The DIGI@TER project will give the 16 to 29 years old, especially those who are uncertified and who have dropped out of school, the opportunity to have access to employment in the digital field with trainings of levels 3 and 4 of the EQF, and by gaining cross-disciplinary training and independence. To do so, throughout the five regions involved, namely Marseille (FR), Liege (BE), Lisbon (PT), Düsseldorf (DE) and Galati (RO), training structures will be reinforced in relation to the digital company’s expectations. Thus Cross-disciplinary skills which are useful in different professional situations, are organized in five categories: organization, adaptability and autonomy, sociability, communication, initiative and contribution to an individual and collective professional project. The six partners from the five countries: France, Belgium, Germany, Portugal and Romania have grouped for their complementarity in the socio-professional integration area: - Two professional territorial training organisms (France) - a regional university with a digital department (Romania) - an institutional actor (Regional Chamber of Trades and Crafts) representing companies expressing needs in digital skills (Germany) - a regional assistance association for long lasting employment (Portugal) - the CMA world committee (CMA-lifelong learning, France). The partners will proceed in a systemic approach based on regional cooperation between the different participants acting in the professional training and integration field. These cooperations will enable regional and transnational realizations at the same time: - a cartography of cross-disciplinary skills required by companies in the digital field to operating agents and technicians - a transnational model for identifying, training and bringing support to the beneficiaries towards an employee status or as a self-employed in the digital field by reinforcing their cross-disciplinary and entrepreneurial skills - a common system to assess the training achievements in the cross-disciplinary skills for the digital professions and for entrepreneurship - a transnational frame of reference for a labeled learning region, comprehended as an area where innovation and interactions processes are being held between complementary and permeable organizations to achieve common goals in long lasting socio-professional integration for the trainees. Thus, the DIGI@TER project, planned over three years, considers the conceptualization, the implementation, the experimentation on a real-life scale and the evaluation of the results. It will be coordinated by a trial committee, constituted by members of each partners, which will ensure that the strategical orientations and the operational goals are realized per the initial engagements. Six transnational seminars, in terms of two per year, will enable to validate productions, endorse eventual adaptations, coordinate the realization of the continuous assessment of the project and to promote the dynamic of the actions of communication and the outreach of the results. Accordingly, in each region mentioned, the project and its results will lead to: - new forms of collaboration between systems of training and digital companies at first, then by expansion, in different sectors - an improved use of National and European procedures to assess cross-disciplinary skills in work conditions - an improved synergy of the territorial actors’ practices in relation with reception, the formative process, support and entrepreneurship - an impact on the business practices of experts and field actors In the long term, the partners will use the results of the DIGI@TER project to continue to develop by responding accordingly to the individual and the digital companies’ expectations. The experiment will be extended to other professional sectors in growth since all the tools will be created to last beyond the actual period of the project. The new schemes of action will lead to the creation of innovative educational platforms to allow a systematic individualization of the courses. The labeling of the learning territories will also be a long-lasting extension of this unique experience.
In 2015, more than 17 million young people in the EU were without a vocational qualification, unemployed or not in education or training. In 2018, 16.5% of young people in Europe were seeking socio-professional integration, compared to 14.2% in 2016 (OECD). The problem of inactive young people is a permanent challenge for Europe. Despite a high rate of inactive young people, some professional sectors are struggling to recruit (80% in some sectors), including in attractive professions such as those in the digital sector. Everywhere, the digital revolution is underway. In each territory, the establishment of the digital sector is encouraged. However, the training offer exists. It is even plentiful. But employers are not only looking for technical skills and recruitment is held back by a lack of professionalism. The talents sought today correspond to the following profile: O A base of "business skills" that underpins technical expertise O Cross-cutting skills, particularly in terms of interpersonal skills O A set of professional qualities that determine the ability to demonstrate autonomy, initiative and responsibility in the conduct of activities and the management of interfaces. These cross-cutting skills and professional qualities are all the more important as companies are engaged in almost permanent processes of change. The ability to adapt, learn and evolve is therefore essential in the search for new talent. With this in mind, six organisations from five different countries, two territorial training organisations, IFAPME (Liège, Belgium) and Formation et Métier (Marseille, France), a regional association for sustainable employment (Lisbon, Portugal), the WHKT Regional Chamber of Crafts and Trades (Dusseldörf, Germany), the University of Galati, UGAL, Department of Computer Science (Galati, Romania), and the World Committee for Lifelong Learning (Paris, France), all working in the same field, that of socio-professional integration, have chosen to combine their expertise and pool their skills to serve young people aged 16 to 29, who are not in school, are not qualified and are not in employment, to enable them to gain access to these key skills, which are transversal and personal skills, to facilitate their access to employment in the digital professions and thus contribute to their social and professional inclusion The DIGITER project is divided into 4 phases from September 2017 to December 2020. SKILLS MAPPING (O1) - Project leader: WHKT (Germany) - Sept 2017 to Apr 2018 Identification of the territorial partners to be mobilised and conduct of a survey to better define the cross-disciplinary skills expected by digital employers, on profiles at the sub-baccalaureate level. REFERENTIAL OF TRANSVERSAL SKILLS (O2) - Sponsor: Formation et Métier (France) - May 2018 to Sept 2020 15 skills divided into 3 categories (digital, entrepreneurial, generic) with 4 acquisition levels covering all the needs of companies. Reference system tested twice, impacting 362 people, including 230 NEETs. EVALUATION AND MODELING DEVICE FOR ACCOMPANYING AND TRAINING NEET YOUNG PEOPLE ON THE ACQUISITION OF THESE TRANSVERSE SKILLS (O3) - Lead partner: UGAL (Romania) - Sept 2018 to Oct 2020 ELABORATION OF A TRANSNATIONAL REFERENTIAL FOR A TERRITORY LABELLED AS A LEARNING TERRITORY (O4) - Lead partner: CMA (Paris) - June 2020 to Dec 2020 There is a before and after to Digiter. Regardless of the organisation and format of the experiment, the training modules proposed have had a positive effect on the development of learners' cross-disciplinary skills. Impacts observed on : O ORGANISATIONS: consolidation and diversification of their partnership relations. Today, identified as a resource centre by other training organisations, they are regularly called upon for their expertise on this subject. The LEARNERS: better understanding of their needs, awareness of the absolute necessity to work on cross-cutting skills at the same time as technical skills, since this dual acquisition will determine their eventual recruitment. TRAINERS: better understanding of the expectations of the business world, development of their own transversal skills (creativity, adaptability, etc.) and their own networks and, finally, reflection on the plurality of their function (facilitator, coordinator, coach, trainer, etc.) The TERRITORY: reinforcement of the relevance of the training offer with regard to the expectations of local companies and, in fact, reinforcement of the professionalism of young people who learn and are assessed in real work situations, on concrete cases and no longer in an "ideal" examination situation.