ICARO project main objective is to improve the employability and social inclusion of unemployed adult learners through the design and development of a holistic methodology, including an innovative recognized online curriculum on soft skills for adult learners. In today's society, there is a need for adults regularly to enhance their personal and professional skills and competences. Given the current instability in the labour market and the need to reduce the risk of social exclusion, this applies particularly to the low-skilled and the low-qualified. ICARO will design a customised training path adapted to the needs of each participant in order to get their (re)integration in labour market. ICARO will work with long-term unemployed adult learners, low-skilled and people facing difficulties to access to labour market. ICARO goes a step beyong and it will recognize the skills acquired by the learners after the practical application of the curriculum. On the other hand, ICARO will improve the training of adults educators / employment officers working with long-term unemployed adult learners. One key success factor in the practical implementation of ICARO methodology is the appropiate training of adult staff to be able to successfully reproduce the methodology with end-users. The innovative elements of ICARO project are the following ones: • Holistic approach of the long-term unemployed adult learners: ICARO project includes principles and tools used in the Case Management methodology. • Special needs of target groups: ICARO works with long-term unemployed adult learners, including groups at risk of social exclusion. ICARO methodology is adapted to fulfill target groups’ needs. • Development of Initial Assessment Toolkit to evaluate target groups profiles and evaluate which skills they already have prior to follow ICARO curriculum in order to design personalized training path based on concrete individual needs. • Design of an accredited curriculum on soft skills for long-term unemployed adults. • The use on an online environment for the practical application of the curriculum. • Special attention will be given to strengthen the training of adult staff/employment counsellors. • Accreditation process for the skills acquired thanks to the participation in the training programme. ICARO counts on a multi-agent partnership, composed by 6 organizations with complementary skills and prior knowledge or experiences on the field: public authorities in charge of employment and training policies; public adults’ education centre; NGO working with fewer opportunities and disadvantaged backgrounds; a public university with experience in designing training curriculum, a chamber of commerce to include the voice of business sector in the project and an international network to ensure the visibility and impact of ICARO project. Therefore, all the stakeholders groups needed to implement the project are included in the partnership. SEF has endeavoured to bring together partners from countries at different stages of development relevant to the project target groups and development activities (6 different EU countries: Spain, Ireland, Germany, Lithuania, Belgium and Greece). This diversity within the partnership facilitates policy-learning which is an important added-value. During the project lifetime and after its completion, the partnership envisages obtaining a series of intellectual outputs: • IO1: Transnational Report on accredited tools/programmes on soft skills for adult learners. • IO2: Soft skills Assessment Toolkit – Personalized and Customized Service Strategy. • IO3: Training curriculum on soft skills for unemployed adult learners. • IO4: Handbook for Adult Educators. • IO5: Blended learning programme “From home to work”. • IO6: Accreditation. • IO7: Case Studies As well as 6 Multipliers events (national dissemination seminars in all partner countries). ICARO Project will have an impact on the participating adult learners who will see improved their employability as well as in relevant stakeholders (labour market officers, teachers from vocational training schools, non-governmental organizations, small and medium-sized enterprises, local and national policy makers in the sphere of education). Stakeholders will extend their knowledge about soft skills development and capacities in adult education provision for increased employability. Improving the employment opportunities for unemployed adults’ learners and helping employers to meet workforce needs are complementary goals as part of this project. This project will support the understanding and acquisition of knowledge for unemployed adults in their use of soft skills, knowledge, understanding and insights into the supply and demand side of the labor market.
ICARO project main objective is to improve the employability of long-term unemployed adult learners through the development of a global methodology, based on an innovative online curriculum on soft skills for adult learners. Given the current instability in the labour market, this group should regularly enhance their personal and professional skills and competences, particularly those low-skilled and low-qualified. ICARO designed a customised training path adapted to the needs of each participant in order to get their (re)integration in labour market. On the other hand, ICARO improved the training of adult educators / employment officers working with this group. One key success factor of ICARO methodology is that adult educators were appropriately trained to reproduce the methodology with long-term unemployed people. ICARO counted on a multi-agent partnership; 6 organizations with complementary skills: a public authority in charge of employment and training policies; a public adults’ education centre; a NGO working with disadvantaged groups; an university with experience in designing training curriculum, a chamber of commerce representing business sector and an international network to ensure the visibility and impact of its outputs. In addition, partners came from 6 EU countries at different stages of development (Spain, Ireland, Germany, Lithuania, Belgium and Greece). This diversity facilitated policy-learning which is an important added-value. Each partner created a Local Action Group (5 in total) with more than 50 stakeholders related to training for employability. Educational entities, Teachers from vocational training schools, NGOs, SMEs, Human resources responsibles, employment and training civil servants and policy makers, etc. participated on six-monthly meetings, where they were updated about the ICARO project progress and gave inputs according their experience to its outputs. During the project lifetime, the partnership produced the following intellectual outputs (IO): • IO1: Transnational Report on accredited tools/programmes on soft skills for adult learners • IO2: Soft skills Assessment Toolkit – Personalized and Customized Service Strategy • IO3: Training curriculum on soft skills for unemployed adult learners • IO4: Handbook for Adult Educators • IO5: Blended learning programme “From home to work” • IO6: Accreditation • IO7: Case Studies 6 Multipliers events (ME) national dissemination seminars took place in all partner countries. Belgian event was in Brussels. It was ICARO final conference and had the participation of relevant European bodies. ICARO Project had an impact on the participating adult learners who improved their employability as well as in relevant educational and employment stakeholders, who extended their knowledge of soft skills development to increase employability. That is the case of Ireland, whose Further Education and Training strategy put Soft skills high on its agenda, but needed training experiences as ICARO to materialized it. Kaunas (LT) local policy makers have considered after ICARO to recommend employability services to send unemployed persons to soft skills courses. At European level, ICARO Blending Learning Programme was promoted among European Commission officers (DG EMPL and EAC), and other stakeholders working on Adult Education (EAEA, ICAE). There are organizations planning new editions of ICARO “From home to work” blended training programme what demonstrate the transferability of the project. Job Centre in Hamburg foreseen its implementation by Spring 2020. The city of Murcia will implement the programme in March 2020 and members of LAG asked for future replicability. ICARO Project has improved the capacity of partners organizations. HVHS (DE) has now a training tool that include not just one but a wide range of soft skills to be used by the adult learners they attend. SEF (ES) users will also enjoy that tool, as several units will be available at their online training platform FORMACARM soon. SIF (LT) offers Soft Skills training as well. DCU (IE) adds ICARO as practical example of Soft Skills training in its educational degrees. TIHC (GR) will include soft skills as learning outcomes of their “train the trainers” courses. EfVET (BE) facilitates ICARO results among its members. Main output of ICARO project, online training platform, will be available until 2024. German, Greek and Spanish partners will maintain it afterwards. There is a contact person for each language version that will facilitate access to those organizations that request it. The rest of outputs can be downloaded in ICARO website and in E+PRP. Soft skills training will be high on agenda and included in future trainings of all partners during the following years. Job centers, local authorities, NGOs, training centers for young unemployed people and Prison education sector will also use ICARO materials to improve its training offer. These can be considered principal long-term be