A recent study (2013) conducted by the Trendence Institute in Berlin points out that more than half of European graduates are worried about their careers, a rate that rises to more than 80% in Greece, Italy, Portugal and Spain. The McKinsey report “Education to Employment: Getting Europe’s Youth into Work” (2013) highlights that in Europe, 74% of education providers were confident that their graduates were prepared for work, but only 38% of youth and 35% of employers agreed. In fact, until recently, universities have not dedicated a lot of resources and attention to career services, in part because of an easier employability, due to a stronger market conditions, and since the accountability of institutions is much more related to the training for the workplace, than to the post-graduation phase. The lack of understanding and dialogue between key players (education, young people, and enterprises) lead to another figure which is very relevant: again according to the McKinsey survey, the 27% of employers reported that they have left a vacancy open in the past year because they couldn’t find anyone with the right skills. This means, that even when the jobs are available, young people often are not suitable for open positions. The link between Education and the labour market should be addressed, and career services can play a major role in improving transition between education and labour market: a preliminary analysis on the topic highlighted common problems, such as:• Students are not enough prepared in understanding the competences needed to play professional roles: they often have information about the specific competences required, but they have not the awareness about how the role of the professional is carried out (i.e. soft skills);• Students are not familiar with the world of work, so that they have not clear in mind what mean in facts working settings and environments;• Students often lack of self-awareness with respect to their own skills, particularly in relation to professional career they wish to undertake.The need of dialogue between Education and enterprises is therefore not related only to placement: placement is a consequence of candidates suitable to job vacancies, rather than a simple matching between degrees and job posts. Career offices have worked since years to foster mobility through internship and traineeships, in order to enhance dialogue between academia and enterprises to one side, and to foster self-awareness and development of soft-skills and transversal competences in students to the other side. Within this process, sustainability should be also taken into consideration: students should be equipped with self-reflection and self-assessment skills, they should therefore acquire career development skills; however they should also be offered with opportunities to understand professions, and which competences professional roles imply in real contexts. This mean that students should have the opportunity to talk with enterprises before interviews for internship, or work.The V-TOURS project is aimed at increasing and improving opportunities of dialogue between university students and enterprises, by creating a virtual place where access•Online course focused on business culture and work ethics, by addressing e.g. Research and innovation, Integrated Quality (Quality - Environment - Safety), Corporate social responsibility, Company organization, Roles , tasks and competences within the company, Strategic transversal competences etc.;• Opportunities to participate virtual tours in the companies, as online events where the company managers will present organisation and processes of their organisation, being available to answer questions in real time (this will be organised for small groups of students, who had already benefitted from online resources available for the company), and the recording of previous tours;• Self-reflection and self-assessment exercises for the students, in relation to professional profiles addressed by the interviews carried out during the virtual tours, and to business culture and work ethics.The V-TOURS platform will made available a relevant set of learning opportunities fostering understanding of work environments; promoting acquisition of career development skills; improving employability of students; facilitating mobility, as all developed resources will be translated in English (including translation of videos); supporting employer branding from an enterprise point of view.
At present, most European universities offer their students vocational guidance and placement services, albeit with different provisions: the European scenario is indeed quite diverse in this regard, also depending on the degree of integration of entrepreneurship training. Therefore, if some universities offer career development programs beginning in the first year of university career, others offer only basic information and advice to enter the world of work at the end of their university career. In summary, significant problems remain for students, who: • They are not sufficiently prepared to understand the skills necessary to perform professional roles: they often have information on the specific skills required, but they are not aware of how the role of the professional (ie transversal skills) is carried out; • They are not familiar with the world of work, so they do not have clear in mind what the settings and work environments actually mean; • Often they lack self-awareness of their abilities, particularly in relation to the professional career they wish to undertake. The need for dialogue between education and businesses is therefore not only linked to placement: placement is a consequence of suitable candidates for job vacancies, rather than a simple combination of degrees and jobs. Career services have worked for years in promoting mobility through internships and traineeships, in order to improve the dialogue between universities and companies on the one hand and promote self-awareness and the development of transversal skills and transversal competences in the students on the other side. Sustainability should also be taken into account in this process: students should be equipped with self-reflection tools and self-assessment skills, should therefore acquire skills for professional development; however, they should also be offered opportunities to understand the professions and what skills the professional roles imply in real contexts. This means that students should have the opportunity to speak with companies before interviews for the internship or work. The project consortium consists of 4 Universities: University of Padua (IT, project leader), Universidad Internacional de La Rioja (ES), Bachelor of Applied Sciences (FI), Ss. Cyril University and Methodius of Skopje (MK), as well as three partners specialized in the transition to the world of work: Fundación Universidad-Empresa (ES), Cramars (IT), and Anthea Consulting (IT). The V-TOURS project has increased and improved opportunities for dialogue between university students and businesses, creating a virtual place to access: • Online course focused on corporate culture and work ethics, addressing Research and innovation, Integrated quality (Quality - Environment - Safety), Corporate social responsibility, Corporate organization, Roles, tasks and competences within the company, Strategic transversal skills, etc. • Opportunities to participate in virtual tours in companies, such as online events in which company managers presented their business and organizational processes, and answered questions in real time; • Self-reflection exercises and self-assessment for students, in relation to the professional profiles faced by the interviews conducted during the virtual tours, the corporate culture and the work ethic. Based on the experience of 204 beta-testers and students involved in piloting, the entire course requires 125 to 135 hours of study. The V-TOURS platform provides a significant range of learning opportunities that promote the understanding of the workplace; promote the acquisition of professional development skills; improve student employability; facilitate mobility. The partner universities of the consortium will adopt the online course and related methods in their own learning offer already during the academic year 2018-2019, both as part of a degree course both as a complementary autonomous program offered, for example, by their career service. The course will be offered, at least, in English and in the partner's local language. It is also possible to update the platform with new content (video interviews, other educational resources, registration of virtual visits, etc.). The V-Tours platform is open and is available to other universities and companies that want to take advantage of this innovative tool.