This strategic partnership is the result of a previous project undertaken from 2015 till 2017 (2015-2-BE04-KA205-001686); which tackeled the theme of unemployment of youth visually impaired. While implementing the previous project we got aware of the fact that the low rate of unemployment of visually impaired persons (following called vip) in Europe is not only due to lack of dissemination of information about capabilities of visually impaired persons or because employers were quite often unaware of the support that they can get when hiring a person with special needs, but also because young visually impaired persons (generally) do not have a clear knowledge about using social media in looking for a job. This seems to be caused by lack of self confidence due to low self esteem and limitted of soft skills (how to dress for a job interviw, how to present himself, how to overcome "barrier of visual contact" with the others, etc.) The partners from Italy (2 institutions) and Belgium, together with a new partner organisation from Spain, would like to continue addressing this topic: youth unemployment for visually impaired persons and carry out a transnational project that has as main objectives: 1) to equip young visually impaired persons (18-35 years old) with soft skills via an on-line platform traning courses useful to be sucessful for a job interview; 2) to empower young visually impaired persons in using social media (Linkedin, facebook groups, twitter ...) in order to look for a job by using a new app that will be developped during this project; 3) to increase the confidence of young visually impaired in their capacities in acessing new professions (not only phone operator/massage therapist/selling tickets for national lottery as it is mostly the case in the 3 countries that would like to carry this respective project) 4) to aware public agencies, unemployment offices, employers that it is possible and higly desirable to make our society more inclusive and supportive with young persons with visual impairment by using new adapted technologies. This stategic partnership will self-empower and train young visually impaired persons from Italy (two promoters), Spain and Belgium. We estimate the direct number of the persons involved in this project at 400. Overall, the project "VIP and new technologies: easy acess to job market" that will last 24 months (1/02/2018-31/01/2020), will include 4 transnational meetings, 2 short-term mobility trainings , 1 international multiplier event, and 4 local multiplier events for each partner. The intelectual outputs will be a browser App and an online training platform which will be disseminated among diffrent European and national stakeholders.We expect that the direct number of participants will be around 200 houndreds and that the results of the project will reach around 400 other European young blind persons. The methodology used will mix several types of non-formal means: brainstorming, working in small groups, debates, peer to peer learning, public debates, training & info sessions etc. We expect that with this project we will build a strong partnership, where more institutions will join this partnership and that the project will benefit of sevral follo-ups in the future . The impact can be measured by how many many young visually impaired persons will find a job after participating at this strategic partnership project and using either the on-line platform and/or the app. This strategic partnership will improve the interaction between different employement institutions, employers and visually impaired beneficiaries and will selfempower vip with skills on-line and offline skills. The long term benefits translate into dapted materials (web app & online training platform) for young vip's around Europe and in this way they will become more confident and sucessful in looking for a job.
"VIP and new technologies: easy access to job market" - YOUTH & innovation strategic partnership project about supporting youth unemployed young visually impaired persons (following called VIP) to prepare and look for a job. The project consortium was formed out of four organisations: Views International (Belgium) as coordinator, Fondación Docete Omnes (Spain), Soc. Cooperativa Aforisma (Pisa) and Istituto Rittmeyer (Trieste) from Italy as project partners. During 24 months (1/02/2018 - 31/01/2020), we organised four transnational meetings, two short-term joint staff events, two national multiplier events (Florence - Italy and Granada- Spain) and one final international multiplier event (Brussels-Belgium). Over the course of the project, two intellectual outputs saw the light: a browser App and an online training platform, which connect young visually impaired persons with companies and various job providers. The direct number of young people that took part in the project were around 4 hundred and the results of the project reached around 600 other European young visually impaired persons. The methodology used was a mix of several types of non-formal means: brainstorming, working in small groups, debates, peer to peer learning, public debates, mock job interview workshops, training & info sessions etc. This strategic partnership is the result of a previous project undertaken from 2015 until 2017 (2015-2-BE04-KA205-001686); which tackled the theme of unemployment of youth, who is visually impaired. While implementing the previous project we got aware of the fact that the low rate of unemployment of visually impaired persons in Europe is not due to lack of dissemination of information about capabilities of visually impaired persons or because employers were quite often unaware of the support that they can get when hiring a person with special needs, but also because a large part of young visually impaired persons does not have a clear knowledge about using online tools in looking for a job. This seems to be caused by lack of self-confidence due to low self-esteem and reduced soft skills (how to dress for a job interview, how to present oneself, how to overcome "barrier of visual contact" with the others, etc.) The main objectives we set for this project were: 1) to equip young visually impaired persons (18-35 years old) with soft skills via an on-line platform training courses useful to be successful for a job interview; 2) to empower young visually impaired persons in using on-line tools in order to look for a job by using a new app that will be developed during this project; 3) to increase the confidence of young visually impaired people in their capacities in accessing new professions (not only phone operator/massage therapist/ticket seller for the national lottery as it is mostly the case in the three countries represented in this project); 4) to reach an awareness of public agencies, unemployment offices, employers that it is possible and highly desirable to make our society more inclusive and supportive with young persons with visual impairment by using new adapted technologies. The main results of this project are: - IO1 is a web app adapted to all devices. It allows users to search for job offers as well as to publish them. It is fully compatible with screen readers for both computers and mobile devices. - IO2 is a platform designed to train skills useful in the job search. It is available in 4 languages: English, French, Italian and Spanish (and currently being translated to Polish, Romanian, Bulgarian and Flemish) Both tools are fully accessible to blind and visually impaired people. This strategic partnership improved the interaction between different employment institutions, employers and visually impaired beneficiaries. It empowered young VIP skills (use of online tools). The long term benefits translate into accessible materials (web app & online training platform) for young VIP's around Europe and in this way, they became more confident and successful in looking for a job.