The Job to Stay project seeks to foster the long-term employment of refugees with access to permanent job opportunities. Linking their needs and wishes to work with the enormous staff shortages that Europe’s tourism industry is suffering from is the main project objective. Due to their specific disadvantaged position a particular focus will be placed upon female refugees and increasing their employability. As a result of violent conflicts in the Middle East and in Africa more than 2 million official asylum claims were submitted within EU member states during the last three years. Following necessary initial care, official registration as refugees and primary supply, the employment of adults and their general social inclusion present the main challenge to Europe’s society over the coming years. However, entering the labour market is extremely difficult if one is unfamiliar with cultural standards and languages spoken, if national diplomas are lost or cannot be accredited or if a person’s level of education and qualification is generally very low. At the same time, Europe’s societies, economies, administrations, VET providers and social service providers are inadequately prepared to tackle this challenge. On the other hand, many see these new inhabitants of Europe as a gift to tackle the ageing of society and the shortage of skilled workers in many economic sectors. One of them is the tourism industry, Europe’s third largest sector with continuous growth. But all over Europe tourism is suffering from extreme shortages of skilled and support workers. Politicians and the tourism industry have not really begun to link the need for more staff with the demands of refugees. However, refugees often cannot prove formal qualification or they are not accredited in the host country, therefore they usually cannot work in jobs asking for officially accredited qualification; much more they have to enter labour markets at the lowest level of unqualified work (EQF Level 2). The Job to Stay project supports this approach however seeing it only as a first step – within nine months of workplace-based learning qualification levels should increase to Level 3 and should be officially accredited. Within less than one year “unqualified refugees depending on social security” will develop into “qualified experts contributing into social security systems.” However, there are still major barriers to overcome: So far, neither clear descriptions of learning outcomes for low qualification job profiles (EQF Level 2) exist, nor have models for assessment and validation of prior experience and learning been developed. There are no standardised frameworks for workplace-based learning defined or networks built up to implement workplace-leaning activities over a broad spectrum. Therefore, Job to Stay will implement the following main activities: A) EQF-description of the Job to Stay Qualification Profiles (Level 2) for five selected low level assistant jobs in tourism and hospitality industry (housekeeping; kitchen assistant; assistant cook; assistant barman and barmaid; landscape management assistant); it should be possible for many of the refugees to fulfil job entry requirements even if they have low education and qualifications. B) Development of Job to Stay Qualification Pass assessment and accreditation model for selected job profiles (including personalised CVs, transcription for formal certificates from home countries, certificates of language/cultural competences of host country, recommendations concerning language/culture training or special support needed). Based on this assessment it will be possible to develop an individual qualification pass for each person and to design a personalised job integration plan. C) Development and implementation of personalised job integration plans. Based on a specifically developed model, 600 refugees in DE, AT, IT, FR and SI will undergo the Job to Stay assessment procedure and those 60 (at least 70% of them must be women) most suited to the job profiles in question will be selected. Each of them will receive the opportunity to work on a nine month placement; apart from workplace-based learning accompanying language and cultural training, social-psychological support and support tailor-made to women’s needs will ensure that all persons reach at least qualification level 3 and long-term integration into tourism labour market will be achieved. D) Lessons learnt during project implementation and recommendation deducted for all parties involved, and policy makers at local, regional, national and European levels in particular, will be professionally published in the Job to Stay Green Paper and distributed all over Europe. Project partners come from DE, AT, IT, FR and SI are embedded in strong national networks of the target groups and stakeholders which will not only actively contribute to but also ensure mainstreaming and sustainable use of its outcomes.
Job to Stay is used as an acronym for “Sustainable Integration of Low-skilled Refugees into the Tourism Labour Market”. The project seeks to foster the long-term employment of refugees with access to permanent job opportunities. Linking their needs and wishes to work with the enormous staff shortages that Europe’s tourism industry is suffering from is the main project objective. Due to their specific disadvantaged position a particular focus was placed upon female refugees and the increase of their employability.Following this objective, the target groups and participants are quite heterogeneous. From the beginning of the project, partners were eager to use, increase and establish their networks with partners from the social sector, professional associations, labour market services, Chambers, VET providers, SMEs, initiatives dealing with refugees and refugees themselves – mainly women in this case. The project partnership reached the objective through following Intellectual Outputs (IO): • The Job to Stay Job Profiles (IO1) are job descriptions on Level 2 qualification, which is yet not comparably described for the selected job profiles in all countries. For the first time a validation, accreditation and employment model was developed for five selected job profiles in the tourism labour market (Housekeeping assistant, kitchen assistant, assistant cook, waiter in the bar area, landscape management assistance).• Existing career guidance and qualification models still insufficiently consider cultural background and gender-specific life experiences (including physical and psychological violence before or during the flight) of women and their special needs and requirements in terms of VET and placements/employment – Job to Stay developed a career guidance and mentoring model tailor-made for female refugees (IO2 and IO3)• The Job to Stay Qualification Pass (IO2) so far is the one and only truly comprehensive tool that can be used as assessment procedure for employers and refugees themselves. It is a unique combination of already existing EU-Tools such as Europass CV and CEFR and tailor-made assessment procedures for non-formal and informal learning. • Neither EQF-based description of knowledge, skills and competences nor the accreditation of informal and non-formal learning is widely known or actively applied within the partner countries (with the exemption of FR) - Job to Stay demonstrated the advantages of these instruments and methods in connection with the accreditation of refugees’ prior learning experience and with their uncomplicated and quick long-term integration into tourism labour markets.• Another core outcome of the Job to Stay project was a work placement which was closely monitored and shadowed by all partner organisations. 47 mainly female refugees were integrated into the labour market successfully, afterwards providing individual solutions for a further professional career with the majority of them. Basis for this success is the “Team of Buddies” that was created by the Job to Stay project. The project team developed a tangible product to guide employers, refugees, social associations and social workers through this project phase. This Guideline (IO3) can be used by any target group or stakeholder who is dealing with the integration of people with a migrant background. • For the last two years, the project partners established (partly) completely new networks and gained many experiences. Especially the work with the “Team of Buddies” brought forth very intimate impressions and personal perspectives on the situation of (female) refugees in the partner countries. For this reason, the partnership wanted to share all experiences and lessons learnt during project implementation and recommendation. The Job to Stay Green Paper (IO4) deducts all experiences for all parties involved, and offers recommendations for policy makers at local, regional, national and European levels in particular. It contains 23 EU projects dealing with a same approach and therefore represents the first publication of such comprehension. The official end of the Job to Stay project serves as a beginning of new activities and approaches. For example, the partnership got the feedback that especially the Job to Stay Qualification Pass (IO2) should be used on a national basis substituting the local documents and therefore ease the process of assessment (for formal, non-formal and informal learning). The project works together with the Chambers as well as other VET providers to follow this approach. Further on, the second Intellectual Output could be used for other sectors apart from the tourism industry. Especially the care sector is warmly welcoming such results and seeking for such tailor-made solutions. The partnership of Job to Stay is eager to continue the project’s idea and plans to repeat the placement phase once more as also more refugees wanted to take part in this.