ContextThe European Migration Forum (EMF) (26/27 January 2015, Brussels) confirmed the importance of consulting and involving civil society, migrants’ organisations as well as local and regional authorities in the design, implementation and evaluation of EU migration policies. Participants underlined the central role played by civil society in facilitating access to services and justice as well as the provision of information. In this regard, one of the policy recommendations was to involve civil society organisations and local authorities not only when implementing policies with regard to first reception, identification and referral of migrants arriving at the border but also when designing them. It was argued that cooperation between civil society organisations and authorities must be based on a clear understanding of their respective roles.Therefore, asylum operator as a profession clearly has much to offer in services for refugees. From a skill base that integrates intrapersonal and inter-personal helping with the practicalities of assisting people to negotiate their way around the social welfare system, asylum operators can respond to the complex needs of refugees within an understanding of the wider context of family, relationships and social institutions. The values of social work, acknowledging principles of both social justice and the dignity and worth of each individual person, likewise enable operators to focus on the importance of ensuring that responses to refugees are well considered and appropriate.Problems addressedHowever, in most EU countries (including QUASER Partner countries) there is not a formal recognition of the specific Asylum Seekers and Refugees (ASRs) operators’ skills and there are no specific registries/accredited boards or quality professional labels, although these operators’ capacities are largely contributing to the success of the protection system for asylum seekers and refugees and their skills are renowned at regional/national level. In most cases ASRs operators own specific university degrees – i.e. law, psychology, political sciences, socio-pedagogic, humanities – however their work relies on crosscutting skills and abilities which embrace the social field, the legal field, communication and psychology, covering a wide range of subjects and competences which can be hardly re-conducted to a unique professional framework and design a holistic approach which can be considered as the landmark of their profession. Project aim and objectivesThe project aims at enhancing the transparency and recognition of ASRs operators' qualifications to facilitate employability and labour mobility, and for improving the quality of services addressed to asylum seekers and refugees. In particular, the project proposes the development of a practical Toolkit and related Guidelines for facilitating the transparency, validation and recognition of the skills, competences and qualifications of individuals working with asylum seekers and refugees. In addition, for reaching the ultimate aim of the project, Partners will also design the qualification prototypes for the most relevant skills and competences needed in the centres for refugees and asylum seekers. Partnership:The project brings together 7 partners from 5 European countries, forming a transnational cooperation partnership with a balancedregional geographical representation of the Erasmus+ Area and with qualitative representation for Italy. Moreover, the project ishighly supported by the Ministry of Internal Affairs in Italy (please see attached the Letter of Support). Methodological approach and key outputs:Since the very beginning of the project partners will define the concrete methodological strategies and approaches for analysizing the work processes within centres for refugees and asylum seekers. The Consortium will design and launch the project official website. Then, Partners will develop the contents of the professional qualifications related to the work processes identified. The next step will be to develop a specific Toolkit that will facilitate ASRs operators to demonstrate their skills and competencies against the defined qualifications. These outputs will be validated during the project consultation and testing phase and will be finetuned at the end of the project, made available online, on the website. These results will be included in the final publication of the Project and will be further exploited with open licence.Impact and long term benefits:- increase the awareness regarding the concrete work processes and competence needed for guaranteeing quality services to ASRs;- enhance the employability of ASRs operators and the transparency of their qualifications, as well as their professional recognition in society;- set the basis for quality requirements regarding the services offered to ASRs;- support the actual implementation of national and European migration policies.
Nowadays, a great number of services and organisations for the protection of Asylum Seekers and Refugees (ASRs) are active in reception centres across Europe. The profession of “ASR operator” has much to offer in these services, not only providing help with the practicalities but also inclusive responses to the complex needs of ASRs. However, in most EU countries there are not any formal recognition of the ASR operators’ skills and competences and there are not any specific registries/accredited boards or quality professional labels, although their capacities are largely contributing to the success of the protection system for ASRs. With activities implemented in four EU countries, that is Italy, Greece, Spain and Sweden, QUASER aimed at providing a shared intervention model and the related tools to assure the transparency and recognition of the qualifications of ASR operators, to facilitate their employability and mobility and to improve the quality of services provided in reception centres. The QUASER project tackled these issues. The project partners at first identified the typical work processes implemented in reception centres asking directly to approximately 100 ASR operators about their work conditions, typical processes and activities. Then, they developed a full set of qualifications prototypes for the three main professional profiles which were identified in the four partner countries; these profiles are the ASR Reception Officer, the Professional and the Coordinator. The qualifications prototypes were designed embedding ECVET's approach and solutions, so to make them easily transferable to other sectors, or EU countries. Finally, the QUASER partners developed an integrated set of tools that facilitate the identification of ASR operators’ prior non-formal and informal learning and help speed up the matching process between existing knowledge, skills, competences (KSCs) and the original QUASER Professional Qualification Prototypes. Also, a specific training programme was designed to provide consistent learning resources to fill possible knowledge gaps. The entire set of results was validated in 20 pilot sites in the partner countries, involving 55 pilot users. Their feedback, together with the suggestions and inputs collected from other stakeholders involved in local as well as in transnational multiplier events, were used to fine-tune the results and draft the recommendations to support the further development of common qualifications for ASR operators. All project results are available on the website: http://www.quaser-asr.eu. The project was coordinated by the University of Rome "Tor Vergata" (I), with specific academic competence in desk and field research, action-research, about the topics of inclusive education, adult learning, distance learning (among others), and expertise in the coordination of transnational projects. The other beneficiaries were Finance & Banking, Associazione per lo Sviluppo Organizzativo e delle Risorse Umane (I), CITTALIA - Centro Europeo di Studi e Ricerche per i Comuni e le Città - Fondazione di Ricerche dell'ANCI (I), DIMITRA Education & Consulting S.A. (EL), Reception and Identification Service, Greek Ministry of Migration Policy (EL), Inercia Digital S.L. (ES), Folkuniversitetet Stiftelsen Kursverksamheten Vid Uppsalauniversitet (SE). With remarkable experiences in different fields, ranging from Quality assurance in training, to inclusive learning measures, to elearning, to networking at local level and and at international scale, these organisations were strongly committed to mobilise their complementary competences and know-how to achieve the planned results. In particular, QUASER generated a positive impact on reception centres and ASR operators in terms of: - Awareness: the ability to accurately assess one's potential and abilities and adapt them to changes in the context. At the end of the project, the beneficiaries succeeded in making their abilities transparent, linking them to the constantly evolving social and professional, regulatory and economic environment. - Improvement of working conditions: the self-assessment and self-positioning processes allowed operators to better manage, even by adapting them, the methods and the professional approaches, for the benefit of the ASRs in the reception facilities. - Enhancement of relationships: involved operators were able to expand their social capital and develop new opportunities for self-empowerment through the enhancement of the identified competences and the reports activated during the project. - Innovation: the involved operators were able to experiment different solutions with respect to their life and/or work path, trying to intercept new training or professional opportunities.