Skill mismatch can contribute to unemployment and may reduce productivity and competitiveness. It appears in various forms such as skill shortages or skill gaps, but also applies to situations where the qualifications, knowledge and skills of an individual exceed the requirements of their job. ‘Vertical’ mismatch, commonly referred to as over-education, occurs when an individual is employed in a job which requires a lower level of education. Migrant workers are more likely to experience over-qualification – where their level of education is higher than the job they are doing. With the worsening refugee and migrant crisis across Europe and linked negative media coverage we need to make sure as an EC community that we are making the most of migrants' skills and education and showing the benefits they bring.Erasmus+ guidelines (2016) have been updated to address issues around social cohesion and the integration of migrants. “Education and youth work are key to prevent violent radicalisation by promoting common European values, fostering social integration, enhancing intercultural understanding and a sense of belonging to a community.” Migrapreneurs will contribute to this priority by ensuring Europe is making the most of our highly skilled migrants in order to enhance social inclusion and enhance intercultural understanding. There is an entrepreneurial gap in Europe: 45%of Europeans would like to be self-employed, compared to 61% in the US. In order to promote entrepreneurship, all groups within society have to be involved. Migrants and people from ethnic minorities represent a considerable pool for entrepreneurship.The Entrepreneurship 2020 Action Plan proposes: • policy initiatives to facilitate entrepreneurship among migrants• to remove legal obstacles to business start-up -giving qualified immigrant entrepreneurs a stable permit. Target group:The group targeted in the project will be highly skilled migrants (HSM) (educated to university level) would-be entrepreneur migrants around Europe (mainly in countries who have been more affected by the refugee crisis) who might never have thought about starting up businesses or are in the early stages of thinking about starting up. We will aim to help them develop their skills by developing a bespoke training programme to develop Entrepreneurial Mindsets for Migrants which will focus on the development and reflection of soft skills required for business start up. Following this course, those participants who are seriously thinking of starting up a business will move onto a start-up/growth business course and those who are not ready yet will complete the programme with an Employability/Intrapreneurship unit to ensure they are more employable. Additional mentors/facilitators will be migrant entrepreneurs with relevant entrepreneurship experience who will support the trainers (partners) to run the sessions.Objectives:The overall objective of this project will be to better utilise the skills that highly skilled migrants bring into partner countries by fostering an entrepreneurial/intrapreneurial mindset for migrants. The difficulty of immigrants successfully integrating into society is becoming an ever-more pressing issue and needs to be addressed. This project will help to combat this problem by increasing migrant employment in skills-matched areas as well as increasing entrepreneurship amongst this group and helping migrants to create strong social networks. The project will do this by providing migrants with the necessary skills and knowledge to improve their chances of finding employment that matches their skills and experiences or start a business instead. The project will also connect participants with both business professionals and fellow immigrants via a networking platform which will contribute to a more cohesive society and lead to more active participation in the community.Outputs:O1: Research Reports (National and European) on training needs of highly skilled migrants to develop entrepreneurial mindsetsO2: A Training Programme - Entrepreneurial Journey for HSMO3: Training the Trainers materialsO4: Guide "Transferring your Skills into Self-Employment for HSMO5: Policy Guide - Developing Entrepreneurial and Intrapreneurial Mindsets: A Guide for Working with HSMO6: E Learning HubImpactMigrapreneurs will impact on HSM in the partner countries, providing them with training in developing entrepreneurial mindsets and further detailed training on business start-up and growth tailored to the migrant perspective. Those participants who decide self-employment is not for them will gain support in becoming more 'intrapreneurial' in order to try and combat their under-employment and support towards gaining employment that matches their skills/education. Impact on trainers will be that they will receive training in the new integrated methodology used for Migrapreneurs. Policymakers will be impacted upon via the policymakers guide.
Migrapreneurs is a consortium of 5 partners from the UK, France, Turkey & Spain, all committed to promoting entrepreneurship and employability skills and with a specific interest in supporting migrants in our communities and at a European level. Skills mismatch can contribute to unemployment and may reduce productivity and competitiveness. It appears in various forms such as skill shortages or gaps, but also applies to situations where the qualifications, knowledge and skills of an individual exceed the requirements of their job. ‘Vertical’ mismatch, commonly referred to as over-education, occurs when an individual is employed in a job, which requires a lower level of education. Migrant workers are more likely to experience over-qualification. With the worsening refugee and migrant crisis across Europe and linked negative media coverage, partners in Migrapreneurs came together in 2016 to begin work, which could contribute to overcoming this issue. The Migrapreneurs partnership believes that we, as an EC community, need to make sure that we make the most of migrants' skills and education and show the benefits they bring. Erasmus+ guidelines (2016) were updated to address issues around social cohesion and the integration of migrants. “Education and youth work are key to prevent violent radicalisation by promoting common European values, fostering social integration, enhancing intercultural understanding and a sense of belonging to a community.” Migrapreneurs aimed to contribute to this priority through the development of entrepreneurial and employability training and resources, which could help Europe to make the most of its highly skilled migrants and, as a result, enhance social inclusion and intercultural understanding. Migrants and people from ethnic minorities represent a considerable pool for entrepreneurship. The overall objective of Migrapreneurs was to better utilise the skills that highly skilled migrants bring into partner countries by fostering an entrepreneurial/intrapreneurial mindset within the target group. Through the project, we have provided an initial group of 152 migrants with the necessary skills and knowledge to improve their chances of finding employment that matches their skills and experiences or start a business instead. Through our other resources and sustainability work, we will continue to help that number grow. We have completed the following activities: 1/ Reports (National and European) on the training needs of highly skilled migrants to develop entrepreneurial mindsets 2/ Development of a Training Programme – “Entrepreneurial Journey for Highly Skilled Migrants”, including the delivery of the programme as pilots in the UK, France, Spain and Turkey with 152 participants. 3/ Development of a Training the Trainers Guide to accompany the “Entrepreneurial Journey for Highly Skilled Migrants” training programme 4/ Development of a guide entitled, "Transferring your Skills into Self-Employment: A Guide for Highly Skilled Migrants”. 5/ Development of a Policy Guide entitled, “Developing Entrepreneurial and Intrapreneurial Mindsets: A Guide for Working with Highly Skilled Migrants”. 6/ Development of an E-Learning Hub providing access to a wider range of resources developed by the project as well as links to wider sources of information and support. The project has been successful in working directly with the main target group of un/under-employed Highly Skilled Migrants (those with a degree level or above qualification), who have been supported through the project to develop their skills and knowledge in terms of entrepreneurship/employability. Migrapreneurs provided access to specifically tailored training for over 150 members of the target group, which has helped them to develop their skills and knowledge of entrepreneurship and employability skills through both soft and hard skills units that helped them to understand whether entrepreneurship was right for them and, if so, to develop a business plan. 91% of participants reported that they felt more confident in their entrepreneurial skills following the programme. 91% said they were either ‘very likely’ or ‘likely’ to develop their start-up because of the training. “The programme improved my negotiation, communication and problem-solving skills.” “The programme helped me be more creative and innovative.” “This program brought together an eclectic group of migrants and it was a real pleasure to see and experience the development of such diverse projects in addition to my own. Migrapreneurs taught me about business and diversity in a rich intercultural and fun way” All the materials and resources produced by the Migrapreneurs project (www.migrapreneurs.fr) are freely available online and will continue to be maintained after the project so both migrants themselves and those working to support them, can continue to access our tools and use them to help more individuals grow and develop.