Big changes are happening in all layers of society in Europe. Migration, culture clashes, poverty, unemployment and fast-evolving working places are creating more and more vulnerable groups of people who don’t fit in. To prevent more people of becoming part of these vulnerable groups and to reach out to them who are struggling to climb up the social and economical ladder, we need to invest in their soft skills. Skills such as communication, teamwork, problem solving, attitude, leadership and professionalism are absolutely critical to success in today’s society. Research shows they are the key to empowerment. When 6 European organizations, all involved in adult education, met on a seminar last year in Spain, an urgent need was felt to work hand in hand to set up a new project for training and validation of soft skills. The main objective of our project is to train trainers, educators and volunteers in adult education to recognise, train and validate a top-5 of soft skills that are most relevant for employability, better social integration and more successful education of vulnerable groups. We call our project ReTraVaSSEV: recognition, training and validation of soft skills for employability of vulnerable groups. The project partners in Flanders, The Netherlands, Sweden and Scotland work with different vulnerable groups of people: low-skilled adults, migrants, drop-outs and isolated women. The project partners in Madeira and Macedonia are specialized in different domains of professional qualification, training and professional education. In other words, we all invest in people searching for a better future. Together we will work on professionalization of trainers by the development of a training package and a validation tool. We foresee different activities and phases in the project to finalize these outcomes: transnational project meetings allow us to work together and evaluate each stage of our program. We start with a study phase that will yield a wealth of information and data on soft skills. The outcomes will be analysed to gather a top-5 of European soft skills. They will initiate the development phase of the training package and the validation tool. Our first transnational training event will allow trainers to test the tools in their daily practices in adult education. Based on their feedback, the final tools and guidelines will be produced and presented to more trainers during a second transnational training session. These people will train their colleagues in the use of the packages during national multiply events. On finalization of the project, our products will be available for free use on the project’s website. The dissemination of the project will inform and inspire policy makers, principals, staff members, teachers, volunteers, coaches and other stakeholders. We’ll urge that soft skills will be embedded in curricula and educational handbooks by raising awareness of the importance of soft skills for employment, social integration and successful education. All in all, the ReTraVaSSEV project aims not only to enhance the professionalization of trainers and thus the empowerment of vulnerable groups. We believe strongly in working together in a global Europe and facing the challenges and richness of a multicultural society.
Big changes are happening in all layers of society in Europe. Migration, culture clashes, poverty, unemployment and fast-evolving working places are creating more and more vulnerable groups of people who don’t fit in. To prevent more people of becoming part of these vulnerable groups and to reach out to them who are struggling to climb up the social and economical ladder, we need to invest not only in hard skills but also in their soft skills. Skills such as (but not limited to) communication, teamwork, problem solving, attitude, leadership … are absolutely critical to success in today’s society. Research shows they are the key to empowerment. The project partners in Flanders, The Netherlands, Sweden, Portugal, Cyprus and North-Macedonia felt an urgent need to work hand in hand to set up a European project for training and validation of soft skills. The partners in Flanders, The Netherlands, Sweden and Macedonia work with different vulnerable groups of learners: low-skilled adults, migrants, drop-outs and isolated women. The project partners in Portugal and Cyprus are specialized in different domains of professional qualification, training, professional education and validation & certification. In other words, all partners invest in people searching for a better future. The main objective of the project is to increase employability, better social integration and more successful education of vulnerable groups. The KA2-project was therefor called ReTraVaSSEV: recognition, training and validation of soft skills for employability of vulnerable groups. The project had three main goals: 1. perform an international desktop study on soft skills, 2. create a set of training tools for trainers to train the learners (vulnerable groups) and 3. create a set of validation tools. Desktop study O1: Based on several international studies the six partners created during the Transnational Project Meeting in Cyprus (December 2017) three questionnaires: for employers, for disadvantaged adult learners and for trainers in adult education. The international group of respondents was highly diversified by several factors: age, gender, level of education and present employment situation. The questionnaires referred to basic/fundamental skills, people-related skills, conceptual/thinking skills and personal skills & attributes. The questionnaires were carried out in the partners’ countries between January and April 2018. During the Project Meeting in Den Helder (May 2018) we discussed the aggregated results of the questionnaires. This discussion resulted in a selection of six soft skills that are relevant in the six participating countries: intercultural communication, learning to learn, conflict management, teamwork, customer service and motivation. Training tools O2: After we split the soft skills among the partners, we decided to create three training tools for each soft skill. Each partner composed a team of trainers to reflect on the tools. As the tools are meant for disadvantaged learners, they should be comprehensive, low level, easy to use and low-cost. It took us quite a long time to develop these 18 different tools. A first draft of the tools was presented by the teachers during the Learning, Teaching and Training event in Madeira (November 2018). After the Madeira meeting an extensive testing period started in the six participating countries. We either tested the tools in existing classes, or we created special classes to test the tools. Each partner tested its own three tools and the tools of one of the partner countries. The test results were presented during the Project Meeting in Sweden (March 2019). In Sweden we decided that a final version of the tools should be ready before the end of April 2019. As soon as the coordinator had received all the final versions, each partner started translating the 18 tools (working language: English) in the several countries’ languages: Dutch, Swedish, Macedonian, Greek and Portuguese. The translations were performed by our language trainers. During the translating period a first draft of the design was created. The final version of the manual, presenting the 18 tools in an appealing design, was realised in September 2019. Validation tools O3: The validation part was already an issue when creating the tools, but we had not yet created the actual validation tools. The meeting in North-Macedonia (May 2019) brought relief in this seemingly most difficult part of our project. During the Learning, Teaching and Training event in North-Macedonia we decided about several validation tools: portfolio, evaluation form for trainers, self-assessment form for learners, general evaluation form and certificate. Already during the meeting we started creating the validation tools for the respective training tools. We agreed to finish the validation tools by June 2019. Again, these validation tools had to be translated (suggested deadline July 2019) and had to be adapted into the final design. The soft skills manual as well as the validation tools can be downloaded on the project’s website skillsforyou.eu. Dissemination: The manual and the validation tools were presented during an international dissemination event in Brussels (October 8, 2019). The dissemination of the project informed policy makers, principals, staff members, teachers, volunteers, coaches and other stakeholders about the importance of soft skills for employment, social integration and successful education. During national multiplier events (workshops) in every partner's country (October – November 2019), the manual and the tools were presented to teachers working in adult education, regional authorities responsible for education and employment, and regional employment agencies.