Live2Work is a strategic partnership in the field of adult education devoted to addressing the problems regarding a foreseen return to job growth across Europe over the coming years due to improvement in the economic outlook, coupled with a slightly growing and aging population of the EU, the current status of refugees entering the EU, and the significant challenges that this poses for the economy and welfare system of EU countries. The consortium consists of 8 partners from different, but relevant sectors, from Denmark, Portugal and Czech Republic. The consortium is made up of partners from NGOs active in the areas of integration, inclusion and social work, companies involved in integration, materials and content developers, Interactive and Moodle platform developers, teaching and training of unemployed and refugees in job centres and adult education institutions, experts in work related psychology, and teaching/training organisations.The aim of the project is to make use of the most efficient methods to replace retiring workers, and soon to be available but currently outside of employment as well as benefiting from the influx of young adult refugees and families in a pending demographic crisis. We wish to create a method of ensuring sustainable methodologies for successful training of low skilled young adults in the age group 18-30, to ensure they successfully enter and stay in jobs, and integrating these people into society by ensuring a good match between labour market needs and the skills available in the person in question rather than solely focusing on getting people into work. The method will function as an addition to development of work related skills, complementing the efforts of job centres and adult training institutions. Our focus is on helping to develop the informal and non-formal skills of unemployed young adults who, including refugees, for different reasons, are excluded from the job market. The problem for these groups of people is, that when they eventually do enter the work force, they find themselves unemployed shortly after, due to not being able to match the needs of the company. In order to best meet this improvement in opportunities, we need to ensure that the available workforce, especially in the group of unemployed young adults and refugees, are also able to join the workforce, being prepared in the best possible way for the work place of the 21st century, in order to be retained. If the true goal of the training is to find a relationship between the development of skills and the integration in the labour market, the training should not be limited to the development of specific skills enabling and empowering the transferable skills. The project will offer real life courses in the use of the methodology, as well as open on-line courses for individuals all over Europe. With this project and the results that we will produce, we wish to develop the soft skills needed to be able to fit in, in a European workforce of the 21st century and create tools for teachers, trainers and social workers, involved in training these groups to successfully enter the job market. The project will develop materials and methods, including a guide and toolbox for trainers and social workers for the development of soft skills, to aid the unemployed and refugees through the process of change, and help them deal with and find a way trough the transition phases. This includes research based methodologies for positive psychology, development and adaptation of resources for building character strength, self efficacy, creative thinking and problem solving as a supplement to efforts to develop professional skills in adult education, job centers, and vocational centres in the three countries. During the project, the consortium will run pilot workshops, and events, where teachers/trainers/social workers are invited to participate, and make use of our materials in their own praxis. A final conference will take place, where professionals from these fields will be invited, along with policy makers and other interested parties. All project results will be made available free of charge and open source on the project website and offered as free on-line courses on our Moodle platform.
A report from the European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training in 2012 foresees that there will be a return to job growth across Europe over the coming years due to improvement in the economic outlook. Furthermore, with a slightly growing population of the EU going from 510 to 517 million in 2060, the population of Europe will also be older. This ageing of the population poses challenges for the economy and welfare system of EU countries. The decline in the workforce will affect growth and per capita income, with a resulting decline in potential growth. It is important to find ways for young adults to replace retiring workers. One of these ways would be to make use of the unemployed. EU states can also benefit from the influx of young refugees in a pending demographic crisis. According to data compiled by Eurostat, 81% of the 689,000 people who had formally applied for asylum in EU countries 2015 were younger than 35; more than half (55%) were aged 18 to 34. Policies tackling unemployment and integration have mostly focused on getting adults into work rather than ensuring a good match between labour market needs and the skills available. This disparity causes problems, not only does it place the individual in position of not being able to meet the requirements of the company, the company does not acquire the work force needed. Reaching employment objectives is important, as we need to create a Europe that makes full use of the skills of its citizens, new and existing. According to “Tackling unemployment while addressing skill mismatch” CEDEFOP 2015, whether we take a look at it from a preventive view or a curative way directly on the unemployed, already in a situation of exclusion in the labour market. Our focus is on looking at unemployed young adults who, for different reasons, are excluded from the job market, including refugees. The problem for these groups is, that when they eventually do enter the work force, they find themselves unemployed shortly after, due to not being able to match the company needs. In order to improve opportunities, we need to ensure that the adult, especially in the group of unemployed young adults and refugees aged 18-30, join the workforce while being prepared in the best possible way for the work place of the 21st century. If the true goal of the training is to find a relationship between the development of skills and the integration in the labour market, it should not be limited to the development of specific skills and enabling and empowering the transferable skills. With this project, we wish to focus on the development of soft skills needed to fit in, in a European workforce of the 21st century and create tools for teachers, trainers and social workers, involved in training these groups to enter the job market. This project aims to adapt/reinvent facility tools for teachers, trainers in order to increase the possibilities for the target group currently unemployed young adults, migrants and refugees between the ages of 18 and 30, approaching adult educational and career guidance, enhancing the formal and non-formal education and training. The integration of guidance tools will help adults to identify and transfer competencies developed in lifelong learning process (especially non-formal), developing and building up social skills and self-esteem. The real social integration of vulnerable social groups, long term unemployed low skilled adults, migrant and refugees, will benefit from education/guidance processes that will help them in an acculturation process/socialization by transferring skills in the labour market integration. The project goals include the development of e-learning platform allowing even the monitoring of pedagogical and technological innovation in the fields of training and education. This platform intends to innovate the way resources will be disseminated and shared between EU stakeholders. This will contribute to the active use of innovative materials and pedagogical strategies, creating educational resources and promoting the intervention with unemployed low skilled adults, and in particular disadvantaged in access to the labour market. This process will also contribute to the strengthening of communication networks between different actors in the area of training/vocational integration, supporting their capacity for action and continuous improvement, increasing motivation and satisfaction in daily work and opportunities for professional development. The consortium integrates 8 partners with different qualities and backgrounds including academic institutions and field actors that developed direct intervention with the target groups and end users. The L2W project allows them to complement each other, to a much higher degree, than if they were working alone. The different areas, experiences and cultural approaches to the same problems will assure the scientific/theoretical and empirical relevance of the results and solutions obtained.