, skills and dialogues. Particular focus on areas of immediate employment for immigrants and refugees, upon ‘coaching principles’ and social networking where users are set a series of practical challenges and activities relating to continued vocational training or education (CVET) in a new country. 2. An OER eLearning platform for training VETPROS based upon a scenario based method, on integration and demands of working life on such subjects; Employers perspectives, analysing their own skills, job interviews, social and cultural skills and self-motivation. Focus entering CVET and on employment in Health, Construction, Textiles, Agriculture Care work and Services3. A set of 11 modules to be used by VETROS training immigrants on subjects such as; Labour market, employment laws, discrimination, social partners, salaries/taxes/pensions, finding work, writing CVs, starting your own business, networking and lifelong learning via CVET and APL.4. A training course (based on ECVET principles) for VETPROS on how to use the created outputs in training of migrants for a faster inclusion in the labour market.
The "MiGreat! Supporting Migrants into CVET" aims at developing training methodologies and tools to support training actions and employment opportunities for migrants in partner countries. More and more, Europe is confronted with an ageing population and a shrinking workforce – which will lead to labour and skills shortages that will challenge economic growth prospects. Consequently countries that make the best use of their migrant population have the best prospects to develop. Many migrants which arrive in Europe are to be considered a resource for development and therefore the receiveing countries should possess tools to recognize their competences and integrate them in the labour market as quickly as possible. The partners from Italy, Sweden, UK, Greece, Austria and Switzerland wanted to improve the abilities of VET professionals' working with migrants. The partnership is composed of training organizations, an e-learning company and NGOs expert in the field of migrant inclusion in the labour market and in CVET. The Migreat! project is addressed to migrants and refugees, together with trainers and operators engaged in inclusion and training of migrants in the labour market and conitnuous training practices. In Output 1 the partners have defined the needs needs of job agencies, migrant organisations and training providers in assessing the needs of Migrants and Refugees for CVET (Continuous vocational education and training) and APL (Accreditation of Prior Learning). The report describes the national systems in use for continuous training and accreditation of prior learning in the different partner countries. This has been the basis for the development of the Migreat! app, available also on google store (Output 2) and an online platform containing open educational resources (OER): http://migreat-oer.eu The OER platform contains 11 training modules in English and all partner languages (Output 3 and 4) dealing with: Labour Market, Employment Laws, Expertise, Working in Sweden / Italy / Greece / UK / Austria, The Social Partners, What do you get in Salary?, Finding Jobs, Starting your own Business, Networking, Lifelong Learning, How to use the Migreat! app A methodological handbook and a training course plan, based on ECVET principles (Output 5) has been created for trainers. The handbook describes how to use the Migreat! tools for a better inclusion of migrants in the labour market. Partners have prepared 7 presentations to be used by trainers working with migrants. The themes covered by the presentations are: Introduction to lifelong learning, Competence analysis, The recruitment process from the employer’s perspective, Soft skills, Body language & presenting a positive image, Motivation, and Applying for a job and going for an interview . All material has been tested and validated through a continuous improvement process during which 339 people (migrants and trainers) have given their feedback. This evaluation activity was planned in three phases (alpha testing, beta testing and fine tuning). At the end of each testing phase partners analysed the feedback results and applied the requested improvements of the material. The evaluation was also supported by the organisation of multiplier events; each partner organised 2 multiplier events in their countries to evaluate the created material and to disseminate the results as much as possible. A facebook page is available facebook https://www.facebook.com/MiGreat-779362798906856/ to share experiences and information on the topic. All Migreat! results and outputs are available at the project website: www.mi-great.eu