The ‘Europe 2020’ strategy sets ambitious goals which aim to promote intellectual, inclusive and sustainable growth throughout the European continent. One of the reasons for which these objectives risk not being accomplished is the elevated rate of youth unemployment in many European countries. In order to fully harness the potential of these young individuals the ‘Europe 2020’ goals must be sought after and met. It is essential we guarantee a quality formation and instruction process, including enhanced mobility throughout the Union and an efficient integration of the world of education into the job market. Often times, this integration process ignores those youth whom have low basic skills or low levels of qualification. market. The target audience of our project consists of young Europeans between 18 and 29 years of age who lack basic competencies , this situation is mainly caused by social, economic, geographical obstacles, this may include individuals that follow formational processes or who belong to the NEET category. It is more complicated for this targeted group to develop abroad mobility paths which improve their basic and transversal skills. Our target audience instead, have quite a bit of difficulty in developing their own projects abroad or finding a job in another member state of the EU hence, significantly limiting their mobility. The aim of our proposal is that of encouraging and sponsoring mobility projects for NEET and youth with low qualifications in order to identify what their key skills are and empower them in that sector keeping in mind territorial improvements which their formation impacts. The individuals which will activate these mobility projects will be hence, the harbingers of both a personal as well as local business transformation. For this reason the project mainly involves small businesses which are linked to local development and strongly influenced by the socio-economic history of the region. The productive sectors are those of artistic or traditional handicraft, cultural, agriculture and fishing as well as social services. Develop a new type of mobility path and work experience for the target group that provides them the development and acquisition of the 8 key skills sought and the methodologies of these skills in a formative pamphlet and ‘Euro pass Mobility’. Our first objective is to overcome the difficulties by creating a network of companies and training agencies at European level that develops and share models of work experiences and mobilities, specifically designed for the target group. The focus on core competencies combined with the life skill is justified by the fact that both are abilities that lead to positive behaviors, encouraging the adaptation to various situations and enabling people to deal effectively with the demands and challenges of everyday life. The Life Skills instead make the person capable of transforming the knowledge, attitudes and values in real capabilities, able to know what to do and how to do it. The project works on three key areas for employment and social integration. PLANNED ACTIONS are: 1. Research of formation entities and businesses on the national level as long as they abide by the European network of businesses that can host individuals with low level qualifications and formation agencies that are able to organize and support the different stages. 2. Develop a platform that gestates this network 3. Setting up events in different partner organizations throughout Europe to introduce the network and the cultural platform. 4. Conduct an encounter at the national level of with the young participants , the agencies and those responsible for the formation training in order to collectively understand how to organize and improve the internships. 5. Short-term joint staff training events for tutors and individuals responsible for the formation aspect of the project . 6. Blended mobility of young people of each country to try out the methodologies and evaluate them. The project involves 17 partners from 7 different countries, with expertise in the field of education, social inclusion and employment of young people and relationships with businesses and the local organizations.
In relation to the Europe 2020 strategy, the project addresses the themes of social inclusion, employability, the active participation of young people in the civil society, training and youth work. In particular, in relation to the seven flagship initiatives for the European contribution to the Europe 2020 strategy that aims to stimulate progress in terms of growth and employment, our project is based on the second flagship initiative “youth on the move”. The target of our project is made up of young people who lack of basic competences due to social, economic and geographical barriers. Hence, the target may include young individuals involved in training or young Neets. Developing mobility paths abroad and improving basic and transversal competences is particularly difficult for this specific target. The project had multiple objectives. First of all the project tried to develop the 8 key competences in the emotional, cognitive and social field among young low-skilled Neets while ensuring an intellectual, inclusive and sustainable growth. Moreover, one of the main objectives was to promote the mobility of young people aboard in order to increase their employability, allow them to have the same possibilities as the other young people, reduce the social gap between the different groups, acquire the fundamental international and intercultural vision for the development of life skills and guarantee the validity and the quality of these people’s employability. The project involved 15 partners belonging to 6 different countries with expertise in the fields of education, social inclusion, youth employment and in the relations with local businesses and organizations. Under a quantitative point of view, more than the 882 originally planned participants were involved. The main activities that were implemented are: -the creation of a network: contact and research of training entities, companies at the national level and training agencies able to organize and support the various steps -the development of a platform in order to manage the network and create a link between young people, social entities and businesses. -the organization of 14 multiplier events in the 6 countries involved in order to present the 2 IOs. -in the framework of the second IO, 11 creative meetings took place with the participation of young people and training managers in order to understand how to organize the mobility for the project target; creation of the content of the guide -the organization of 5 days of training on the content of the guide dedicated to youth workers and to those responsible of the aspects related to the training. -the organization of the mobility of 16 young people in order to put the methodologies into practice. The initially planned results were achieved. Under a qualitative point of view, we have created a working group and we have established a dynamic of exchanges between social entities and economic organizations in order to organize and plan mobility projects dedicated to low-skilled young people, thanks to European and national funds. The young people who participated in the mobility developed their life skills and triggered a mechanism of innovation and qualification that is reflected in the territory of origin. Finally, there has been a professional development of those who work or are active in the fields of education, training and youth through the training period that took place on the basis of the guide established within the project. The feedback that we received through the analysis of the resource sheets provided by the guide was very positive. The impact generated was both short and long-term. In relation to the short-term impact, the most important effect was the one on young people and on youth workers who participated in the mobility and in the training. For the social entities, being able to get in touch with other European organizations and to get to know other businesses willing to welcome a young NEET was fundamental. As far as the long-term is concerned, the impact mainly concerned the creation of a mechanism of development and activities production that aims to promote social inclusion and the employability of low-skilled people. Another impact to be highlighted is the one on the project partners since it allowed us to acquire further competences, to develop new collaborations and design new project proposals in order to ensure a follow-up and sustain the ongoing actions. The project results reflect the EU strategy for youth by 2027 as well as its priorities. Thanks to the instruments designed within the project, we can promote a youth work that promotes quality, innovation and the recognition of youth work in order to support the young Neets in their journey towards inclusion.