In the last five years, more and more new immigrants and refugees mainly from Syria, Iraq, North Africa and Afghanistan have been coming to Europe. They are fleeing from war, oppression and terror and are seeking for asylum and a better life. Countries like Germany, Slovenia, Austria, Sweden, Greece and Spain are most challenged to integrate the new immigrants into their societies. Therefore, it is important to collaborate transnationally in a partnership of the above mentioned countries and to benefit from mutual experiences as well as from examples of good practice. The key factors for the integration of new immigrants in the European societies are education, training, language and work. Often new immigrants could not take any official certificate of their home country. In addition to this the educational systems in their home countries are very different compared to the host state. This fact makes it complicated to recognize and validate any formal degree and to find a suitable job that matches best their competences. Especially the recognition of learning that is either related to daily life activities such as work, family or leisure and of learning that has not been provided by an education or training institution is of particular significance for migrants. In short, new immigrants have a huge demand to make informal and non-formal competences visible and documented. The ProfilPASS is a tool based on the assumption that people have learnt a lot but are not aware of their own competences. It is a means to reveal hidden competences, interests and resources each person has. In the EU-funded project called KISS (www.profilpass-international.eu) it was adapted and translated into French, Bosnian, Spanish, English and Slovenian. It was successfully implemented in training and counselling with young adults who wanted to find out more about themselves in order to get a training or a job that matches their competences and interest’s best. This expertise and experience collected over the years provides a strong basis for this project. The ProfilPASS is a self-evaluation tool that helps people to reflect on themselves. Since this process can be challenging, it is necessary that new immigrants are accompanied by professional counsellors. These counsellors will be trained during the project. In addition to the self-reflective tool ProfilPASS, the project also aims to develop a set of tools that assess competences from an outside perspective. All of the tools will be collected in a so called toolkit. About 120 new immigrants will take part in the project, they will be supported by 30 counsellors from 6 countries. The counsellors will be trained during the project based on reference materials (curriculum, methods how to apply the toolkit) that will be developed, too. Finally, the toolkit will be applied in all participating partner countries. The project pursues two main intellectual outputs: 1. Toolkit for competence assessment for new immigrants based on ProfilPASS 2. Reference material (curriculum and manual) to the toolkit. Both outputs will available for free and can be used by other interested stakeholders. Employers, new immigrants and organisations working with new immigrants can use the toolkit and benefit from it beyond the lifetime of the project. In the long term the results of the project will promote the integration of new immigrants.
Europe has witnessed a significant rise in the number of immigrants and refugees in recent years. Immigrants are exposed to a great risk of social exclusion and poverty, especially as access to employment and education is often difficult for them. As a precondition for finding a way into employment and/or education, the immigrants’ competences and qualifications need to be recognized. However, according to the OECD (Migration Policy Debates, Dec. 2014), “qualifications and work experience from abroad, are widely undervalued”. The reason for this is that the immigrants’ work experience and qualifications were acquired in a different cultural and educational context which is often not acknowledged. Also, immigrants often cannot provide written proof for their qualifications. The recognition of informally and non-formally acquired competences is therefore pivotal for new immigrants. SCOUT aimed to facilitate the recognition of qualifications and competences of new immigrants by developing a set of tools for counsellors to assess and document those skills. Based on the analysis of competences and with the guidance of counsellors, new immigrants will more easily find their way into employment or education that suits their competences best. The global objective of SCOUT thus was to contribute to the “Europe 2020” strategy for an inclusive growth by enhancing labour market participation, skills acquisition, and the fight against poverty. The project was coordinated by the German Institute for Adult Education (DIE). The institute is the originator of the ProfilPASS and coordinates its application and further development in the context of the Service Unit ProfilPASS. The ProfilPASS is a tool for competence assessment developed by the DIE that has been successfully used and established nationwide and even internationally. In addition to the DIE, the project consortium consisted of another 5 partners from Austria, Sweden, Spain, Slovenia and Greece. The partner organizations are relevant actors in the field of adult education. They are active in the fields of education and training, counselling and in social and political development thus building a profound basis of expertise and networks for SCOUT. As a first step, an analysis of the status quo regarding competence assessment for new immigrants was conducted in all partner countries. Best practice examples and needs were identified and the results were compiled in a transnational report. The needs analysis informed the development of the SCOUT-toolkit. Here, a comprehensive research on tools for competence assessment for new immigrants was conducted in all partner countries. The tools were screened and 20 tools were finally selected and systematically compiled in the SCOUT-toolkit. As its core element, the ProfilPASS in Simple Language was developed. The ProfilPASS was specifically adapted in terms of language, content and layout to suit the needs and living realities of new immigrants. The ProfilPASS in Simple Language as an innovative tool was thus created. In addition, a manual for counsellors and a curriculum were developed. The manual provides guidelines and information for counsellors working with the SCOUT-toolkit. The curriculum serves as a basis for a training of counsellors. Overall 41 counsellors were trained in all partner countries. The training was evaluated and the results showed that the training and the SCOUT products were considered very valuable by the counsellors. The usability of the products was much appreciated. The training supported them in extending both their competences and their methodological repertoire with regard to competence assessment for new immigrants. Counsellors were thus successfully prepared for supporting new immigrants in finding a way into employment or education. Finally, a testing phase was conducted in which trained counsellors provided competence assessment for 125 new immigrants with the SCOUT-toolkit. The results were evaluated which showed that new immigrants profited from the testing phase in that it helped them find out about their competences, identify their short- and long-term goals and create a professional CV and cover letter. Overall, the majority of them confirmed that the competence assessment helped them in finding a suitable job, internship or educational program. Counsellors reported that they considered the developed materials very helpful and suitable for the target group. The SCOUT-toolkit and ProfilPASS in Simple Language can be expected to have a long-term benefit as they will remain available for counsellors to be used in counselling sessions with new immigrants. There are already specific training programs for counsellors working with the ProfilPASS in Simple Language which are which are offered independently from the project context. Also, the ProfilPASS in Simple Language is integrated into the overall ProfilPASS-system and will therefore in a long-term perspective be used by many counsellors.