One of the most significant changes in the last decade is the increasing proportion of women migrating; today they constitute half of the international migrant population. EU statistics shows that employment rate, education and skills level of migrant women is systematically lower than that of native-born women, they are at bigger risk of social exclusion. The following characteristics typical for this target group such as: gender, no EU origin, lack of the necessary language skills and other competences can become disadvantage factors in their lives. Moreover, many of them also come from cultures and generations where it is customary for women to stay at home, take care of household tasks and children. These women are practically »invisible« in economic, social, learning and other everyday activities within their local communities.EXPA project is aimed to at least 72 migrant women from vulnerable social group of migrants, aged between 20 and 64, with fewer opportunities but who have a desire to practice and learn handicraft, to improve their employment possibilities in the field of culture, training, social and care activities or (social)entrepreneurship and to meet people outside of the family circle. With our project we will give a sustainable answer to the needs of this specific target group. It will represent an effective tool for their integration in social and economic community life and will consequently contribute to achievement of objectives written in new EU 2020 Strategy and other EU documents. "from EXclusion to PArticipation" project partnership comprises 6 partners from 6 different EU member states: Italy, Iceland, France, Cyprus, Lithuania and Holland. Project partnership will allow the staff of heterogeneous organisations working with migrant women like NGO, learning centre, and organisation for adult learning across the EU to share good practice, discuss problems, explore the needs, obtain knowledge, develop and compare learning solutions for migrant women. Partnership involves institutions that complement each other in terms of capacities and expertise but also of common visions and strategies towards development of lifelong learning possibilities and inclusion of migrant women. Project includes partners from countries with different migrant women rates in Europe and then it will be very interesting to be able to compare the different methods and approaches used towards immigrant woman in different countries.At the beginning we will make a research in order to investigate the situation and needs of migrant women living in the 6 involved EU countries and also the strategies and tools developed in these countries to foster social and economic integration of this vulnerable target group. We will elaborate the innovative EXPA training model. It will be designed as set of capacitating workshops that will provide target group with basic and transversal skills, appropriate counselling and enable trainers to establish a innovative creative and intercultural learning environments with the use of contemporary informal methods to activate and improve their employability through handicraft and creativity. Developed innovative training model will be tested, evaluated and adapted during and after pilot actions. After pilot implementations partners will prepare EXPA handbook (e-book) as a guidelines for trainers (with transnational core and national particularities regarding the pilot actions) including detailed descriptions of modular curriculum, good practices, teaching materials, tools, training activities with step-by-step guidelines for preparation and implementation of learning activities for unemployed, low skilled and educated migrant women in the field of handicraft. It will empower professionals engaged in providing non-formal learning for migrant women to expand their creativity, motivate them, increase the quality of their work and to be better equipped in multicultural competencies.For our EXPA project we have planned to use Non-formal education, witch is also one of the pillar of Erasmus + programe. The non formal learning activities will take place on a voluntary basis and will be carefully planned, to foster personal development, social and professional, of participants. Partnership structure of EXPA project is created of a wide range of experienced partners which can ensure efficient sustainability of project outputs also after the completion of this project. Project was created with the aim to exchange and obtain new innovative learning practices and tools on transnational level that project partners will use within our work after the completion of the project and also new funding sources will be sought on both domestic and international field.
One of the most significant changes in the last decade is the increasing proportion of migrant women; today they constitute half of the international migrant population. EU statistics show that the employment rate, education and professional qualification level of migrant women is systematically lower than that of native women, and for this reason they are at greater risk of social exclusion. The following characteristics typical of this target group such as: gender, non-EU origin, lack of linguistic skills and other skills can become disadvantages in their lives. Moreover, many of them also come from cultures where it is customary for women to stay home, take care of household chores and children. These women are practically "invisible" in economic, social, learning and other daily activities within their local communities. The EXPA project - "from EXCLUSION to PArticipation" was aimed at migrant women, aged between 20 and 60, with fewer opportunities, but who wish to practice and further develop their craftsmanship skills, making them become real businesses by improving their possibilities for work and social integration. With the EXPA project we started training courses, offering the possibility to a large number of women to participate in the various cultural and social activities, starting also the pathways of entrepreneurship, meeting and discussing with people outside the straight family circle. To the women who took part in the training courses within our project we tried to give a sustainable and lasting answer to their needs and from the results obtained we can say that it will be an effective tool for their integration into the social and economic life of the host community . Six partners from 6 different EU Member States (Italy, Iceland, France, Cyprus, Lithuania and the Netherlands), different organizations (NGOs involved in the welcoming of migrants, training centers and adult learning organizations) have took part in the project activities and allowed their staff to share good practices, discuss problems, explore needs, acquire knowledge, develop and compare learning solutions for migrant women. The partnership involved institutions that complemented each other in terms of skills and competences, as well as common visions and strategies for the development of lifelong learning opportunities and greater inclusion of migrant women. The project included partners from countries with different percentages and social status of migrant women and so it was very interesting to be able to compare the different methods and approaches used for immigrant women in different countries. In the initial phase of the project we did an in-depth research investigating the situation and needs of migrant women living in the 6 countries involved, paying particular attention to the strategies and tools developed in these countries to foster the social and economic integration of this vulnerable group of recipients. By comparing the results we have developed the EXPA training model, which was conceived as a set of capacitive workshops to activate and improve the employability of migrant women through craftsmanship and creativity. The training model developed below was tested with a pilot training course and subsequently evaluated and adapted to the needs of our target group, planning new activities to promote the personal, social and professional development of the participants. The final result is a training model with which to our target group we can provide transversal and basic skills, appropriate counseling, allowing trainers to work in an intercultural learning environment using informal methods. After pilot implementations the partners prepared the material to be included in the EXPA manual (e-book) by creating guidelines for trainers, including detailed descriptions of good practices, teaching materials, tools and detailed training activities for the preparation and implementation of learning activities for unemployed, poorly qualified and educated migrant women in the craft sector. We believe that our handbook will enable professionals engaged in providing non-formal learning for migrant women to expand their creativity, motivate them and increase the quality of their work by being better equipped with multicultural skills and innovative learning tools at transnational level.