BACKGROUND Europe is facing difficulties in integrating the refugees and providing them with employability skills and jobs. Migrants face daily problems of social integration, differences of values and culture, difficulty in financing their lives, and as a result at risk of marginalisation. Against the background of demographic changes through migration, some countries in Europe exhibit tendency for social-economical-political instability and even violence. NEED A priority for VET education is to innovate and develop a suitable educational offer for migrants to promote EU values and to ensure that they improve their language skills, enhance their employability skills and in consequence, find jobs easier. OBJECTIVES The project EVOLVE emphasizes the need for promoting European values to enhance social inclusion and economic integration. - comparative analysis of cross-cultural European values in the partner countries – with emphasis on migrants' integration in the European job market and their social inclusion. - Conceptualization, design and creation of the ‚Values Navigator‘ Digital Training Platform for Learning via APPs in 6 languages (in EN, DE, FR, MT, NO and ES), - Exposure Visits and various interface for Social Inclusion (social, art, theatre, sport, culture, religion, etc.) - Job-Shadowing for Migrants in real organisations - A tailor-made Career guidance plan including self diagnostic tool, assessment, training program, educational visits, job-shadowing and certification (including EQF and ECVET-recognition) - Methodolgy guidelines for implemation of the career guidance program - National and European dissemination on EVOLVE products. PARTNERSHIP The EVOLVE project consortium includes MDP (BE) plus 4 VET partners PARAGON (MT), KIST (AT), INFODEF (ES) and MIA (NO) all of whom have worked on previous European projects. Each partner has specific expertise in career guidance for migrants, counselling and VET systems and brings strategic networks involving well-known partners from all EU countries. ACTIVITIES EVOLVE project is scheduled for 24 months with the following activities: - Comparative analysis of of cross-cultural European values in all partner countries - Development of the EVOLVE training program for career guidance (theory and practice) and sustainable tailor-made training - Development of the ‚Values Navigator‘ Digital Training Platform for Learning via APPs in 6 languages - Development of the EVOLVE career guidance training evaluation (including EQF and ECVET-recognition) - EVOLVE methodolgy guidelines for "Career Guidance for Migrants" in each country for training implementation, evaluation, examination and dissemination - Project management and implementation comprising quality control measures (monitoring) to ensure timely implementation as per allocated budget. METHODOLOGY The definition of each activity group has been designed to ensure a balanced distribution between the objectives and activities of the project and to guarantee that each partner would be leading at least one group of activity. All activities have one lead partner and each partner will lead or participate in at least one activity. All partners will participate actively in all activities, intellectual outputs and responsibilities of all activities have been agreed with all partners prior to submission of this bid. RESULTS - EVOLVE Survey for Comparative needs analysis of Migrants's integration in the European job market - Conceptualisation, design and creation of a EVOLVE digital training platform and Information Career guidance program via APPs based on the survey outputs - Organising educational visits for Migrants to real work spaces for exploring carrier opportunities in each country - Organising of Internship - opportunity for practical work in a chosen company in each country - Development of EVOLVE career guidance plan (based on EQF & ECVET recognition) evolving from the study analysis and based on the needs of the Migrants to help them carve out their tailor-made path of education for their wished job. - EVOLVE methodolgy guidelines for career guidance - Manual for Project Quality Management and Evaluation Strategy - Several marketing/dissemination and exploitation/valorisation initiatives and outcomes. IMPACT ENVISAGED - Migrants as trainees in 5 partner countries for piloting (100) - VET providers in all countries (250) - EVOLVE 5-step career guidance in all countries (100) • Stakeholders involved in dissemination (500); • VET providers, decision and policy makers involved in final event (40). LONG TERM BENEFITS Other VET providers from partners’ networks can be future multiplier of EVOLVE career guidance training program for migrants through cooperation protocols with EVOLVE partners. We anticipate an indirect impact on Migrants in all partner countries (500 approx.) and VET providers (100 approx.) during and after the end of the project.
CONTEXT Europe is facing difficulties in integrating the migrants as the differences of values and culture make it difficult for migrants to find a job or integrate themselves in social life. The EVOLVE project highlighted the need for promoting European values and creating a shared perspective to resolve this issue and facilitate a more harmonious integration. OBJECTIVES The objective was to develop an innovative and inclusive training program for migrants, using a digital platform for learning European Values via APPs. In view to the blended learning process, our objective was to organise Exposure Visits for social inclusion and Job-Shadowing in European organizations for migrants. ACTIVITIES In the initial phase of EVOLVE project, a survey for comparative analysis of cross-cultural European values in all partner countries was conducted. This guided the development and implementation of the ‚Values Navigator‘ digital training platform for learning European Values via APPs in 5 languages. The development of European values curriculum matrix facilitated the development of 40 APPs, 28 APPs for training and two sets of 6 APPs each each for evaluation. In the pilot training in all partner countries, using blended learning, exposure visits for social inclusion and job-shadowing in European organizations were organized for migrants. The trainees had an opportunity to provide their feedback after each training activity. A peer-learning articulate storyboard had to be implemented with some deviation in accordance with the European GDPR law as several trainees did not wish to be photographed or filmed. The implementation of pilot training contributed towards developing a methodological guidelines. In the interest of the VET trainers and organisations, a pedagogical handbook was created to support the interested stakeholders. The APPs on the ‚Values Navigator‘ digital training platform, the methodological guidelines and the pedagogical handbook were translated from English to all partner languages. In the last phase, a final dissemination conference was organized in Belgium to facilitate national and European dissemination of EVOLVE results. Apart from the development of above intellectual outputs and dissemination materials, an effective project management was ensured throughout the project cycle. Monitoring was done to ensure timely implementation and a quality evaluation was conducted before each transnational partner meeting. RESULTS The following intellectual outputs and results created during the project EVOLVE implementation have been uploaded in all language versions on the Erasmus results platform. - a survey for comparative analysis of cross-cultural European values was conducted in all partner countries and compiled as a report. - development of the ‚Values Navigator‘ digital training platform for learning European Values via APPs in 5 languages. - two animation videos in 5 languages to explain the project and the use of gamification in APPs based blended learning. - a compiled report about the exposure visits to museums and social activities. - a summary report about job-shadowing for migrants. - a methodological guideline in 5 languages - a Training Manual for VET trainers in 5 languages - a pictogram in 5 languages as well as video for audio-visual documentation - several marketing/dissemination materials, including 4 newsletters, posters, information broschure, etc in 5 languages IMPACT The EVOLVE trainees were non-European migrants who emigrated to one of the partner countries, predominantly young men and women from third countries. Most of them were already in integration process and their fluency in host language was minimum EQF level A2. For each activity, up to 20 participants were involved in each partner country, with a total of approximately 100 participants. Apart from VET trainers involved in the pilot training, we followed a green-channel approach for the interested VET trainers in all partner countries. Through the active dissemination over social media and email lists for distribution of all four newsletters in respective partner languages, we reached about 500 VET trainers, training organisations and diverse Stakeholders. We anticipate an indirect impact even after the end of the project on approx. 100 Migrants and approx. 50 VET trainers in all partner countries in view to the interest created through the dissemination process and access to training platform. The highlight was the final dissemination conference in Belgium where around 20 participants from VET organisations, official representatives of private sector and policy makers learnt about the project results.