Whilst Sweden and the UK remain under the European unemployment rates, disadvantaged social groups of all European countries still face barriers when trying to gain unemployment. For instance, migrants are more vulnerable to unemployment than the rest of the population (Spain 29.5%, Italy 15.7%, Sweden 16.2% and the UK 5.7%) and migrant women (except in Sweden) are even more affected (Spain 30.1%, Italy 17%, Sweden 15.9% and the UK 7.3%). Many social groups can be considered as disadvantaged on the labour market, they include women, older workers (aged 50+), people under 24 (especially those in care system), ethnic minorities, migrants, people with disabilities, living in remote and/or rural areas, from lower income background or long-term unemployed (12 months) for example. However, unemployment negative effects go beyond economic concerns and can drag those affected in a negative spiral affecting not only their economic situation but also their social integration and mental health. This vicious circle can be broken thanks to theatre activities practice and practical drama techniques with a special focus to promoting social inclusion and self-resilience increased by positive feedback. Practicing a theatre activity is known to boost numerous skills, including: 1. Social skills – impersonation, cooperative skills, teamwork, self-confidence and public performance, reading body language 2. Entrepreneurial skills – problem solving, project planning, engineering of a piece, initiative, drive, creativity 3. Analytical skills – contextual and societal analysis. 4. Leadership skills – empathy, mobilising others, motivation 5. Intercultural communication – the educational methods employed in drama are by nature inclusive and allowing everyone to take part regardless of individual disposition (Source: SpotOn! Project, Sweden) “Fake It Till You Make IT” project aims to develop soft skills for employability and social inclusion training methodology. This is based on the theatre and educational methodologies and latest research developed by Norrbottensteatern (SE) and l’Albero, associazione culturale (IT) and enhanced by Inova (UK), Materahub (IT) and Agencia Para El Empleo de Madrid (ES) who have expertise in the fields of employability, performing arts, entrepreneurship and diversity. The objective of the project is to develop an inclusive, engaging and innovative training methodology to provide our target group of unemployed disadvantaged people with soft skills to help them to gain employment and support their social inclusion. The theatre training activities will promote: 1. Social inclusion – Stronger sense of belonging to the group, affinity. 2. Validation of the own self – the individual is seen and listened to. 3. Strengthened personal authority – A sense of power and being able to influence coming events. So as to reach these objectives, project partners will first conduct a skills assessment framework in order to design the most appropriate theatre training methodology that is responsive to the target group’s needs. Finally, “Fake it till you make it; building your employability skills” training methodology will be piloted in all partner countries. A facilitator from each partner country will be trained during a joint staff event in all the tools and pedagogical principles in order to deliver pilot sessions back in his/her country of origin. Pilot sessions will enable the methodology to be tested by gathering quantitative and qualitative feedback from the target group. Pilot groups will include an average of 14 participants (as following recommendation from theatre and performance experts groups should be made of 10- 16 participants) At local, regional, national and European/international levels, “Fake It Till You Make It” will encourage a dialogue between employment and business originations and creative/art organisations. The project will hereby contribute to new methodologies to boost employability and social inclusion. In order to increase the reach and transferability of the project, the partnership will develop a Guidebook “Fake it till you Make it; Building your Employability Skills” based on all research results, experiences and feedback gained throughout the project. It will contain all tools and exercises needed to build employability skills through theatre and practical drama techniques aimed at disadvantaged unemployed people as well as employment intermediaries (employment agencies, chamber of commerce, education providers). The impact of the Fake it till you make it project is therefore twofold: disadvantaged unemployed people will be given the opportunity to build their employability skills through theatre, and employment intermediaries will be provided will all materials they would need to deliver the Fake it till you make it training to unemployed people they work with and support.
Whilst Sweden and the UK remain under the European unemployment rates, disadvantaged social groups of all European countries still face barriers when trying to gain employment. For instance, migrants are more likely to be unemployed than the rest of the population and migrant women (except in Sweden) are even more affected. Many social groups can be considered as disadvantaged on the labour market, they include women, older workers (aged 50+), people under 24 (especially those in care system), ethnic minorities, migrants, people with disabilities, living in remote and/or rural areas, from lower income background or long-term unemployed (12 months) for example. However, unemployment negative effects go beyond economic concerns and can drag those affected in a negative spiral affecting not only their economic situation but also their social integration and mental health. Could there be a way to break this vicious circle with the help of theatre activities and practical drama techniques with a special focus to promoting social inclusion and self-resilience increased by positive feedback? Fake It Till You Make IT” project aimed to develop soft skills for employability and social inclusion training methodology. This is based on the theatre and educational methodologies and latest research developed by Norrbottensteatern (SE) and l’Albero, associazione culturale (IT) and enhanced by Inova (UK), Materahub (IT) and Agencia Para El Empleo de Madrid (ES) who have expertise in the fields of employability, performing arts, entrepreneurship and diversity. We started by creating a common framework: Theatre and Employability Skills Assessment Framework, an initial study that gave the project a confirmation on the training needs to focus on. We continued to create the methodology together, and tested it on groups from the target group to verify its positive effects on the development of soft skills. We have now showed that theatre activity can boost numerous soft skills in all participating countries, including: 1. Social skills – impersonation, cooperative skills, teamwork, self-confidence and public performance, reading body language 2. Entrepreneurial skills – problem-solving, project planning, engineering of a piece, initiative, drive, creativity 3. Analytical skills – contextual and societal analysis. 4. Leadership skills – empathy, mobilising others, motivation 5. Intercultural communication – the educational methods employed in drama are by nature inclusive and allowing everyone to take part regardless of individual disposition. The Fake It Till You Make It methodology was tested on more than 70 participants in pilot groups in four different countries. We could see a direct effect of increased skills for the participants, even leading to jobs! The methodology has attracted a lot of attention and even during the course of the project the methodology was already implemented with another intermediary organisation working with disadvantaged groups. If you want to learn about the methodology created, and how to use theatre activities to develop the soft skills of unemployed disadvantaged people, please read our Fake It Till You Make It Guidebook!