One of the key objectives in the European employment sector is to promote the employment of people with disabilities (PWD) on the open labour market and to encourage the employers to employ them. There is a range of supporting public employment services available for PWD, however, the capacity of these services does not meet the requirements at the national level in any partner country due to the lack of qualified professionals. Organisations working in the non-profit sector play an increasingly important role in filling in this gap. Survey results have shown that more attention should be paid to the transition of young PWD from the education to the employment and, that PWD should be assisted in their choice and change of employment. This process requires experienced professionals to help PWD to overcome the obstacles and share the experience gained in the open labour market. The project aims to develop an innovative blended-learning training program for the “Experts by Experience” based on international recommendations. The project defines the “Experts by Experience” as PWD who have personal experience with the challenges of disability and, who managed to handle them due to some specific skills, attitudes, methods and competences gained during an innovative training and, who can also use their experience to the benefit of other PWD. After completing the training, the “Experts by Experience” would work in non-profit organizations and thus facilitate the reintegration of PWD to the labour market. The project will include 4 partner institutions active in the field of providing consulting, educational and special services for the disadvantaged groups in four EU countries: Slovak Republic, Hungary, Romania and Turkey. The main objectives of the project: - to contribute to improving the quality and increasing the intensity and volume of cooperation between institutions promoting employability and employment of PWD by creating, developing and strengthening national and transnational partnership networks; - to contribute to the professionalization of organisations, increase the knowledge and develop competencies of mentors, experts by experience and advisors and PWDs in general by engaging them in the innovative training program for the experts by experience; - to support the (re)integration of PWD by the professionalization of organizations and promoting their client-orientation by using the personal experience of the experts by experience; The specific objectives of the project: - to organise workshops at the national level attended by experts and labour market actors with a view to identify educational programmes and good practices aimed at improving the skills and competences of the mentors, experts by experience and special and technical advisers concerned with the promotion of employability and employment of PWD and to collect recommendations on the development of these programmes at the national level; - to exchange and share experiences, ideas, procedures and methods at the international level in the field of education of mentors, experts by experience, special and technical advisors engaged in the reintegration of PWD to facilitate the professionalization and internationalisation of organizations; - to make use of the synergies between various sectors to promote the education of the experts by experience (i.e. experienced PWDs) and the reintegration of PWD; - to development the content of the innovative training programme for the experts by experience upon international recommendations in electronic form; - to train the trainers of the innovative training program for the experts by experience, who are PWD; - to carry out the pilot testing (in the form of blended-learning), evaluation and to draft recommendation for the implementation of the innovative training program for the experts by experience in the practice; - to produce information materials (flyer, electronic collection, brochure) and the website; - to support informal education and improving ICT skills of professionals (PWD) and experienced people with disabilities to support the reintegration of PWD; - to promote the cooperation between the labour market actors from different sectors (state, public, profit, non-profit) at the local, regional, national and international level. The target groups Direct target groups: - mentors and technical advisors with disabilities engaged in promoting the reintegration of PWD in the partner organizations (future trainers of the innovative training program for experts by experience); - persons with disabilities (potential “experts by experience”) Indirect target groups: - PWDs - educational institutions - non-governmental organization - labour offices - supported employment agencies - consulting organisations - partner organizations - employers, incl. sheltered workshops and worksites - professional organisations - organizations providing advisory services to PWDs - associated partners
One of the objectives in terms of employment in all European countries is a special support to the employment of persons with disabilities (PWDs). Although there are different employment support services for PWDs, their capacity in partner countries does not cover the national requirements. In filling this gap, the NGOs providing counselling and training for PWDs aimed at joining the labour market and using the potential of experts by experience play an increasingly important role. In our project, expert by experience is a PWD, who has been able to overcome and resolve the challenges of his/her life and who will be able, by improving his/her skills and competences by accomplishing this innovative training program, to offer his/her experience to help others in a similar situation. The main objectives of the project was to develop and strengthen an international network of organisations aimed at reintegration of PWDs, professionalisation of organisations, improving the knowledge and developing competences of mentors, vocational advisors, as well as PWDs through their involvement in an innovative training program for experts by experience and, support the (re)integration of PWDs. As part of the specific objectives, we focused on the activities and creation of particular outputs: organising a workshops, compiling an electronic collection of best practices, developing an Innovative Training Programme for experts by experience, training of trainers and additional PWDs as potential experts by experience, creating information materials (flyer, brochure) and designing a website (https://experience-erasmusplus.eu/). The partnership consisted of four organisations from four countries - Spoluprácou pre lepšiu budúcnosť – Veľký Meder (Slovak Republic), Human Profess Közhasznú Nonprofit Kft., Szombathely (Hungary), Fundația creștină diakonia filiala Sfântu Gheorghe (Romania), Dost Egitim Turizm Insaat Tekstil Sanayi ve Ticaret A.S., Ankara (Turkey) which provide consultancy and/or social services for various disadvantaged groups, or function as accredited employers operating sheltered workshops and workplaces. The main output of the project is the Innovative blended-learning Training Programme for experts by experience available in five different languages, which is freely available on the Internet. It contains the theoretical learning material divided into 14 chapters and available also in the form of e-learning, tests associated with each main theme and 43 interactive practical exercises. It aims to expand the knowledge and develop practical skills needed to provide consulting to PWDs. The programme was developed by a team of experts with a wealth of experience based upon the outputs of workshops organised in partner countries with the participation of 79 relevant labour market actors and, the electronic collection containing 11 best practices applied to the training of experts in partner countries. The innovative aspect of the programme is its possibility to adjust the learning of the theoretical material to the individual pace of learners due to using ICT in adult education on the basis of: - an e-learning platform including the training materials and tests to verify the level of theoretical knowledge, and - a shared platform to exchange experiences allowing the learners to consult the trainers during the course of the study. The testing of the Innovative Training Programme was participated in by 8 trainers and 49 adult learners – PWDs and received a positive feedback in all involved countries. Impact: The greatest benefit of the combined training programme is that it allows to strengthen the current skills of PWDs through the theoretical material, e-learning, practical training and e-platform in order to become proficient in providing consultancy services for other PWDs in a similar situation. The project has a positive impact on the employees of partner organisations and the participants of pilot testing in terms of gaining new knowledge and developing their professional, methodological and social competences. The project activities at the national level have also been beneficial from the viewpoint of creating partner networks between experts and organisations representing different sectors. The Innovative Training Program has been incorporated in the educational portfolio of each partner organisation and, made available to other interested users. The project activities expanded the spectrum of opportunities and forms of lifelong learning for people with disabilities and, therefore they can significantly contribute to their reintegration to the labour market. Long-term benefits: motivation of people with special needs to engage in lifelong learning (LLL); exploiting the potential of experts by experience in non-profit organisations; free access to project products and their use in everyday practice by other organisations; motivation of organisations working with the disadvantaged to engage in LLL process.