Context/background: The “YouCareOn” action is an ERASMUS+ VET KA 2 Strategic “Partnerships for adult education/ Exchanges of Practices” under the priority “Developing VET business partnerships aimed at promoting work-based learning in all its forms” with the relevant topic “Early School Leaving / combating failure in education”, “Labour market issues incl. career guidance / youth unemployment”, and “Regional dimension and cooperation”. The relevance of this project is confirmed by national and EU official papers and research, e.g. the EU ESIF Strategy “Europe 2020”, “Jobs, growth and investment”; the ESF “Youth Employment Initiative”. An early, corresponding to the regional demand career guidance for pupils/students under the slogan “Education and career in the region for the region”' has a growing importance across Europe, because qualified staff is an essential prerequisite for any economic development of a region. Guidance and counselling can help to prevent young people from becoming NEETs and unemployed. This way the interaction between practice, research and policy is reinforced. Project Objectives: The main objective of the project is to foster the education competences of the involved project partners and of principals/teachers in early professional/career orientation and guidance for pupils/students of public schools, schools with gymnasium upper level, special education schools and high schools. The project puts together the in very different European regions gained experiences working with youth population in different vulnerability areas. It can illustrate the diversity of technical and non-technical career opportunities how they are given in different European countries. And by this way it is refuting the generally prevailing view "Social professions means woman professions". Number/profile of participants: The project will have 130 direct beneficiaries: - Staff of the project partners, and - Principals/teachers which deal with early vocational guidance. The Partner Organisations will recruit 120 indirect beneficiaries especially from target groups dealing with projects of the early professional orientation, like administrations, policy makers, staff working at Labour Offices, educational institutions, regional and national thematic networks, etc. Description of activities: The project design foresees six Transnational Project Meetings and the Learning, Teaching and Training Activities C1 to C12, as Short Term Staff Training and Blended Mobility: - C1/C2: Early career orientation and guidance for social and health care professions, District Dahme-Spreewald (DE) - C3/C4: Professional orientation for careers in the industries “Tourism and Catering” and “Applied Arts”, Attika Region (GR), - C5/C6: Targeting youth population in different vulnerability areas such as migration and risk of social exclusion, Santander Region (ES), - C7/8: Triple-helix cooperation model between university, government and entrepreneurship, and development of Creative and Cultural Industry, Riga region (LV) - C9/C10: Good experiences in empowerment of young people, Puglia Region (IT) - C11/C12: Enhance entrepreneurial competencies of persons disadvantaged at the labour market, especially young people, District Spree-Neisse (DE) Methodology of the project: The Lead Partner methodology includes all activities in project management, implementation, communication, dissemination, internal evaluation and follow-up arrangements. The method “Transfer of contents” will happen when the partners share their good practices about innovative and proven procedures, methods and approaches. The method “Capacity building” and “Common learning and training” will happen especially during the C1 to C12. Results and impact: There are specific tangible results, e.g. the reached number of direct/indirect beneficiaries; the realisation in time of all planned LTTAs. Intangible results of the project are: - Gained new competences and knowledge respective to some of the 8 EU key competences, e.g. Learning to learn, Social and civic competences, Communication in foreign languages in this case in English, Sense of initiative and entrepreneurships - Enhanced capacity to deal with the topic “early professional/career orientation and guidance” under different points of view - Increased opportunities in professional development for young people Potential longer term benefits: The shared recommendation, methods, curricula and expertise will remain after the end of the EU funding at disposition of each direct or indirect participant, and could be integrated into the regional educational qualification systems upon appropriateness. The project’s results will remain available on the internet presences at least for the next three years beyond the project end. The partnership can lay down the basics for the development of a following ERASMUS+ project, focused on the same topic, as a Strategic Partnership, Development of Innovation.
Context/background: The “YouCareOn” action was an ERASMUS+ VET KA 2 Strategic “Partnerships for adult education/ Exchanges of Practices” under the priority “Developing VET business partnerships aimed at promoting work-based learning in all its forms” with the relevant topic “Early School Leaving / combating failure in education”, “Labour market issues incl. career guidance / youth unemployment”, and “Regional dimension and cooperation”.The relevance of this project is confirmed by national and EU official papers and research, e.g. the EU ESIF Strategy “Europe 2020”, “Jobs, growth and investment”; the ESF “Youth Employment Initiative”.An early, corresponding to the regional demand career guidance for pupils/students under the slogan “Education and career in the region for the region”' has a growing importance across Europe, because qualified staff is an essential prerequisite for any economic development of a region. Guidance and counselling can help to prevent young people from becoming NEETs and unemployed. In this way the interaction between practice, research and policy is reinforced.Project Objectives: The action’s main objective was to exchange specific good practices and experiences in qualification and training gained in the action matter respective to the needs of vocational education and training institutions, schools, administrations as well as labour offices in the participating countries. Number/profile of participants: In total 103 direct beneficiaries and 387 indirect beneficiaries have actively participated in the 12 Learning, Teaching and Training Activities.:- Staff of the project partners, and - Principals/teachers which deal with early vocational guidance. Participating organisations: Six partners in general, two from Germany, Federal Land Brandenburg, Greece, Spain, Latvia and Italy were involved in this action. They represented Regional Development Agencies, a National University, a foundation and a vocational education and training centre. Activities: The project partners realised six Bench Mobility (five days each) in Wildau and Cottbus/DE), Trinec (CZ), Santander (ES), Riga (LV), Athens (GR) and Lecce (IT) as well as six Short-Term Joint Staff Trainings. These Mobility are characterised by visits to representative regional good practices. So, the participants got see by itself on-site solutions how and which way early stage career orientation is organised in the respective partner countries. The exchange of opinions, knowledge and expertise took place most of all in direct personal contacts with these regional stakeholders. At the end, the participants took home in practice gained experiences to use in their own activities. Methodology of the project:The Lead Partner methodology included all activities in project management, implementation, communication, dissemination, internal evaluation and follow-up arrangements.The method “Transfer of contents” was used when the partners shared their good practices about innovative and proven procedures, methods and approaches.The method “Capacity building” and “Common learning and training” was used especially during the Blended Mobility and Short-Term Joint Staff Trainings C1 to C12. Results and impact: There were specific tangible results, e.g. the reached number of direct/indirect beneficiaries; Intangible results of the project were:- Gained new competences and knowledge respective to some of the 8 EU key competences, e.g. Learning to learn, Social and civic competences, Communication in foreign languages in this case in English, Sense of initiative and entrepreneurships- Enhanced capacity to deal with the topic “early professional/career orientation and guidance” under different points of view- Increased opportunities in professional development for young people Potential longer term benefits: The shared recommendation, methods, curricula and expertise will remain after the end of the EU funding at disposition of each direct or indirect participant, and will be integrated into the regional educational qualification systems upon appropriateness. The project’s results will remain available on the internet presences at least for the next three years beyond the project end.